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"bio": "Ezra David Romero is a climate reporter for KQED News. He covers the absence and excess of water in the Bay Area — think sea level rise, flooding and drought. For nearly a decade he’s covered how warming temperatures are altering the lives of Californians. He’s reported on farmers worried their pistachio trees aren’t getting enough sleep, families desperate for water, scientists studying dying giant sequoias, and alongside firefighters containing wildfires. His work has appeared on local stations across California and nationally on public radio shows like Morning Edition, Here and Now, All Things Considered and Science Friday. ",
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"slug": "dangerous-air-as-california-burns-america-breathes-toxic-smoke",
"title": "Dangerous Air: As California Burns, America Breathes Toxic Smoke",
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"headTitle": "Dangerous Air: As California Burns, America Breathes Toxic Smoke | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was written and produced by Alison Saldanha, Farida Jhabvala Romero, Caleigh Wells and Aaron Glantz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Western wildfires pose a much broader threat to human health than to just those forced to evacuate the path of the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from these fires, which have burned millions of acres in California alone, is choking vast swaths of the country, an analysis of federal satellite imagery by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.stanfordecholab.com/\">Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab \u003c/a>found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The monthslong analysis, based on more than 10 years of data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and analyzed down to the ZIP code level, reveals a startling increase in the number of days residents are breathing smoke across California and the Pacific Northwest, to Denver and Salt Lake City in the Rocky Mountains and rural Kentucky and West Virginia in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When looking at major U.S. cities, the analysis found the starkest increase in San Jose, California, where smoke days were up more than 400%. San Jose residents breathed smoke 45 days a year on average between 2016 and 2020. In Los Angeles and San Diego, the number of days with wildfire smoke increased 230% to 32 days a year in Los Angeles and 23 days in San Diego. Even the East Coast was not immune as prevailing winds carried smoke plumes from the Western United States and Canada thousands of miles away. In Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., our analysis found the number of days residents breathed wildfire smoke increased approximately 40% to over 20 days of smoke on average in a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://projects.capradio.org/us-wildfire-smoke-exposure/\" style=\"border: 0px #ffffff none;\" name=\"myiFrame\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"1\" marginheight=\"0px\" marginwidth=\"0px\" height=\"650px\" width=\"1200\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literally no amount of exposure is safe,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of earth system science who led the project for Stanford University. Emerging research shows wildfire smoke exposure not only \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/how-smoke-fires-can-affect-your-health\">negatively impact\u003c/a>s the heart and lungs but also the brain. Smoke exposure also poses pregnancy risks. Children and older people are most vulnerable. “There’s no magic threshold under which we’re OK and beyond which we’re in trouble. The lesson is that any amount is bad. And the more you get the worse it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the scale of smoke inundation requires dramatic steps to curb the risk of wildfire and mitigate the impacts of climate change. But investigations from NPR’s California Newsroom have found the state and federal government have not done enough to manage forests, including using prescribed burns. Both have performed mitigation work on far fewer acres than promised to address the state’s wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11890259 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-800x822.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-1020x1048.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-160x164.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>The deluge of smoke was particularly acute in California, where people in some fire-prone areas are exposed to smoke an average of three months a year. An analysis of state hospitalization records by NPR’s California Newsroom found 30,000 additional admissions for respiratory and cardiac conditions in 2018, at the time a record fire year, compared to two years before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federally funded prescriptions for the asthma medication albuterol also spiked in the state, with 240,000 more claims for the drug in California in 2018 than 2013, according to an analysis of data provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The annual cost to taxpayers for the extra albuterol: $34 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890242\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-800x413.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-1020x526.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-160x83.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Living with smoke\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of the most smoke-stricken areas told us the relentless poor air quality had diminished their health and quality of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re exhausted from having to go through so many years of smoke,” said 61-year-old Tim Pedrozo, a third-generation dairy farmer in Orland, a small Northern California town of 7,800 that’s famous for breeding queen honey bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedrozo is worried about his lungs. He suffers from dull headaches when smoke is in the air. “It’s just getting harder and harder to want to stay here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2226-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861834817.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890244\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2226-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861834817.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands on a field with cows.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dairy farmer Tim Pedrozo, 61, stands on one of the pastures at his 20-acre dairy farm in Orland, California, on Sept. 3, 2021. Persistent wildfire smoke “is one of the main reasons” he and his wife are considering moving out of state, he said. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found Orland residents breathed smoke an average of 82 days a year between 2016 and 2020. Last year, when more acres burned than any in California’s modern history, smoke filled the air for nearly four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond his health, Pedrozo said his business has taken a hit. The farmer with glasses and a gray beard said he has tasted a smoky taint in the traditional aged cheese he produces. The persistent smoke keeps customers away from outdoor farmers markets, where he sells his cheese rounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Listen to part 2 of the radio story:\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/californias-smoky-unhealthy-air-causing-problems-f/embed?style=cover\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedrozo’s cows, which graze on the 20-acre farm year-round, have also gotten sick. Last year, they suffered an outbreak of pink eye infections, he said, which Pedrozo attributes to a combination of smoke and dust. One cow lost an eye. Scientific research has \u003ca href=\"https://extension.sdstate.edu/wildfire-aftermath-beef-cattle-health-considerations\">linked\u003c/a> wildfire smoke to both pink eye and permanent blindness in livestock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to stick around and get worse,” he said. So he is planning to sell his farm of 22 years and move with his wife to Missouri, where their son has already relocated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_4106-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861923734.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890246\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_4106-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861923734.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Pedrozo checks on one of his cows at the farm he has owned for 22 years in Orland, California. The third-generation dairy farmer said poor air quality, in large part due to wildfire smoke, is a “main reason” he and his wife are considering moving out of state. