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How Can California Fight Wildfires in the Middle of a Pandemic? In a Few Months, We'll Likely Find Out

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No one knows exactly how this coming fire season will shake out, but experts and fire officials agree the COVID-19 pandemic will make an already hard job much tougher.

Fire agencies and emergency managers are now planning how they'll fight wildfires, issue evacuation orders, set up shelters and handle power shutoffs in the face of the massive challenge of simultaneously coping with a highly infectious disease.

"We've never fought fire in a pandemic," said Jim Whittington, an expert in wildland fire response. "We don't have any sort of lessons from [the flu pandemic of] 1918. So this is going to be a learning experience, and we're going to have to err on the side of firefighter and public safety. And we recognize that there's probably going to be some Catch-22s in our future."

One of the biggest impacts could be a strain on the mutual aid system. In normal times, agencies provide support to each other during disasters. But when the crisis is so widespread, that system could become strained.

Read the full story from KQED's Danielle Venton.

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