Cal Fire continues to keep the wildfire danger in the public consciousness with Wildfire Preparedness Week. Almost half of the state’s largest and most damaging incidents have occurred in just the last two years. The Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit had to put out over five-thousand acres in 2021, compared to 38-hundred in 2020. Acreage is only slightly up this year, so far, at 53, compared to 49 a year ago at this time. And despite the above-normal April precipitation, Division Chief Jim Mathias says the vegetation is still drier than last year, with very little rain and snow from January through March…

click to listen to Jim Mathias

Mathias says property owners have been increasingly proactive, in terms of proper defensible space and hardening of homes. But there’s only so much that can be done, with fuel loads continuing to get heavier…

click to listen to Jim Mathias

This year, Governor Newsom’s state budget proposal for Cal Fire allocates more than three-billion dollars for fire management, prevention, and mitigation efforts.