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the analysis by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University found that even if worried Californians like Pedrozo flee the state, it will be hard to escape the smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impacts of wildfire smoke could be one of the largest climate-related impacts across the Western U.S. And as we’re seeing increasingly, it’s not just limited to the Western U.S.,” Burke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"wildfire-smoke\"]Burke’s lab used advanced computer modeling to examine the presence of smoke plumes overhead every day, in every community, from Hawaii to Florida. Reporters from the California Newsroom then compared the average annual number of days with smoke in the air between 2009 to 2013, when extremely destructive wildfires were less common, with the smoke days occurring between 2016 to 2020, when hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change sparked record fire years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How far smoke can move through the air depends on the intensity of the fire and weather conditions. But the satellite images reviewed by NPR’s California Newsroom and Burke’s lab at Stanford show that as winds carry wildfire smoke plumes from the West and central Canada across the continent, they spread farther and higher. \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148610/smoke-across-north-america\">According to NASA, these smoke plumes\u003c/a> often go unnoticed, providing the illusion of cleaner air even as they inundate parts of the East Coast and the Midwest, including Missouri where Pedrozo wants to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found the Midwest experienced a slight drop in the number of days with smoke overhead since 2009. But Burke’s modeling of the satellite imagery shows the smoke there is now thicker, suggesting “wildfires are also worsening overall air quality in the Midwest, just as they are in the West.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is no longer just a West Coast story. This is a U.S.-wide story,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890248\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1088\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-800x702.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-1020x895.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1088\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-800x702.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-1020x895.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The kids are not alright\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found the smokiest place in the West was Willows, California, a small town about 80 miles north of Sacramento. Last year, the August Complex Fire, then the largest in modern California history, burned more than 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles, to its west in Mendocino National Forest. Two years earlier, the Camp Fire destroyed the Butte County town of Paradise, a 45-minute drive to the east, killing 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the Friday in September we visited, a thick haze covered nearby mountains, but the sky had cleared up and the air quality was better than it had been earlier in the week. Cheerleaders for the local high school shook their gold and purple pompoms for a junior varsity football game as hundreds of students and parents caught up with each other in between bites of steak sandwiches and cotton candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Willows High School Athletic Director Greg Kitchen, the day’s relatively clean air was a huge relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like I can breathe easy for a change. It’s nice,” said Kitchen as he watched the game from the sidelines. “It seems like the last five years or so air quality has just been something that we constantly have to monitor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already this school year, Kitchen and other school administrators in the region have canceled outdoor sports practices and recess because of decidedly unhealthy air in order to protect students’ health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2282-Players-scaled-e1632862082813.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2282-Players-scaled-e1632862082813.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willows High School football players and coaches stand for the national anthem before the start of a game on Sept. 3, 2021 in Willows, California. But unhealthy air quality has led school administrators to cancel sports practices, recess and other outdoor activities to protect students’ health. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stacy Lanzi, a third grade teacher at Murdock Elementary School, said she sees her students and her own two teen sons struggle with runny noses, tiredness and itchy eyes during days with haze or thick smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kids will say, ‘I have a headache, I have a headache.’ You hear it all the time,” said Lanzi, who was born and raised in Willows. “And I’ll say, ‘Well, did you drink some water? Drink some more.’ There’s not too many alternatives, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found Willows averaged 91 days of wildfire smoke a year on average between 2016 and 2020. Last year, smoke plumes inundated Willows for 122 days, or four out of twelve months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2223-Brett-Brown-scaled-e1632862178793.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890252\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2223-Brett-Brown-scaled-e1632862178793.jpg\" alt=\"Man in white lab coat with stethoscope around his neck.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Physician Assistant Brett Brown stands at Glenn Medical Center, a small hospital in Willows, Calif on Sept. 2, 2021. Brown said he regularly treats patients who suffer from more asthma attacks, migraines and stress during smoke periods. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Without fail, there’s always somebody who says something about, ‘Well, because of the smoke’ insert problem here,” said 27-year-old Brett Brown, a physician’s assistant who regularly treats patients at Glenn Medical Center, the small hospital in Willows. “Whether it’s ‘I haven’t been exercising, so my diabetes is a little bit worse.’ Or ‘I haven’t been able to breathe as well because my allergies are so bad.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, who suffers from asthma himself, said he has experienced firsthand how smoke can exacerbate his symptoms. Last year, he said, asthma flare-ups lengthened a case of bronchitis he developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The smoky reality of climate change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is at the root of this new reality, with rising temperatures and scant precipitation contributing to conditions that lead fires that burn hotter, faster and more frequently than ever before. Eight of the 10 largest fires in California history \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/4jandlhh/top20_acres.pdf\">sparked\u003c/a> since 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year was the most active wildfire season in the state’s modern history. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/\">4 million acres \u003c/a>burned, nearly 10,500 structures were damaged or destroyed and 33 people died. This year could be even more destructive. \u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\">Most of \u003c/a>California is in “extreme drought” or “exceptional drought,” which means there is an abundance of dry vegetation ready to catch fire.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College\"]‘What we’ve got at the state and federal level is a reactive policy — we’re going to respond to the fires. God that’s problematic, because it means you never get ahead of the curve.’[/pullquote]But experts say there are steps government officials and individuals can take to better respond to the growing risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of poor forest management have led to a dangerous buildup of undergrowth in California’s forests, providing the fuel for recent major blazes. Fire scientists say the state and federal government both need to significantly scale up their efforts to help reduce the potential of devastating wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve got at the state and federal level is a reactive policy — we’re going to respond to the fires,” said Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College. “God that’s problematic, because it means you never get ahead of the curve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last August, California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\">announced\u003c/a> an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that promised each would perform fire prevention work on 500,000 acres annually here by 2025. Today, however, the Forest Service remains far short of that goal. The agency told us they’d completed about 120,000 acres of treatment in California during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. As for the state, Cal Fire was unable to detail its progress, even after multiple email requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burns are another potential path forward in California. In much of the Southeastern United States, where academic research shows prescribed burns are f\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/2/2/30/htm?dom=prime&src=syn\">ar more common\u003c/a>, our investigation shows a substantial decline in wildfire smoke over the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem; without it, wildlands become overgrown with brush and small trees. That causes destructive conflagrations to replace the natural, low-intensity fires that serve as an ecological reset. Many state lawmakers support their broader use, and in recent weeks the California legislature has passed bills that would \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/09/16/prescribed-burns-could-help-reduce-californias-wildfires-a-new-bill-could-help-make-planned-fires-more-frequent/\">change liability laws\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sd03.senate.ca.gov/news/20210910-sen-dodd-lauds-passage-controlled-burn-insurance-fund\">create a $20 million insurance liability fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to get people to understand that they may have to get exposed to a little smoke from prescribed burns to prevent catastrophic fires,” said John Balmes, a pulmonologist and professor at UCSF who serves on the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric — the state’s largest utility — continues to face scrutiny over its role in sparking wildfires. Earlier this year, the