Cool conditions don’t mean an end to the threat
By Tim Bragg
The Fresno Bee
VISALIA, Calif. — As the days get shorter and temperatures fall, fire officials begin to think of when the state’s fire season will come to an end.
While parts of the Central Valley received unusually large amounts of rainfall from storms in September and the weather has remained mild, fire officials say conditions in the foothills are still right for serious fire activity.
State officials haven’t decided when to end this year’s fire season, said Capt. Larry Harris, a fire investigator with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Fire officials are not letting up in their training efforts either.
A group of 36 Cal Fire firefighters is training in the Visalia area on wildland fire investigation techniques.
So far during the 2007 wildland fire season, Cal Fire officials have responded to 75 blazes that have burned 3,200 acres, Harris said.
He said the numbers are lower than they were last year.
Harris said an exact reason for the lower numbers isn’t known, but he said it may have to do with several factors, including the arrests of two Woodlake men this year and a decision by the state to increase staffing on wildland fire engines from three to four firefighters during a regular shift.
Most of the wildland fires that CDF crews responded to in state responsibility areas in the foothills were small. One fire in June southeast of Porterville accounted for 2,100 acres of the county’s acreage total this year, Harris said.
“We haven’t seen a large fire here in a while,” he said.
But he said the Valley and other parts of the state are still vulnerable to wildland blazes because of the dry conditions.
The group of firefighters meeting in Visalia is training to conduct investigations into the cause of wildland blazes, said CDF battalion chief Paul Marquez.
The firefighters, who started the five-day training session Monday, are learning techniques so they can begin their investigation before regular fire investigators arrive.
“They know what to look for, they won’t disturb possible evidence,” Marquez said.
After morning classroom sessions, the firefighters — who come from areas across the state between Sacramento and San Diego — are going to Venice Hill, northeast of Ivanhoe, for field training, Marquez said. Instructors used devices to start small fires on the hill, then extinguished them and let the students investigate the cause, he said.
The training is scheduled to end today.
Copyright 2007 The Fresno Bee
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News