Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fires spread in California
Terrain, wind, heat work against crews battling huge blaze
A tanker drops chemicals on a wildfire Tuesday near Corona in Southern California. Farther north, firefighters struggled to slow the spread of the biggest wildfire in California’s history, which is centered near the Upper Lake area 100 miles north of San Francisco.
Firefighters struggled against rugged terrain, high winds and an August heat wave Tuesday to slow the spread of the biggest wildfire ever recorded in California, an inferno that grew to more than 450 square miles in just 11 days.
The blaze, centered near the community of Upper Lake, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, spread fast because of what officials said was a perfect combination of weather, topography and abundant vegetation turned into highly flammable fuel by years of drought.
The flames were raging in mostly remote areas, and no deaths or serious injuries were reported. But at least 75 homes have been lost, and thousands of people have been forced to flee. The blaze, dubbed the Mendocino Complex, was reported 20 percent contained.
Its rapid growth to an area the size of Los Angeles at the same time firefighters were battling more than a dozen other major blazes around the state fanned fears that 2018 will become the worst wildfire season in California history.
“For whatever reason, fires are burning much more intensely, much more quickly than they were before,” said Mark A. Hartwig, president of the California Fire Chiefs Association.
About 3,900 firefighters, including a crew of 40 volunteers from New Zealand, were battling the blaze, contending with temperatures in the high 90s and winds gusting to 25 mph.
The area has few roads that can serve as firebreaks, and firefighters instead fell back to natural barriers like streams or used bulldozers to cut fire lines.
But the flames were moving so fast in spots that they blew past fire lines, forcing firefighters to retreat, said Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“There’s no way you’re going to stop that fire,” said Kyle Coleman, 28, who returned to his childhood home last week to help his father try — in vain, it turned out — to protect it. “A big wall of flames came over the mountain. … I pretty much got my dad out of there.”
In all, 14,000 firefighters were battling blazes across California, which is seeing earlier, longer and more destructive wildfire seasons because of drought, warmer weather attributed to climate change, and the building of homes deeper into the forests.
The Mendocino Complex is actually two blazes burning so close together that authorities are attacking them as one, a common practice at the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fires started July 27 within an hour of each other and about 15 miles apart. As of Tuesday, they were separated by just a few miles. Officials have not determined the cause of either one.
In becoming the biggest fire in California history, the Mendocino Complex fire broke a record set just eight months ago. A blaze in Southern California in December killed two people, burned 440 square miles and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings.
Crews also gained ground this week against another Northern California wildfire, one that destroyed more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding and was blamed for at least six deaths.
Meanwhile, a blaze burning near Yosemite National Park has been raging for nearly a month but is still just one-third as large as the biggest fire, though dense smoke has closed much of the park to visitors for the past two weeks.
Firefighters take aim at the biggest wildfires in two ways and in much of the same way the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has for decades. They’ll go at it directly with water and retardant where they can.
And when they can’t take that direct approach, firefighters retreat to a ridge, wide road or stream where they use bulldozers to cut a “fire line.” There they’ll wait for the blaze to move to them while lighting “backfires” to clear vegetation between the fire line and the approaching blaze.
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean said firefighters are using the direct approach to prevent the fires from reaching urban areas along Clear Lake while retreating in national forests “and letting the fire come to us.”
California’s firefighting costs have more than tripled from $242 million in fiscal 2013 to $773 million in fiscal 2018, which ended June 30, according to Cal Fire.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Gov. Jerry Brown warned last week. “Since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago, we haven’t had this kind of heat condition, and it’s going to continue getting worse. That’s the way it is.”