California Public Utilities Commission placed the company under “\u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/pge/pge-oversight-and-enforcement\">enhanced oversight\u003c/a>” for failing to prioritize vegetation clearing around its most high-risk power lines. The company, which a federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873113/help-us-investigate-pges-power-lines\">called\u003c/a> “a terror — T-E-R-R-O-R to the people of California,” last year pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire. In July, the utility \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/07/19/dixie-fire-may-be-linked-to-pge-equipment-utility-says/\">told\u003c/a> the CPUC that a fallen branch may have started this year’s Dixie Fire, which has burned more than 960,000 acres, or 1,500 square miles, to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also changes individuals can make to reduce the health impacts of wildfire smoke, including installing indoor air filtration systems. “There are good data to show that these kinds of efforts can make a difference in protecting homes and saving lives,” said Balmes. But these devices can be costly. Balmes recommends the government do more to provide low-cost or free air filters. “But all this requires investment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erasing progress on air pollution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sharp rise in wildfire smoke is reversing decades of hard-won gains in air quality improvement made as a result of environmental legislation like the Clean Air Act, Burke said. “We had actually been having a lot of success in cleaning up our air,” he added, but the rapid rise in smoke is “threatening to undo decades of improvement and undoing them very quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One dangerous pollutant in wildfire smoke is PM2.5, tiny bits of airborne ash that are 30 times smaller than the width of a single strand of human hair. This particulate matter can be inhaled deep into the lungs, and even enter the bloodstream. The Environmental Protection Agency says they pose “the \u003ca href=\"https://www3.epa.gov/region1/airquality/pm-human-health.html\">greatest health risk\u003c/a>,” even causing premature death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890253\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-800x542.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-1020x691.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890254\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-800x542.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-1020x691.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tiny particles in wildfire smoke are known to aggravate heart and lung diseases, like cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, bronchitis and asthma, with young children and older people especially vulnerable to its harmful effects. Researchers have also linked wildfire smoke to thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884731/poor-air-quality-from-wildfire-smoke-worsens-covid-19-cases-deaths-study-finds\">excess COVID-19 deaths\u003c/a> and are now exploring the links between exposure to wildfire smoke and strokes, pregnancy risks like \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001393512101166X?via%3Dihub\">preterm births\u003c/a> and neurological disorders such as strokes and \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/11/30/ucsf-study-reveals-link-between-wildfire-smoke-and-alzheimers-disease/\">Alzheimer’s\u003c/a> disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke plumes may blanket an entire region, impacting every resident irrespective of their income, but limited research suggests the health risks fall disproportionately on older people, and especially poorer people, who are more often than not from Black, brown and indigenous communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People of color who live in low-income communities often have “increased vulnerability to the effects of air pollution,” Balmes said. “They often have other stressors that contribute to ill health, like a lack of diet filled with fresh vegetables and fruits, which is actually protective in terms of the health effects of air pollution, and just their housing stock, which is often older, may be less protective as the bad outdoor air from wildfires penetrates more easily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis focused on the presence of smoke plumes in the air, rather than PM2.5 particles, because the network of EPA air quality sensors varies widely. Many urban communities lack monitors. So do rural areas, often those areas closest to the wildfires. And the sensors that are in place don’t report on all days. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/wildfire-smoke-course/why-wildfire-smoke-health-concern\">EPA scientists say\u003c/a> the presence of smoke plumes from wildfires tracks closely with the presence of fine particulates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2000 and 2010, the annual average PM 2.5 concentration levels in California and Nevada declined 35%, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR’s California Newsroom. By 2020, however, almost all those gains had been erased, with particulate levels nearly as high as they were two decades earlier. In the Pacific Northwest, PM2.5 levels last year surged higher than they were at the beginning of the century, thanks largely to an increase in wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, with other sources of PM2.5, such as auto exhaust, in decline because of better emission standards, wildfire smoke represents an increasing share of particulates people are breathing. Burke’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/118/2/e2011048118.full.pdf\">found\u003c/a> that in the West, wildfire PM2.5 now accounts for up to half of all PM2.5 exposure, compared to less than 20% a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tiny particles aren’t the only pollutants to worry about. When the Camp Fire incinerated the town of Paradise in 2018, it destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings, including gas stations, two grocery stores, eight schools and a hotel. Everything inside those buildings went up in smoke — from paint thinner and Drano to plastics, oil and pesticides. A \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-07/Camp_Fire_report_July2021.pdf\">report\u003c/a> on the Camp Fire released this July by the California Air Resources Board found toxic metals, including lead, traveled more than 150 miles and were picked up in air monitoring stations in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stuck inside, alone\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, one of a handful of medical staffers at the family care clinic in Willows, says all the smoke days are affecting his patients’ mental health. The recommendation that people stay indoors on bad air quality days intensifies feelings of isolation during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Say you are quarantined and then all of a sudden you can’t even go in your own backyard without getting a major headache or having an asthma attack or worried that your kid is going to have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-020-00267-4\">long-term problems\u003c/a> because of \u003ca href=\"https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/147/4/e2020027128\">wildfire smoke\u003c/a>,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890255\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2200-Larry-George-scaled-e1632862358321.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890255\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2200-Larry-George-scaled-e1632862358321.jpg\" alt=\"A man at his home pointing to animal-shaped cookie jars on a shelf.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Larry George, 74, points to his late wife’s collection of cookie jars at the house he rents in Willows, California, on Sept. 2, 2021. The retired truck driver, who suffers from a chronic lung condition, said he must stay inside on smoky days to protect his health. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That isolation has been getting to Larry George, who lives alone a block away from the hospital in a gray, two-bedroom house. The 74-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired truck driver suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. On hazy days, George almost never leaves his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he has to go to the doctor’s office or grocery store, even walking a few steps to his white pickup truck is difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just feels like you’re not allowed to go out,” he said, wheezing in his living room, where he keeps an oxygen machine and a large TV screen tuned to Fox News. “You don’t have the freedom you had before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Pedrozo, he is thinking of moving to someplace with cleaner air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kcrw/embed/8715/share\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alison Saldanha is a data journalist who led this investigation for NPR’s California Newsroom, where Aaron Glantz is senior investigations editor. Farida Jhabvala Romero is a reporter for KQED in San Francisco. Caleigh Wells is a reporter and producer at KCRW in Los Angeles. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George LeVines and Molly Peterson from the California Newsroom contributed reporting. Glantz edited this story together with the newsroom’s managing editor, Adriene Hill. The story was copy edited by Don Clyde. Scott Rodd, state government reporter at CapRadio in Sacramento, also contributed reporting along with Lily Jamali from KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The California Newsroom is a collaboration of NPR and 17 public radio stations across the state, from San Diego to the Oregon border.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new investigation finds toxic smoke from California's increasingly large and ferocious wildfires is choking vast swaths of the country.",
