ESPM professor Scott Stephens comments on the Tubbs Fire that was driven into northeastern Santa Rosa by hot, dry winds blowing a sustained 50 mph. Santa Rosa lost nearly 3,000 homes and many large buildings. “It hit the city like a bull’s-eye,” said Stephens. “[That] is probably the place that surprises us the most — it burned so many houses in the urban area.”
Northern California is facing catastrophic wildfires more typically seen in the south. Experts aren't sure why
Los Angeles Times | October 16, 2017
Santa Cruz Sentinel | October 14, 2017
ESPM CE specialist Bill Stewart and Center for Fire Research and Outreach researcher Brandon Collins discuss the conditions that caused the Wine Country fires to be so deadly and destructive. With wilderness reclaiming Sonoma and Napa county land that was once agricultural, the region's "fuel loads" are high. “Hiring contractors to reduce fuels, owner by owner, is expensive and is rarely done,” Stewart said. Multiple ignitions and furious dry winds pushed trees into power lines, exploding transformers and igniting dry foliage into flames. “It is pretty overwhelming to have that much fire activity simultaneously — that many ignitions starting around the same time, covering a pretty large area,” Collins said.
Napa Valley Register | October 14, 2017
ESPM CE Specialist Bill Stewart commented in this article on firefighter relief teams starting to rotate in for the original crews fighting the Napa and Sonoma fires. “They basically just keep putting more and more people on,” said Stewart, noting that fires started in eight different places and were fast-moving. “For everybody working on this, this is the biggest, most complicated fire we’ve had in Northern California,” Stewart said. There are thousands of residential parcels inside the fire perimeter, including people who live in houses scattered along rural roads, he said. The number of people who are still unaccounted for, he said, is “sobering.”
KQED News Room: North Bay Fires Update, Saving a Napa Valley Ranch, The Politics of Disasters, Climate Science and Policy
KQED News Room | October 13, 2017
Washington Post | October 13, 2017
CNR dean J. Keith Gilless is featured in this article that explores what options people have when trapped in a vehicle while trying to get away from a fire. Gilless warns that becoming trapped in a vehicle is one of the leading causes of wildfire deaths because people wait too long to go. “When you’re told to evacuate — go. Don’t consider whether to stay, don’t evaluate it, don’t talk about it with neighbors,” Gilless said. “Go.” While this article does give tips on how one might try to survive by staying inside the car, he says: "The real objective here is not to put yourself in a situation [where] you're thinking, 'Should I go in the culvert? Should I go in the swimming pool?' Because the radiant heat off of these really big fires is tremendous."
Buzzfeed | October 12, 2017
ESPM professor Rachel Morello-Frosch commented in this article on the health risks in the Bay Area resulting from the smoke of the wine country fires. The main danger from wildfire smoke is known as PM2.5 — particles of soot less than 2.5 micrometers across that can cause lung and heart disease. PM2.5 is bad for everyone, but particularly for people who already have conditions like asthma or emphysema, and for children whose lungs are still developing. “Everyone should be taking precautions, even if you don’t have chronic respiratory conditions,” said Morello-Frosch, who studies air pollution and public health.
SF Chronicle | October 12, 2017
ESPM professor Scott Stephens advocates policy changes related to land development and study of the Australian fire management model in order to "approach a more sustainable coexistence with fire," noting that California already has one of the best suppression organizations in the world. There will never be enough suppression resources alone to reduce losses. Part of the solution is a more sustainably designed and built housing, inhabited by informed and prepared homeowners. This can reduce the risk of losses but will not eliminate it because California will experience large fires every year."
Nature | October 11, 2017
ESPM professor Steve Beissinger is leading the Grinnell Resurvey Project, which has sought over the past 14 years to repeat Joseph Grinnell's early 1900s ecological surveys of California, with an aim to quantify future ecological shifts. The latest phase of the work, which began last month, is focused on cataloguing small mammals in California’s rapidly changing deserts. Grinnell’s records provide an unparalleled baseline for researchers to explore how urbanization, farming, mining and climate change are reshaping the state’s ecosystems.
SFGate | October 11, 2017
ESPM professor Scott Stephens is featured in this article on the North Bay wildfires, which ignited last Sunday night. It’s unusual to have such extreme fire weather at night, said Stephens. Low temperatures after sunset makes the land more moist due to the colder air, but that has changed somewhat in California over the past 15 years, he noted. Overnight lows are rising, so the air stays drier after dusk. One result is that night fires are much more common.