California drought: Firefighters, residents preparing for a long, dry fire season

With California four years into a historical drought that has Bay Area hillsides already parched and brown, officials are warning of a potentially deadly fire season, and residents in fire-prone areas are even more on edge than in the past.

“We haven’t seen a season like this, ever,” said David Osteen, who owns Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm and Christmas Trees with his wife, Sharon. They have vivid memories of a lightning-sparked fire on Mount Diablo in 1977 that burned 6,000 acres of land near their 6 acres of property.

“We didn’t know a fire could be that huge, and yes, it can,” David Osteen said. “You have to prepare for the worst.”

Ed Orre, division chief and unit forester for Cal Fire’s Santa Clara Unit, also recalled the fire conditions during the extreme drought of 1976-77, and said the risks this year are as bad or worse.

“I think we’re looking at exceptionally dangerous conditions with fuel and weather,” Orre said. “We’re starting to see quite a few trees show up dead, coming out of the winter period. We encourage people to remove dead vegetation as soon as possible.”

Last week, Cal Fire officials announced that they are already reopening and building staffs at stations all over the Bay Area, well ahead of the typical start of fire season in June. Last year, officials opened the fire season in the first week of May.

“I think we’re all very concerned for this fire season, due to drought conditions,” said Pam Temmermand, fire prevention specialist for Cal Fire. “It impacts everybody. We’ve got to be constantly on our toes.”

Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said his crews responded to 783 wildfires from Jan. 1 to Thursday, a significant increase over the same period in a normal year.

“This drought has absolutely led to an increase of fire activities, not only last year, but already this year,” Berlant said.

The Round fire burned 7,000 acres at the southern edge of the Sierra Nevada in February, early for a state in which vegetation is normally coated in moisture throughout the spring months, he said.

Cal Fire responded to 776 wildfires during 2014 that burned 12,673 acres in the nine greater Bay Area counties, Berlant said. A majority of the fires and burned acres were in the North Bay.

But the situation is similar all over the state. Despite heavy rains falling in the San Bernardino Mountains, officials in Southern California said it has been one of the driest and hottest winters on record. In the Bay Area, fire safety groups are hoping to protect some of the highest-risk areas by reaching out to help residents clear brush and create a barrier of open space — called defensible space — between structures on their land and brush and trees that could catch fire.

“We know what we’re looking at, and we know we’re coming up on a dangerous season,” said Gary Sanchez, director of the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. “The moisture levels are lower than ever in live and dead fuels out there, and that speaks to extreme fire behavior.”

Robert Criswell, who runs the Black Road Christmas Tree Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, said he does what he can to keep his crop of highly flammable Douglas firs safe. This year, he said, the drought prevented him from using reserve water to keep grass and pines from becoming parched.

“The danger is horrendous,” he said. “But there’s not much you can do. It’ll take lots of luck.”

He continues to turn the soil to draw moisture up from deep within the ground, which keeps the ground more moist than if he sprayed all his weeds and grass. He also creates fire breaks by removing residual weeds, dead trees and brush from the paths, roads and steep hills along his property.

“People need to be doing everything they can do all throughout the year, because the fire season is not stopping in October anymore,” said Ciara Wood, who lives near the East Bay ridgeline in Kensington and serves as director of the Diablo Firesafe Council.

Wood vividly remembers watching the Oakland hills fires in October 1991. The memories, she said, motivate her to keep her community safe from destructive wildfires.

“For days we saw orange on our television screens,” Wood said. “I don’t want those orange screens to show the East Bay hills one day.”

Staff writer Rick Hurd and San Bernardino Sun reporter Doug Saunders contributed to this report. Follow Katrina Cameron at Twitter.com/KatCameron91. Follow Katie Nelson at Twitter.com/katienelson210.