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"title": "Dangerous Air: As California Burns, America Breathes Toxic Smoke | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was written and produced by Alison Saldanha, Farida Jhabvala Romero, Caleigh Wells and Aaron Glantz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Western wildfires pose a much broader threat to human health than to just those forced to evacuate the path of the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from these fires, which have burned millions of acres in California alone, is choking vast swaths of the country, an analysis of federal satellite imagery by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.stanfordecholab.com/\">Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab \u003c/a>found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The monthslong analysis, based on more than 10 years of data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and analyzed down to the ZIP code level, reveals a startling increase in the number of days residents are breathing smoke across California and the Pacific Northwest, to Denver and Salt Lake City in the Rocky Mountains and rural Kentucky and West Virginia in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When looking at major U.S. cities, the analysis found the starkest increase in San Jose, California, where smoke days were up more than 400%. San Jose residents breathed smoke 45 days a year on average between 2016 and 2020. In Los Angeles and San Diego, the number of days with wildfire smoke increased 230% to 32 days a year in Los Angeles and 23 days in San Diego. Even the East Coast was not immune as prevailing winds carried smoke plumes from the Western United States and Canada thousands of miles away. In Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., our analysis found the number of days residents breathed wildfire smoke increased approximately 40% to over 20 days of smoke on average in a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://projects.capradio.org/us-wildfire-smoke-exposure/\" style=\"border: 0px #ffffff none;\" name=\"myiFrame\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"1\" marginheight=\"0px\" marginwidth=\"0px\" height=\"650px\" width=\"1200\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literally no amount of exposure is safe,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of earth system science who led the project for Stanford University. Emerging research shows wildfire smoke exposure not only \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/how-smoke-fires-can-affect-your-health\">negatively impact\u003c/a>s the heart and lungs but also the brain. Smoke exposure also poses pregnancy risks. Children and older people are most vulnerable. “There’s no magic threshold under which we’re OK and beyond which we’re in trouble. The lesson is that any amount is bad. And the more you get the worse it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the scale of smoke inundation requires dramatic steps to curb the risk of wildfire and mitigate the impacts of climate change. But investigations from NPR’s California Newsroom have found the state and federal government have not done enough to manage forests, including using prescribed burns. Both have performed mitigation work on far fewer acres than promised to address the state’s wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11890259 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-800x822.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-1020x1048.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/5.-major-cities-160x164.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>The deluge of smoke was particularly acute in California, where people in some fire-prone areas are exposed to smoke an average of three months a year. An analysis of state hospitalization records by NPR’s California Newsroom found 30,000 additional admissions for respiratory and cardiac conditions in 2018, at the time a record fire year, compared to two years before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federally funded prescriptions for the asthma medication albuterol also spiked in the state, with 240,000 more claims for the drug in California in 2018 than 2013, according to an analysis of data provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The annual cost to taxpayers for the extra albuterol: $34 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890242\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-800x413.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-1020x526.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/6.-Albuterol-160x83.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Living with smoke\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of the most smoke-stricken areas told us the relentless poor air quality had diminished their health and quality of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re exhausted from having to go through so many years of smoke,” said 61-year-old Tim Pedrozo, a third-generation dairy farmer in Orland, a small Northern California town of 7,800 that’s famous for breeding queen honey bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedrozo is worried about his lungs. He suffers from dull headaches when smoke is in the air. “It’s just getting harder and harder to want to stay here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2226-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861834817.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890244\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2226-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861834817.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands on a field with cows.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dairy farmer Tim Pedrozo, 61, stands on one of the pastures at his 20-acre dairy farm in Orland, California, on Sept. 3, 2021. Persistent wildfire smoke “is one of the main reasons” he and his wife are considering moving out of state, he said. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found Orland residents breathed smoke an average of 82 days a year between 2016 and 2020. Last year, when more acres burned than any in California’s modern history, smoke filled the air for nearly four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond his health, Pedrozo said his business has taken a hit. The farmer with glasses and a gray beard said he has tasted a smoky taint in the traditional aged cheese he produces. The persistent smoke keeps customers away from outdoor farmers markets, where he sells his cheese rounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Listen to part 2 of the radio story:\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/californias-smoky-unhealthy-air-causing-problems-f/embed?style=cover\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedrozo’s cows, which graze on the 20-acre farm year-round, have also gotten sick. Last year, they suffered an outbreak of pink eye infections, he said, which Pedrozo attributes to a combination of smoke and dust. One cow lost an eye. Scientific research has \u003ca href=\"https://extension.sdstate.edu/wildfire-aftermath-beef-cattle-health-considerations\">linked\u003c/a> wildfire smoke to both pink eye and permanent blindness in livestock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to stick around and get worse,” he said. So he is planning to sell his farm of 22 years and move with his wife to Missouri, where their son has already relocated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_4106-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861923734.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890246\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_4106-Pedrozo-scaled-e1632861923734.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Pedrozo checks on one of his cows at the farm he has owned for 22 years in Orland, California. The third-generation dairy farmer said poor air quality, in large part due to wildfire smoke, is a “main reason” he and his wife are considering moving out of state. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the analysis by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University found that even if worried Californians like Pedrozo flee the state, it will be hard to escape the smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impacts of wildfire smoke could be one of the largest climate-related impacts across the Western U.S. And as we’re seeing increasingly, it’s not just limited to the Western U.S.,” Burke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Burke’s lab used advanced computer modeling to examine the presence of smoke plumes overhead every day, in every community, from Hawaii to Florida. Reporters from the California Newsroom then compared the average annual number of days with smoke in the air between 2009 to 2013, when extremely destructive wildfires were less common, with the smoke days occurring between 2016 to 2020, when hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change sparked record fire years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How far smoke can move through the air depends on the intensity of the fire and weather conditions. But the satellite images reviewed by NPR’s California Newsroom and Burke’s lab at Stanford show that as winds carry wildfire smoke plumes from the West and central Canada across the continent, they spread farther and higher. \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148610/smoke-across-north-america\">According to NASA, these smoke plumes\u003c/a> often go unnoticed, providing the illusion of cleaner air even as they inundate parts of the East Coast and the Midwest, including Missouri where Pedrozo wants to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found the Midwest experienced a slight drop in the number of days with smoke overhead since 2009. But Burke’s modeling of the satellite imagery shows the smoke there is now thicker, suggesting “wildfires are also worsening overall air quality in the Midwest, just as they are in the West.