GILROY
– Someone forgot to tell the 6,000-acre wild land blaze that
burned near Tracy Sunday, but the Bay Area’s fire season didn’t
officially begin until Monday.
GILROY – Someone forgot to tell the 6,000-acre wild land blaze that burned near Tracy Sunday, but the Bay Area’s fire season didn’t officially begin until Monday.
Starting Monday, local firefighting agencies and the county Office of Emergency Services began their full fire season operations, bringing extra equipment and staff to state and county fire houses throughout the county.
Due to unusually hot and dry weather the last week, fire conditions have risen to “high alert” throughout the South County, fire officials said.
“The combination of the weather and the decreasing fuel moisture come together, and that’s provided a perfect recipe for a fire,” said John Ferreira, operations chief with the Santa Clara Unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Morgan Hill headquarters. “As we can tell from the Tracy fire, the conditions are already there.”
While heavy spring rains did push the start of this year’s fire season back at least three weeks from the average annual start time, it doesn’t mean this year’s fire season will be tame, Ferreira said.
The CDF has hired 100 seasonal employees to help control local wildfires, 12 of which will be stationed at South County stations, Ferreira said.
“Since the weekend we have already seen a number of fires and expect to keep seeing two to three a day throughout the summer,” he said. “The Tracy fire is a good example of how dry a lot of the area vegetation has gotten.”
For more information on fire prevention go to the CDF’s Web site at www.fire.ca.gov.
