U.S. Air Force Major Matt Ringlein spent over eight hours hauling loads of Phos-Chek in a Hercules C-130 airtanker from San Bernardino International Airport and dumping the bright red fire retardant around the Mt. Wilson Obervatory, ahead of the path of the Bobcat fire, which devoured over 113,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains in September.
By the end of the day, he and the entire plane reeked of the smoke that rose from 80-foot tall flames. But as exhausted as he was, he knew there were others trudging through heat, ash and flame-charred soil around the fire’s perimeter who were fighting as hard, if not harder, to keep a raging inferno from spreading through the Angeles National Forest.
“Even though we might not have met those guys, there’s a camaraderie between us and them on the ground,” Ringlein said. “Because we know full well they are out there where it’s much hotter, with less rest and less sleep.”
Crews spent weeks at a time away from their families battling flames up and down the West Coast. Wildfires scorched a record 4.2 million acres in California in 2020, testing disaster management agencies to their limits. The length of the active fire season has grown dramatically over the years, leaving firefighters with less time to recover and prepare.
“It really plays into the narrative of climate change,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie said. “The evident facts of what we are seeing and facing are longer, hotter, drier summers.”
Crunch time
Gov. Gavin Newsom authorized $536 million of advanced funding in April to boost efforts to get a leg up before the warmest, windiest conditions arrive this year. Early weather models predict the greatest risk of wildfires in Southern California will come in June or July. In the meantime, firefighters are conducting as much training as they can.
The state planned to hire 1,399 additional firefighters, and has already filled most of those positions, Cal Fire Capt. Alison Hesterly said Monday, May 10. The staff increase — 17.5% more firefighters vs. normal peak staffing — will cost almost $81 million, and will be distributed evenly throughout California.
“It’s crunch time,” Orange County Fire Authority Deputy Chief Kenny Dossey said. “Fire season is here. No time better than the present to get ready, because a lot of the indications are this could happen again, and it could be like 2020.”
A total of 9,392 acres have been affected this year by wildfires in California as of May 9, according to Cal Fire statistics. That’s an area nearly six times larger than what was scorched by the same date in 2020.
Meanwhile, the level of moisture found in vegetation across the state reached historic lows this year, and now conditions are even drier than they were in 2020, Dossey said. Most counties in California saw less than half the amount of precipitation they would have typically received by May, compared to seasonal averages, National Weather Service meteorologist Stefanie Sullivan said. Drought conditions are worse in Northern parts of the state. But even in San Diego County, where conditions are closer to seasonal averages, more than 5,300 acres were scorched by the Southern fire this month.
Here's a look at the climate data for April 2021 across portions of Southwest California. Most sites did not receive any measurable precipitation, and those that did only received a couple hundredths at most. Tough way to end out the wet season. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/5PhRmBizM2
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) May 6, 2021
Efforts to reduce the amount of dry brush available as potential fuel for wildfires are a key part of California’s strategy to mitigate the chances of disaster later in the year, Heggie said. Money for things like prescribed burns and “home hardening” projects to bolster defenses around residential areas accounts for a large portion of the advanced funding package approved by the governor.
Today, Chief Osby was joined by local & State partners to remind residents to do their part to prepare for wildfires.
The #LACoFD encourages residents to create & maintain defensible space, harden their homes & update their Wildfire Action Plan.
🔗https://t.co/mh2PT2MgfK pic.twitter.com/2kOWPsrLeN
— LACoFD (@LACOFD) May 8, 2021
A Dozer Academy hosted by the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Hesperia beginning May 5 was one of many programs held this spring in preparation of potential wildfires. The prescribed burn and training camp gave firefighting bulldozer operators a chance to practice clearing brush and digging barriers around live flames in a controlled environment, before they are sent to the front lines of disaster. The event was also an exercise in coordination between drivers behind the wheel of 50,000-pound earth-movers, helicopters carrying hundreds of gallons of water overhead and hand crews guiding them to where they might be needed most.
“Wildland firefighting is dangerous work and we practice at it,” San Bernardino County Fire Battalion Chief Mike Wakoski said. “A lot of it is effectively communicating together.”
A shared responsibility
Authorities are constantly reaching out to the public, urging those who visit or live near the wilderness to remain conscious of potential fire hazards. About 91 percent of all major fires are linked to humans, Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said.
The El Dorado fire devoured over 22,700 acres in the Yucaipa area, and was sparked by the use of pyrotechnics during a gender-reveal party on Sept. 5. Charles Edward Morton, a crew boss of the Big Bear Hotshots, died while battling that fire. Prosecutors are still deciding whether criminal charges might be filed in connection with the blaze.
“How many of those large catastrophic fires, under elevated conditions, are avoidable?” Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia said.
Others might be the result of cars, trains, electrical equipment or some other manmade device malfunctioning in an environment ripe for ignition, Garcia said. Investigators believe the Bobcat fire flared up after a tree branch made contact with Southern California Edison power lines that ran through the forest.
The utility’s equipment has also been linked to other major fires, including the Woolsey fire that burned from Malibu to Thousand Oaks in 2018 and the Thomas fire in 2017. SCE has paid over $4.6 billion to settle insurance claims and lawsuits associated with those disasters.
The power company has upgraded equipment so it’s less likely to start fires, installed cameras to monitor equipment in the wilderness and provided funding that allowed the OCFA to lease the world’s largest helitanker, as part of a wildfire mitigation program.
SCE and other electric utilities have also been preemptively cutting power to some areas prone to burning during periods of extreme wind, heat and low humidity. Such planned and actual SCE outages can be tracked here.
The utility is working on compartmentalizing its grid, especially in fire-prone areas, so that public safety power shutoffs will affect fewer people at a time, SCE spokesman David Song said Tuesday, May 11.
“Our interest is to make sure our customers have reliable electrical power,” Song said, adding SCE was reluctant to cut service to people, especially when they were stuck at home during the pandemic, “save for public safety purposes.”
Officials urge people to be vigilant and report any signs of fire in the forest to local authorities immediately. If flames do break out in the wilderness, firefighters plan on responding aggressively to keep them from growing out of control.
“We’ve put greater emphasis on catching fires small, catching them early,” Garcia said.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed remarks that were made by OCFA Deputy Chief Kenny Dossey.