This may be the latest in the season that Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit has kept peak staffing. But, starting Monday, Public Information Officer Mary Eldridge says they’re transitioning out of that. That’s begun in November in recent years. Eldridge says that usually means reducing the number of engines at a typical station to two. It can be as high as twelve during the summer…

click to listen to Mary Eldridge

Just a year ago, because of large wildfires flaring up in Southern California, which remained dry, the local unit had to bring back two dozen seasonal firefighters that had just recently been laid off for the winter. Eldridge says even with the rainy season Cal Fire has become even more active in prevention efforts…

click to listen to Mary Eldridge

Eldridge says property owners are also urged to continue to take extra precautions. A leading cause of wildfires this time of year is from escaped landscape debris burning. This year, the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit responded to 364 wildfires that charred two-thousand-361 acres. That compares to 368 wildfires a year ago that scorched 12-thousand-670 acres, with about ten-thousand acres from the Cascade Fire in the Yuba County foothills.