One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
California’s wildfires are burning far more land so far this year than in 2023
Firefighters work against the advancing Lake Fire in Los Olivos, Calif., on Saturday, July 6, 2024.
(
Eric Thayer
/
AP
)
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.
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.
Sponsored message
“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
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
