State and Santa Clara County forest fire authorities are warning residents and property owners that due to the dry winter that followed the driest rainy season in California history, the threat of wildfire has emerged earlier than usual in 2014.
“Conditions are still dry,” Morgan Hill Fire Department and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Battalion Chief Scott Witt said. “Grass and brush are going to dry out quickly. We’re about a month ahead of schedule.”
Firefighters typically start making an assessment of the coming wildfire season in the middle May, but this year they’re likely to do that around the middle of April, Witt said.
The steep hills and deep valleys of rural Santa Clara County often provide ample fuel for uncontrolled wildfires and grass fires by late summer, but Witt said he expects crews to be busy well before summer this year. A raging controlled burn in Isabel Valley in east San Jose this week shows how dry the conditions are, Witt said. Cal Fire planned to burn about 500 acres in that area earlier this week, and a column of smoke emanating from the fire was visible from numerous areas in the valley March 19.
“That’s an example of readily available things to burn are right now,” Witt said.
South County crews have already responded to a number of wildfires this winter, including a 40-acre fire just below Mount Hamilton in east San Jose on New Year’s Eve, according to Witt.
“We’ve had an abundance of fires all winter long. We’ve been responding to more small fires than we have the last several years. It’s already started,” Witt said.
Authorities haven’t implemented a local continuing burn ban yet this year, but inspectors are already examining rural private properties for defensible space. Property owners on the fringes of urban areas and in rural areas are required each year to cut back the brush and grass on the edges of their property lines.
Affected property owners are asked to mow their grass and brush early in the mornings (by 11 a.m.), and only when it is not windy, Witt said. Even the hot parts of a running lawn mower can ignite a fire when in contact with dry grass, he said.
