Fire Season Is Most Definitely Not Over

Post date: Oct 30, 2017 1:09:04 AM

Even though we had ¼” of rain the night of October 19-20, it immediately started to warm up, the winds returned and the humidity dropped precipitously. Moreover, due to critical weather conditions and fire activity, all Bay Area CAL FIRE Units, including the San Mateo‐Santa Cruz Unit, implemented a burn suspension banning all outdoor burning as of October 13, 2017. Nonetheless, one of our neighbors decided to get a jump on burning their brush first thing on the morning of October 21 and the fire quickly got away from them, sending spotter planes over the property I was visiting and engines down Empire Grade immediately behind me. The fire was quickly contained, but not before scaring most of us. Then another fire closed northbound highway 1 at the edge of town, even before the spotter planes could turn toward their base. That larger fire, which took the rest of the day to control, was again caused by human activity. It will take at least two days of soaking rain before there is any consideration of lifting the burn ban and considering declaring the end of fire season.