Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen

Share This

Climate and Environment

California’s wildfires are burning far more land so far this year than in 2023

An ambulance and a pair of firefighters work their way up a dirt road.
Firefighters work against the advancing Lake Fire in Los Olivos, Calif., on Saturday, July 6, 2024.
(
Eric Thayer
/
AP
)

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

So far in this year’s California’s wildfire season, about 20 times more acres of land have burned than around this time last year.

Since the beginning of the year, there were more than 3,500 wildfires across the state through early July, causing about 207,000 acres of land to burn. Around this time last year, about 10,000 acres had burned. The five-year average of acres burned through mid-July is about 39,000, Cal Fire said last week.

“We are not just in a fire season, but we are in a fire year,” Joe Tyler, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said at a news conference earlier in July.

Tyler said Cal Fire and its partners are “fully staffed” with fire trucks, bulldozers, and newly introduced Blackhawk helicopters that can fly at night.

Support for LAist comes from

As part of its 2024 budget, California will allocate $2.6 billion through 2028 to fighting wildfires and improving forest health, in addition to $200 million annually to help prevent fires. To help with staffing, workweeks will be shortened for state firefighters and the state has set a goal to hire about 2,400 more firefighters in the next five years.

More than 95% of wildfires are caused by humans, Tyler said. He warned California residents to be cautious when engaging in activities that can cause sparks, such as mowing lawns, towing vehicles, welding and shooting guns.

In hot, dry and windy conditions, as has been the case in California, sparks can ignite into flames. Gov. Gavin Newsom additionally cited record high temperatures and lightning strikes as the source of some of the fires.

“Climate change is real … If you don’t believe in science, you have to believe your own eyes, the lived experience all of us have out here in the western United States, for that matter, all around the globe,” he said.

Copyright 2024 NPR

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.

We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.

Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.

Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist