Newsom is now proposing a $1.2 billion “wildfire resiliency” fund. In fact, the CapRadio-NPR investigation found that in 2020, Cal Fire’s fuel reduction measures had dropped by half, to levels below the administration of his predecessor, Jerry Brown. According to the investigation, Newsom assured the public that the 35 priority projects-anticipated by the 2019 executive order-subjected 90,000 acres to prevention measures. A recent investigation by Sacramento’s CapRadio and National Public Radio’s “California Newsroom” found that Newsom has overstated by 690 percent the number of acres treated with fuel brakes and prescribed burns. However, very little was actually accomplished. Like the state government’s cynical and premature declaration that the coronavirus pandemic was over, at the beginning of 2020, Newsom declared “mission accomplished,” claiming the state had put in place sufficient measures to address the wildfire catastrophe. In January 2019, in the wake of the extreme wildfire year of 2018, newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom announced the signing of an executive order declaring “war” on wildfires, promising new measures to “fundamentally change” the state’s response. At heart is the lack of preparation by governments at every level as the weather across the western part of the country becomes hotter and dryer. Observers predict that hundreds of thousands of acres will burn this summer, perhaps establishing a new record (over 4 million acres were destroyed in 2020 in California). Fires are also breaking out in eastern Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico.Īs in California, there are serious concerns about the potential collapse of an antiquated power grid that was never designed to withstand extreme temperatures. Thunder and lightning storms are predicted for early this week in southern Oregon, possibly sparking more fires. On June 19, the National Public Radio website reported temperatures of 54 degrees Celsius (130 Fahrenheit) in California’s Death Valley, 48 in Phoenix, Arizona (118 Fahrenheit), 43 in Sacramento (109 Fahrenheit), and nearly 40 in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington (98 Fahrenheit.) Some forecasts were predicting temperatures of 41 (106 Fahrenheit) and higher in Washington State on Monday. In some areas, June temperatures have broken records going back 150 years. The early onslaught of fires is the result of the spring heat wave that has brought record temperatures to the west, a “heat dome” that is worsening drought conditions in the entire region, from the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast, including the Pacific Northwest. Besides drying out fire-prone vegetation, the hot conditions have led to sharp losses in available water needed not only to produce electricity, but irrigate water-thirsty crops, such as almonds and cotton, and to fight the fires themselves.Īhead of the official summer fire season this year, between January 1 and June 20, in California alone, there have been 3,270 wildfires that have burned 16,451 acres, compared to 2,625 fires and 19,116 acres for the same period last year. The combination of a serious drought with a terrible heat wave affecting California and the western US has led to perfect conditions for such conflagrations. If one adds to that figure the number of fires of 500 acres or less, 29,195 acres have already burned in 3,794 incidents. Seventeen major fires have been fully contained after consuming over 17,000 acres, including the Southern Fire (5,366 acres burned), also near the Mexican border.
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