Fire Heat: Firefighters fight wildfires, fatigue and Covid-19 as California prepares for long fire season

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“Firefighters get tired, exhausted,” Cal Fire spokesman Dave Lauchner told CNN.

The severe drought that is suffocating parts of the American West not only leads to a lack of water and food production, but also creates the ideal environment for more fires to erupt quickly, scientists and climate experts say.
“Significant above-normal fire potential is expected to continue through September in much of the northwest, the Northern Rockies and the northern portions of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain geographic areas,” he said. write the National Interagency Fire Center last month.

And in some places, these conditions can be extended even further.

“Most California mountains and foothills are expected to have higher-than-normal potential by September, with areas prone to sea winds likely to stay above normal potential in October and November in Southern California,” said the fire center.

The California fire season this year has been relentless, burning more than three times the land burned in the state during the same period last year, officials said.
As of Thursday, more than 15,000 firefighters were on the front lines of California’s 16 major wildfires, Cal Fire said. And nearly 2 million acres have been burned statewide.

“We’ve been fighting fires for months. We’ve had the Dixie fire, which exceeds 800,000 acres, and then that fire, that fire almost three weeks ago,” Lauchner of Cal Fire said. the heat fire.

Is this * finally * the moment we wake up to with the climate crisis?
The fight against forest fires has been fought all over the West. At times, the global Covid-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult.

In July, seven firefighters who fought the Bootleg fire in Oregon had to be quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus.

And this week, between 16 and 20 firefighters working on the Caldor fire were sidelined due to a possible exposure, Cal Fire’s Kevin Brown told CNN’s Stephanie Elam.

There is no doubt that climate change has made the most deadly and destructive forest fires the new normal. Currently, with about 90% of the western region in some kind of drought, more than half live in extreme or exceptional situations, the most severe categories, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The culprit?

Several studies have linked increased carbon dioxide emissions and high temperatures with an increase in combustion surface throughout the West, particularly in California.

And as fire conditions intensify, the ongoing drought in California continues to strain the state’s water resources. The levels of California’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are currently at 43% and 34% of their historical averages, respectively, according to the drought monitor.

A firefighter lights the fire to prevent the Heat Fire from spreading near South Lake Tahoe on September 1, 2021.

The heat of Caldor threatens the tourist city

The Caldor fire, which went off in Lake Tahoe Basin this week, rose to 210,893 acres and contained 28% Thursday. The massive fire reduced overnight activity due to calmer winds in the area, Cal Fire said.

The fire, which is one of the few wildfires that has swept across the vast Sierra Nevada mountain range, has forced some 20,000 residents to flee the tourist town of South Lake Tahoe. He has been burning for almost three weeks as he marches to the Nevada border.

“Extremely dry air will remain in the area for the next two days and heat will also be generated in the area throughout the weekend until Labor Day,” CNN weather producer Robert Shackelford said. “Winds won’t be as significant as past events, with some gusts of up to 15 mph. But even a gust like this can help spread the fires.”

Lake Tahoe Ski Resorts Use Blowers to Fight the Flames of the Heat Fire
South Lake Tahoe, usually crowded with tourists, was a gray ghost town on Tuesday, with empty parking lots, closed roads and closed businesses as thick smoke from the fire hovered over the area.

Evacuated residents should expect to stay away from home for the next two days, “Cal Fire’s Brown said. Even where there is no immediate threat, time is needed to inspect roads, remove tree hazards and return launch utilities, Brown said Thursday.

Firefighters are trying to control a subsequent fire to help fight the Heat Fire near Lake Tahoe on September 2, 2021.
In general, more than 53,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders in the state, in accordance with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Some evacuation orders have been reduced to warnings.

The White House on Wednesday approved California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a presidential emergency declaration to receive direct federal aid for the Caldor fire.

“The Department of Defense has trained and is deploying additional firefighters to support our firefighting efforts in California,” President Joe Biden said Thursday.

CNN’s Jennifer Gray, Dan Simon, Leslie Perrot, Stephanie Elam, Rachel Ramirez, Alexandra Meeks and Jason Kravarik contributed to this report.

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