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is no longer just a West Coast story. This is a U.S.-wide story,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890248\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1088\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-800x702.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-1020x895.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.-US-before-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1088\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-800x702.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-1020x895.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.-US-after-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The kids are not alright\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found the smokiest place in the West was Willows, California, a small town about 80 miles north of Sacramento. Last year, the August Complex Fire, then the largest in modern California history, burned more than 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles, to its west in Mendocino National Forest. Two years earlier, the Camp Fire destroyed the Butte County town of Paradise, a 45-minute drive to the east, killing 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the Friday in September we visited, a thick haze covered nearby mountains, but the sky had cleared up and the air quality was better than it had been earlier in the week. Cheerleaders for the local high school shook their gold and purple pompoms for a junior varsity football game as hundreds of students and parents caught up with each other in between bites of steak sandwiches and cotton candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Willows High School Athletic Director Greg Kitchen, the day’s relatively clean air was a huge relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like I can breathe easy for a change. It’s nice,” said Kitchen as he watched the game from the sidelines. “It seems like the last five years or so air quality has just been something that we constantly have to monitor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already this school year, Kitchen and other school administrators in the region have canceled outdoor sports practices and recess because of decidedly unhealthy air in order to protect students’ health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2282-Players-scaled-e1632862082813.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2282-Players-scaled-e1632862082813.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willows High School football players and coaches stand for the national anthem before the start of a game on Sept. 3, 2021 in Willows, California. But unhealthy air quality has led school administrators to cancel sports practices, recess and other outdoor activities to protect students’ health. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stacy Lanzi, a third grade teacher at Murdock Elementary School, said she sees her students and her own two teen sons struggle with runny noses, tiredness and itchy eyes during days with haze or thick smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kids will say, ‘I have a headache, I have a headache.’ You hear it all the time,” said Lanzi, who was born and raised in Willows. “And I’ll say, ‘Well, did you drink some water? Drink some more.’ There’s not too many alternatives, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis found Willows averaged 91 days of wildfire smoke a year on average between 2016 and 2020. Last year, smoke plumes inundated Willows for 122 days, or four out of twelve months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2223-Brett-Brown-scaled-e1632862178793.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890252\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2223-Brett-Brown-scaled-e1632862178793.jpg\" alt=\"Man in white lab coat with stethoscope around his neck.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Physician Assistant Brett Brown stands at Glenn Medical Center, a small hospital in Willows, Calif on Sept. 2, 2021. Brown said he regularly treats patients who suffer from more asthma attacks, migraines and stress during smoke periods. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Without fail, there’s always somebody who says something about, ‘Well, because of the smoke’ insert problem here,” said 27-year-old Brett Brown, a physician’s assistant who regularly treats patients at Glenn Medical Center, the small hospital in Willows. “Whether it’s ‘I haven’t been exercising, so my diabetes is a little bit worse.’ Or ‘I haven’t been able to breathe as well because my allergies are so bad.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, who suffers from asthma himself, said he has experienced firsthand how smoke can exacerbate his symptoms. Last year, he said, asthma flare-ups lengthened a case of bronchitis he developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The smoky reality of climate change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is at the root of this new reality, with rising temperatures and scant precipitation contributing to conditions that lead fires that burn hotter, faster and more frequently than ever before. Eight of the 10 largest fires in California history \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/4jandlhh/top20_acres.pdf\">sparked\u003c/a> since 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year was the most active wildfire season in the state’s modern history. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/\">4 million acres \u003c/a>burned, nearly 10,500 structures were damaged or destroyed and 33 people died. This year could be even more destructive. \u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\">Most of \u003c/a>California is in “extreme drought” or “exceptional drought,” which means there is an abundance of dry vegetation ready to catch fire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘What we’ve got at the state and federal level is a reactive policy — we’re going to respond to the fires. God that’s problematic, because it means you never get ahead of the curve.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But experts say there are steps government officials and individuals can take to better respond to the growing risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of poor forest management have led to a dangerous buildup of undergrowth in California’s forests, providing the fuel for recent major blazes. Fire scientists say the state and federal government both need to significantly scale up their efforts to help reduce the potential of devastating wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve got at the state and federal level is a reactive policy — we’re going to respond to the fires,” said Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College. “God that’s problematic, because it means you never get ahead of the curve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last August, California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\">announced\u003c/a> an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that promised each would perform fire prevention work on 500,000 acres annually here by 2025. Today, however, the Forest Service remains far short of that goal. The agency told us they’d completed about 120,000 acres of treatment in California during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. As for the state, Cal Fire was unable to detail its progress, even after multiple email requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burns are another potential path forward in California. In much of the Southeastern United States, where academic research shows prescribed burns are f\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/2/2/30/htm?dom=prime&src=syn\">ar more common\u003c/a>, our investigation shows a substantial decline in wildfire smoke over the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem; without it, wildlands become overgrown with brush and small trees. That causes destructive conflagrations to replace the natural, low-intensity fires that serve as an ecological reset. Many state lawmakers support their broader use, and in recent weeks the California legislature has passed bills that would \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/09/16/prescribed-burns-could-help-reduce-californias-wildfires-a-new-bill-could-help-make-planned-fires-more-frequent/\">change liability laws\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sd03.senate.ca.gov/news/20210910-sen-dodd-lauds-passage-controlled-burn-insurance-fund\">create a $20 million insurance liability fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to get people to understand that they may have to get exposed to a little smoke from prescribed burns to prevent catastrophic fires,” said John Balmes, a pulmonologist and professor at UCSF who serves on the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric — the state’s largest utility — continues to face scrutiny over its role in sparking wildfires. Earlier this year, the California Public Utilities Commission placed the company under “\u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/pge/pge-oversight-and-enforcement\">enhanced oversight\u003c/a>” for failing to prioritize vegetation clearing around its most high-risk power lines. The company, which a federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873113/help-us-investigate-pges-power-lines\">called\u003c/a> “a terror — T-E-R-R-O-R to the people of California,” last year pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire. In