Start of fire season revives smoky memories

Three years into a drought and less than a year removed from a summer choked with wildfires, firefighting agencies in the Mid-Valley are on their guard.

In the first week of the North State's peak fire season, Cal Fire stations have begun hiring and training their crews — while also alerting homeowners to the hazards of parched plants and careless machine use. Memories of last year's season of forest fires has fire teams watching for the smallest hazards, and asking residents to do the same.

"We have all the components needs for a disastrous fire season starting to line up now," said Brad Harris, chief of Cal Fire's Auburn-based unit, which covers Yuba-Sutter along with Nevada and Placer counties. The division received this season's first call Thursday evening when a building caught fire in north Auburn.

Cal Fire has hired 165 staff members at the Auburn division for the peak fire season, which began Monday and is expected to last until October, according to spokeswoman Chelsea Fox. Resources also include 21 engines, three bulldozers and two air tankers to attack flames in steep, inaccessible areas.

The unit will keep its 13 stations open 24 hours a day during the alert period.

Lightning storms on June 21 triggered more than 300 wildfires across Northern California. One, near the Butte County town of Concow, killed a man, burned 106 buildings and scorched more than 60,000 acres of land.

Smoke and ash from the Concow fire darkened Mid-Valley skies for much of the peak fire season — sometimes obscuring the Sutter Buttes from nearby roads — and caused air quality to plu met,0 forcing many people with respiratory problems indoors.

Below-average winter rainfall has left grasses, shrubs and pine needles drier and more prone to ignite. Even an unusually late rainstorm earlier this month may have added even more fuel to any wildfire, by allowing more grasses to sprout and then dry out, Harris said.

Area fire agencies identified the grasslands of Loma Rica and and the south Sutter Buttes as the greatest local fire risks — a risk increased in Loma Rica by the resin-rich conifer forests that extend from the Yuba County foothills east to the Sierra Nevada.

While dry lightning is a common trigger for summer wildfires, the North State's dry vegetation makes hazards of any machine that can throw even a small spark — lawn mowers, trimmers and power tools. Equipment users can reduce the risk by avoiding such work during the late morning and afternoon when conditions are hottest and driest, said Dan Yager, chief of the Sutter County Fire Department.

"As we get to summer and humidity gets down into the teens, sparks, even cigarettes can start a vegetation fire," said Yager, whose force has added four firefighters for the summer. "When you do your typical yard work, you need to be cognizant of the capabilities of machinery. Do it in the morning; don't do it in the afternoon."

Homeowners' last line of defense should be to create a 100-foot margin around structures, said Harris — clearing flammable vegetation in the first 30 feet and keeping plants widely spaced outside that area. Cal Fire members will focus much of their effort this summer on educating residents on how to keep their property safe.

"We realize there will be fires — it's the environment we live in," said Harris. "What we try to do is get the community involved in the defense of their communities."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.