As Carr Fire Kills 2 in California, Firefighters Reflect on a Job Now ‘Twice as Violent’
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REDDING, Calif. — When Brian Rice fought wildfires in the 1990s, his time on the line was intense during the summer fire season, followed by months to recharge during the cooler winter. But fighting wildfires is no longer seasonal work in California.
“There used to be a rhythm to this, and you could at least count on that rhythm,” he said. “It’s a year-round cycle now.”
Since 2012, according to state emergency management officials, there has not been a month without a wildfire burning — a stark contrast to previous decades, when fire officials saw the fall and winter as a time to plan and regroup. The recent historic drought and rising temperatures have heightened an already serious risk for widespread fires in the state.
Just this month, there have been three firefighters killed on the front lines, including two who died during a rapidly expanding wildfire in Northern California in the last two days. Dry conditions and triple-digit temperatures added fuel to that fast-moving blaze, known as the Carr Fire, as it marched eastward, swept over the Sacramento River and pushed into the outskirts of Redding, the largest city in the region. It continued to grow on Friday, burning dozens of buildings and prompting emergency officials to issue an urgent plea for people in parts of Redding and the surrounding areas to evacuate immediately.
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“This fire is extremely dangerous and moving with no regard for what’s in its path,” said Bret Gouvea, the incident commander for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Gov. Jerry Brown has called this the new normal and set aside more than $440 million in the state budget for emergency wildfires. But beyond the costs, the year-round fires have taken a heavy toll on thousands of firefighters in the state.
In the town of Corning, about an hour south of Redding, the Rolling Hills Casino offered shelter to about 200 evacuees, opening its doors for people and animals fleeing flames for the second time this year. Evacuees slept in a ballroom off the main casino Friday, talking to family members on cellphones and watching for fire updates on a big-screen television.
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For Michelle Hickok, 30, a graphic designer at the casino, the start of each fire brings the fear that her husband, a local firefighter, will be in harm’s way. The longer fire seasons have exacerbated that worry, she said. “With summer being hotter and longer, you have tons of dry fuel up here,” she said.
Firefighters had long looked at the area now burning and saw the dry vegetation as a disaster waiting to happen, she said. “They were afraid that when that day came it would be bad, and they were right,” she said.
The fires in 2017 were among the most destructive in California’s history, causing nearly $12 billion in damage and leaving 46 people dead.
“This job has gotten twice as busy and twice as violent,” said Mr. Rice, who retired from fighting fires in 2011 and is based in Sacramento, and is now president of California Professional Firefighters, a statewide union. “I was down in Ventura and realized, holy smokes, we have firefighters on the fire line on Christmas Day. In my 30 years, I’ve never heard of that.
“This is the first year for me that I really feel like one fire season has connected itself to the next 12 months,” he added. “Is that going to be the new normal or the new reality? I don’t know.”
In addition to the Carr Fire, wildfires are burning in Central and Southern California. The Ferguson Fire caused the largest closing of Yosemite National Park in 30 years, and the Cranston Fire is only 5 percent contained in the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California. After evacuating thousands of tourists and residents near Yosemite earlier this week, officials on Friday were closely monitoring the flames as they crept toward groves of dry, dead trees.
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“Now we really are having to look into a crystal ball, not only in terms of fires we’re fighting already, but also fires that haven’t even started yet,” said Kelly Huston, a spokesman for California’s Office of Emergency Services. “In the past there was some logic, some time to plan, but we don’t have that time any more because these fires are so hot and so fast they are getting away from us more quicker than they used to.”
The constant fires have also made it more difficult to get enough firefighters up and down the state, with officials constantly scrambling to make sure there are enough people available, Mr. Huston said.
Often, the stretched resources have meant more firefighters working longer hours for longer stretches of time, leaving many of them exhausted. Experts and state officials said they all worry about short- and long-term fatigue, which can lead to mistakes.