July, the utility \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/07/19/dixie-fire-may-be-linked-to-pge-equipment-utility-says/\">told\u003c/a> the CPUC that a fallen branch may have started this year’s Dixie Fire, which has burned more than 960,000 acres, or 1,500 square miles, to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also changes individuals can make to reduce the health impacts of wildfire smoke, including installing indoor air filtration systems. “There are good data to show that these kinds of efforts can make a difference in protecting homes and saving lives,” said Balmes. But these devices can be costly. Balmes recommends the government do more to provide low-cost or free air filters. “But all this requires investment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erasing progress on air pollution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sharp rise in wildfire smoke is reversing decades of hard-won gains in air quality improvement made as a result of environmental legislation like the Clean Air Act, Burke said. “We had actually been having a lot of success in cleaning up our air,” he added, but the rapid rise in smoke is “threatening to undo decades of improvement and undoing them very quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One dangerous pollutant in wildfire smoke is PM2.5, tiny bits of airborne ash that are 30 times smaller than the width of a single strand of human hair. This particulate matter can be inhaled deep into the lungs, and even enter the bloodstream. The Environmental Protection Agency says they pose “the \u003ca href=\"https://www3.epa.gov/region1/airquality/pm-human-health.html\">greatest health risk\u003c/a>,” even causing premature death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890253\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-800x542.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-1020x691.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/8.-West-PM2.5-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11890254\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5.png 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-800x542.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-1020x691.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/7.-Northwest-PM2.5-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tiny particles in wildfire smoke are known to aggravate heart and lung diseases, like cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, bronchitis and asthma, with young children and older people especially vulnerable to its harmful effects. Researchers have also linked wildfire smoke to thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884731/poor-air-quality-from-wildfire-smoke-worsens-covid-19-cases-deaths-study-finds\">excess COVID-19 deaths\u003c/a> and are now exploring the links between exposure to wildfire smoke and strokes, pregnancy risks like \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001393512101166X?via%3Dihub\">preterm births\u003c/a> and neurological disorders such as strokes and \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/11/30/ucsf-study-reveals-link-between-wildfire-smoke-and-alzheimers-disease/\">Alzheimer’s\u003c/a> disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke plumes may blanket an entire region, impacting every resident irrespective of their income, but limited research suggests the health risks fall disproportionately on older people, and especially poorer people, who are more often than not from Black, brown and indigenous communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People of color who live in low-income communities often have “increased vulnerability to the effects of air pollution,” Balmes said. “They often have other stressors that contribute to ill health, like a lack of diet filled with fresh vegetables and fruits, which is actually protective in terms of the health effects of air pollution, and just their housing stock, which is often older, may be less protective as the bad outdoor air from wildfires penetrates more easily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis focused on the presence of smoke plumes in the air, rather than PM2.5 particles, because the network of EPA air quality sensors varies widely. Many urban communities lack monitors. So do rural areas, often those areas closest to the wildfires. And the sensors that are in place don’t report on all days. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/wildfire-smoke-course/why-wildfire-smoke-health-concern\">EPA scientists say\u003c/a> the presence of smoke plumes from wildfires tracks closely with the presence of fine particulates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2000 and 2010, the annual average PM 2.5 concentration levels in California and Nevada declined 35%, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR’s California Newsroom. By 2020, however, almost all those gains had been erased, with particulate levels nearly as high as they were two decades earlier. In the Pacific Northwest, PM2.5 levels last year surged higher than they were at the beginning of the century, thanks largely to an increase in wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, with other sources of PM2.5, such as auto exhaust, in decline because of better emission standards, wildfire smoke represents an increasing share of particulates people are breathing. Burke’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/118/2/e2011048118.full.pdf\">found\u003c/a> that in the West, wildfire PM2.5 now accounts for up to half of all PM2.5 exposure, compared to less than 20% a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tiny particles aren’t the only pollutants to worry about. When the Camp Fire incinerated the town of Paradise in 2018, it destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings, including gas stations, two grocery stores, eight schools and a hotel. Everything inside those buildings went up in smoke — from paint thinner and Drano to plastics, oil and pesticides. A \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-07/Camp_Fire_report_July2021.pdf\">report\u003c/a> on the Camp Fire released this July by the California Air Resources Board found toxic metals, including lead, traveled more than 150 miles and were picked up in air monitoring stations in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stuck inside, alone\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, one of a handful of medical staffers at the family care clinic in Willows, says all the smoke days are affecting his patients’ mental health. The recommendation that people stay indoors on bad air quality days intensifies feelings of isolation during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Say you are quarantined and then all of a sudden you can’t even go in your own backyard without getting a major headache or having an asthma attack or worried that your kid is going to have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-020-00267-4\">long-term problems\u003c/a> because of \u003ca href=\"https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/147/4/e2020027128\">wildfire smoke\u003c/a>,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890255\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2200-Larry-George-scaled-e1632862358321.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890255\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_2200-Larry-George-scaled-e1632862358321.jpg\" alt=\"A man at his home pointing to animal-shaped cookie jars on a shelf.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Larry George, 74, points to his late wife’s collection of cookie jars at the house he rents in Willows, California, on Sept. 2, 2021. The retired truck driver, who suffers from a chronic lung condition, said he must stay inside on smoky days to protect his health. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That isolation has been getting to Larry George, who lives alone a block away from the hospital in a gray, two-bedroom house. The 74-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired truck driver suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. On hazy days, George almost never leaves his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he has to go to the doctor’s office or grocery store, even walking a few steps to his white pickup truck is difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just feels like you’re not allowed to go out,” he said, wheezing in his living room, where he keeps an oxygen machine and a large TV screen tuned to Fox News. “You don’t have the freedom you had before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Pedrozo, he is thinking of moving to someplace with cleaner air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kcrw/embed/8715/share\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alison Saldanha is a data journalist who led this investigation for NPR’s California Newsroom, where Aaron Glantz is senior investigations editor. Farida Jhabvala Romero is a reporter for KQED in San Francisco. Caleigh Wells is a reporter and producer at KCRW in Los Angeles. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George LeVines and Molly Peterson from the California Newsroom contributed reporting. Glantz edited this story together with the newsroom’s managing editor, Adriene Hill. The story was copy edited by Don Clyde. Scott Rodd, state government reporter at CapRadio in Sacramento, also contributed reporting along with Lily Jamali from KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Extreme Drought Statewide\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly 90% of California is facing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. Hundreds of wells are running dry and reservoir levels are well below historic averages, with no relief in sight. Water suppliers have warned that major cuts are likely for tens of millions of Californians. As Karla Nemeth, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources said, “The challenge is, there is no water.