Here we go again: Another long and scary fire season

Here we go again. Another scary fire season is well underway (some firefighters comment that the fire season really never ends anymore ... but this might be the time that it gets worse than usual).

Calfire noted this week that the number of fires and the acres burned so far this year is substantially higher than last year and well above the five-year average. Some 90 fires were responded to around the state just this past weekend. The largest was still running rampant Tuesday.

The Pawnee Fire in Lake County had burned 11,500 acres and was only 5 percent contained. The Calfire incident report showed 22 structures destroyed and 600 threatened, with mandatory evacuations around the area and in Colusa County.

Local fire agencies were sending out personnel and equipment to help battle blazes around North California. (Here’s hoping those areas don’t have to repay us.)

The fires are being fed by dry grasslands, hot weather and gusty winds.

Rich Webb, Linda Fire chief, noted in a story Tuesday that there was a huge grass crop this year. And now it’s all dried out and ready to burn.

He urged residents to maintain a defensible space around their homes, keep brush cut back, use electric lawn equipment during cool morning hours.

The triple-digit temperatures with dry northern winds ... doesn’t help.

“If we continue to see those weather conditions, it absolutely will end up being another catastrophic fire season,” he said.

Start being always alert and ready to go, please. The latest weather forecasts are for temperatures to climb through the week and dwell in the triple digits again Saturday and Sunday. It’s looking like a long, long fire season.

Please be especially careful with the fireworks.