“They still love it and they are still dedicated, but it takes a huge toll on them,” said Nancy Bohl-Penrod, a psychologist who has worked with firefighters across the country for 30 years and who is currently supervising therapists working with firefighters in Yosemite. “When they get home, some of them don’t talk to their families about it. Some it is just the mere fact that they are exhausted and that impacts their emotion and, their personality.”
Dr. Penrod said far more fire departments are carrying out wellness and support programs and she has also seen a significant spike in the number of spouses and parents of firefighters attending workshops to learn how to cope with fires lasting for weeks on end.
Standing in a parking lot on the outskirts of Redding, where firefighters from multiple agencies had gathered, Anthony Romero, with the Kern County Fire Department, said the dynamics of present-day fire seasons also throws firefighters off by taking them further from their home bases, calling upon them to fight fires in parts of California where the terrain and weather patterns are unfamiliar. Mr. Romero, dripping with sweat and flecked in ash, noted that many firefighters from coastal California were not accustomed to Redding’s notoriously intense sun, its parched and radiating grasslands, or its warm downslope winds.
“We can just stand here and we’re dripping,” Mr. Romero said. But, he added, “We still adapt to what’s going on.”
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Scientists say that severe wildfire seasons in California may occur more frequently because of climate change. Since the 1970s, temperatures have risen by two degrees Fahrenheit in the western United States. And trees and grasses — the fuel of wildfires — are more dry and for longer periods of the year. That means fire season now lasts three months longer than it used to, starting earlier and often going on through the fall, said Jennifer Balch, a fire ecologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“What’s going on in the background is we’ve got warmer conditions. It’s making our fuels drier earlier and for longer,” Dr. Balch said. “Wildfires are a real in-your-face way we’re seeing evidence of a warming climate.”
California is feeling the brunt. Seven of the state’s largest forest fires have come in the last decade, including one every year since 2012.
From Thursday night to Friday morning, the Carr Fire raged out of control and scorched an additional 16,000 acres, bringing the total area burned to more than 44,000 acres. Firefighters struggled to contain its growth; the blaze was 3 percent contained on Friday morning.
The weather was not expected to offer any relief through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The high temperature in Redding was in the hundreds on Friday and was expected to rise the next two days. Wind gusts could reach 25 miles an hour in areas where the fire continues to rage.
Fire officials said it was too early to account for the total damage caused by the Carr Fire, but said that at least 65 buildings had been destroyed and another 55 damaged. Nearly 5,000 structures in its path were threatened.
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On Friday, the roads leading into downtown Redding, usually teeming with the traffic of summertime tourism, were largely deserted except for emergency vehicles.
Sundial Bridge, a popular stop for motorists on their way to Mount Shasta and points north, was closed because of the fire, and its parking lot, often filled close to capacity on weekend travel days, was mostly empty.
Flecks of ash checkered the blue uniform of Robert Valente, 61, a security guard for the facility, as he halted a stray group of tourists from the San Francisco area. Mr. Valente said it is frightening to see a fire this close to Redding. “You could lose everything,” he said.
Erick Mattson, a captain with the Redding Fire Department, was battling out-of-control flames encroaching on homes in the Old Shasta community just outside Redding on Friday morning. Mr. Mattson, who has been a firefighter for over 20 years, said that his fire season used to end in October or November, but now stretches across the entire year.
“It’s a situation where we just have to keep going. Those that have been in the fire service for a long time, they develop the skills necessary to cope with your body shutting down,” he said. “That’s kind of what we do. We encourage each other. We understand what the job is and what the end goal is. It’s about serving the public and that’s what pushes us, even when the fire seasons go longer.”
Scott Bransford reported from Redding, Calif.; and Jennifer Medina and Jose A. Del Real from Los Angeles. Reporting was contributed by Matthew Haag, Somini Sengupta, Daniel Victor, Inyoung Kang and Terence McGinley in New York.
end quote from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/us/california-wildfire-redding-carr.html
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