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guest:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">E. Joaquin Esquivel, California Water Resources Control Board chair\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Week in California Politics\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed bills regulating worker protections, addressing climate change and strengthening access to abortion services. Meanwhile, the California Republican Party is gearing up for its annual convention, happening this weekend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guests:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times columnist\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katie Orr, KQED government and politics reporter\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Something Beautiful: Aquatic Park\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s Aquatic Park is a national historic landmark located at the end of the Hyde Street cable car line. There, you’ll find people swimming in the protected lagoon with views of Ghirardelli Square, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"description": "Extreme Drought Statewide Nearly 90% of California is facing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. Hundreds of wells are running dry and reservoir levels are well below historic averages, with no relief in sight. Water suppliers have warned that major cuts are likely for tens of millions of Californians. As Karla Nemeth, director of the state’s Department",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Extreme Drought Statewide\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly 90% of California is facing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. Hundreds of wells are running dry and reservoir levels are well below historic averages, with no relief in sight. Water suppliers have warned that major cuts are likely for tens of millions of Californians. As Karla Nemeth, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources said, “The challenge is, there is no water.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guest:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">E. Joaquin Esquivel, California Water Resources Control Board chair\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Week in California Politics\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed bills regulating worker protections, addressing climate change and strengthening access to abortion services. Meanwhile, the California Republican Party is gearing up for its annual convention, happening this weekend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guests:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times columnist\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katie Orr, KQED government and politics reporter\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Something Beautiful: Aquatic Park\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s Aquatic Park is a national historic landmark located at the end of the Hyde Street cable car line. There, you’ll find people swimming in the protected lagoon with views of Ghirardelli Square, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Fern Canyon: Humboldt's Soaring Emerald Palace",
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"content": "\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/hidden-gems\">\u003cem>Read more from The California Report Magazine’s ‘Hidden Gems’ series.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>It’s a narrow, bumpy drive through the trees to get to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park\u003c/a>, about 50 miles north of Eureka in Humboldt County. And when you do, there are warning signs to watch for aggressive 1,200-pound elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you can get past those obstacles, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">the 1-mile walk through the lush canyon\u003c/a> is relatively easy, especially in the summer — when rangers lay wooden boards across the creek that runs between the lush canyon walls, and you don’t have to get your feet wet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886275\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886275 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"Adults and kids walk across wet boards above a low creek amid lush green hills.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the summer, park rangers lay down wooden boards so visitors can easily traverse the creek that runs through Fern Canyon. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fern Canyon is just inland from \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitredwoods.com/listing/gold-bluffs-beach-%26-campground/529/\">Gold Bluffs Beach in Orick\u003c/a>, named because early miners found flecks of gold in its sand. Once you’re in the canyon, though, it’s hard to believe you’re anywhere near a beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sound of the waves gives way to ephemeral waterfalls trickling down the mossy walls. As the light moves through, the canyon lights up in different shades of electric green — a moist habitat for salamanders and banana slugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886273 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of bright green fern fronds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Five-finger ferns look like open palms hanging from the sheer cliff walls of Fern Canyon. Some species of ferns in the canyon date back 325 million years. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Millions of years ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitredwoods.com/listing/fern-canyon-in-prairie-creek-redwoods-sp/464/\">a retreating sea sculpted these sheer walls\u003c/a>. Species of ferns dating back 325 million years are still growing on the cliffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are sword ferns, with their spear-like tips; velvety five-finger ferns, like open palms; and the lady ferns (named, in the heyday of sexist botany, for their lacy feathery leaves and their spores, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/fern-lady-6-5-09.aspx\">which were supposed to look “like the eye of the ‘fairer sex'”\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the delicacy of these ferns belie their hearty resilience. Some of these species are older than the dinosaurs, and the vibe of this place \u003cem>is\u003c/em> positively prehistoric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in this cathedral of ferns, it’s easy to see why \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sc-trav-jurassic-park-fern-canyon-0822-story.html\">Steven Spielberg used this as one of the backdrops\u003c/a> for the filming of “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997), the sequel to the classic “Jurassic Park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQwNE4OsIE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s seriously like going to Jurassic Park. Pretty crazy,” said Cody McEachren, visiting Fern Canyon from Utah. “Ultimate greenery, in my opinion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like you’ve been transported to another world,” added his wife, Molly. “It is so magical, and so lush, and green. It totally refuels your spirit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I come from Montana, so to come from a place that’s known for it’s lush green, and then to come here and say, ‘I’ve never seen anything so beautiful’ — it says something,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886274\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 217px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A yellow triangular sign with black figures: an elk, flanked by a baby elk, rearing up at a human.\" width=\"217\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs on the trail to Fern Canyon warn of aggressive Roosevelt elk, which can weigh 1,200 lbs. and behave aggressively toward human visitors. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The only drawback to Fern Canyon? It can be harder to get there in winter, when rain can flood the road and, sometimes, the canyon itself. The wooden planks rangers put down in the summer aren’t there for wintertime hikes, so water shoes are a must.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">If you’re planning to visit Fern Canyon\u003c/a>, be sure to call one of the visitor’s centers for trail conditions before you go.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/hidden-gems\">\u003cem>Read more from The California Report Magazine’s ‘Hidden Gems’ series.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>It’s a narrow, bumpy drive through the trees to get to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park\u003c/a>, about 50 miles north of Eureka in Humboldt County. And when you do, there are warning signs to watch for aggressive 1,200-pound elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you can get past those obstacles, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">the 1-mile walk through the lush canyon\u003c/a> is relatively easy, especially in the summer — when rangers lay wooden boards across the creek that runs between the lush canyon walls, and you don’t have to get your feet wet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886275\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886275 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"Adults and kids walk across wet boards above a low creek amid lush green hills.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51147_IMG_2749-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the summer, park rangers lay down wooden boards so visitors can easily traverse the creek that runs through Fern Canyon. