NorCal Fire Season Officially Opens

[trooperdude]

http://www.nbc11.com/news/13314061/detail.html?rss=bay&psp=news

Fire Season Officially Under Way In Bay Area

POSTED: 7:09 am PDT May 14, 2007
UPDATED: 8:48 am PDT May 14, 2007

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Fire season officially begins Monday in much of the Bay Area.

The declaration is about a month earlier than in previous years because of the dry conditions

Fire season officially kicks off in Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

For firefighters, it means units in those counties will be eligible for funding beyond their usual fire duties.

More crews and dispatchers are also adding more crews and dispatchers.

The start of the fire season also means more warnings about what people should do to protect their homes from wildfires.

Fire officials say the time is now for people to clear out dry brush and create defensible space around their homes.

Homeowners should use the early-morning hours to work with yard equipment like lawn mowers and tractors to decrease the chance of sparking a fire.

The season is early because of an unusually dry winter and spring and experts say that dry spell is the perfect combination for a severe fire season.

 

[BlueZebra]

Partial Opening

This declaration only applies to the Santa Clara (SCU)CAL FIRE unit, which covers those counties. Fire season is not open any where else in Northern California. This is a commom phasing in of fire season, and happens every year, although it is earlier this year. SCU immediately had a 150+ acre fire that first day.

Several more units will go into fire season at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Most will be in fire season by the first week of June.

Oddly enough, Smoke jumpers at Redding have been staffed since early May, and have jumped about a half dozen fires already!!!