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fern Canyon is just inland from \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitredwoods.com/listing/gold-bluffs-beach-%26-campground/529/\">Gold Bluffs Beach in Orick\u003c/a>, named because early miners found flecks of gold in its sand. Once you’re in the canyon, though, it’s hard to believe you’re anywhere near a beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sound of the waves gives way to ephemeral waterfalls trickling down the mossy walls. As the light moves through, the canyon lights up in different shades of electric green — a moist habitat for salamanders and banana slugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886273 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of bright green fern fronds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51148_IMG_2753-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Five-finger ferns look like open palms hanging from the sheer cliff walls of Fern Canyon. Some species of ferns in the canyon date back 325 million years. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Millions of years ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitredwoods.com/listing/fern-canyon-in-prairie-creek-redwoods-sp/464/\">a retreating sea sculpted these sheer walls\u003c/a>. Species of ferns dating back 325 million years are still growing on the cliffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are sword ferns, with their spear-like tips; velvety five-finger ferns, like open palms; and the lady ferns (named, in the heyday of sexist botany, for their lacy feathery leaves and their spores, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/fern-lady-6-5-09.aspx\">which were supposed to look “like the eye of the ‘fairer sex'”\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the delicacy of these ferns belie their hearty resilience. Some of these species are older than the dinosaurs, and the vibe of this place \u003cem>is\u003c/em> positively prehistoric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in this cathedral of ferns, it’s easy to see why \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sc-trav-jurassic-park-fern-canyon-0822-story.html\">Steven Spielberg used this as one of the backdrops\u003c/a> for the filming of “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997), the sequel to the classic “Jurassic Park.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/uPQwNE4OsIE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/uPQwNE4OsIE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“It’s seriously like going to Jurassic Park. Pretty crazy,” said Cody McEachren, visiting Fern Canyon from Utah. “Ultimate greenery, in my opinion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like you’ve been transported to another world,” added his wife, Molly. “It is so magical, and so lush, and green. It totally refuels your spirit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I come from Montana, so to come from a place that’s known for it’s lush green, and then to come here and say, ‘I’ve never seen anything so beautiful’ — it says something,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886274\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 217px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A yellow triangular sign with black figures: an elk, flanked by a baby elk, rearing up at a human.\" width=\"217\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51146_IMG_2738-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs on the trail to Fern Canyon warn of aggressive Roosevelt elk, which can weigh 1,200 lbs. and behave aggressively toward human visitors. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The only drawback to Fern Canyon? It can be harder to get there in winter, when rain can flood the road and, sometimes, the canyon itself. The wooden planks rangers put down in the summer aren’t there for wintertime hikes, so water shoes are a must.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ferncanyon.htm\">If you’re planning to visit Fern Canyon\u003c/a>, be sure to call one of the visitor’s centers for trail conditions before you go.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-firefighters-keep-getting-injured-during-training-and-some-have-died",
"title": "California's Firefighters Keep Getting Injured While Training. Some Have Died",
"publishDate": 1632319232,
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"headTitle": "California’s Firefighters Keep Getting Injured While Training. Some Have Died | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Even as he lay dying on the side of a Southern California mountain — his lips blue, the color gone from his face — wildland firefighter Yaroslav Katkov wanted to push on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting to the top. We’re finishing,” his captain recalled Katkov saying after collapsing atop a ridge during a training hike in hot weather, according to state records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov’s speech was garbled. He tried to stand, but couldn’t find his footing. His body temperature was reaching dangerous levels. He was suffering from heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happened on that sun-soaked July day in 2019 is one thread in a larger story about firefighter training in an era of intensifying heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the past 18 months, more than 150 firefighters were sickened by heat exposure while working for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a quarter of heat-related incidents — the largest category — involve firefighters who fell ill during routine training exercises, Columbia Journalism Investigations, KPCC and LAist found. Like Katkov, nearly all of these firefighters worked part time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1390px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration of a red firefighter helmet and goggles above five blurry white dots, on a black background.\" width=\"1390\" height=\"935\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration.jpg 1390w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1390px) 100vw, 1390px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Interviews with current and former Cal Fire employees, medical personnel and wildland firefighting experts reveal multiple issues involving workplace safety during Cal Fire training activities. This is true especially for those who don’t work year-round, such as seasonal and incarcerated firefighters. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Alborz Kamalizad / Photography courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The incidents, documented in Cal Fire’s workplace-injury logs, were specifically classified as heat related and occurred between Jan. 1, 2020, and Aug. 3, 2021. CJI and LAist were unable to ascertain how typical the case numbers are. Cal Fire refused to say whether they were unusual or in line with annual totals for heat illnesses among workers over the past decade. The department declined to provide data that could put the numbers into a broader context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and LAist compiled less comprehensive data from internal Cal Fire reports on employee training injuries dating back to 2001, in addition to other state records. These documents show at least 14 other incidents that bear what some experts say are hallmarks of heat-related illness. In five of these incidents, the firefighters died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='right']Over the past 18 months, more than 150 firefighters were sickened by heat exposure while working for Cal Fire.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the firefighters succumbed to injuries not on the fire line in some remote California wilderness, but during required training. Many were decked out in full wildland gear — wearing long-sleeve jackets, pants and helmets while carrying heavy tools — and doing activities meant to simulate wildfire fighting — taking short hikes into the woods, for instance, or laying hoses up a mountainside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All but one of the deaths occurred in temperatures ranging from 70 to 87 degrees. Four of the victims were incarcerated, participating in a state program meant to bolster firefighting forces that dates back to WWII.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health experts and federal workplace regulators agree that heat-related illnesses and deaths are 100% preventable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interviews with current and former Cal Fire employees, medical personnel and wildland firefighting experts, a review of hundreds of pages of government records detailing firefighter injuries and deaths and an analysis of worker heat death cases reveal multiple issues involving workplace safety during Cal Fire training activities. This is true especially for those who don’t work year-round, such as seasonal and incarcerated firefighters. Combined, they make up about half of the agency’s nearly 10,000-strong firefighting force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov’s death was exceptional in just how many institutional failures occurred during his hike, records show. But many of the other cases of heat-related injuries and deaths indicate the same underlying problems — a punitive culture that can endanger firefighters’ health, a lackluster physical screening process and an ineffective plan for building up firefighters’ tolerance for heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889384 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration composed of nine black-and-white squares that include images of the Lippe Hike, overlaid with a red outline of the trail.\" width=\"1380\" height=\"920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration.jpg 1380w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov collapsed on his second lap of the 1.45 mile Lippe Hike in Fallbrook, California, a mountain town ringed by ranches just outside of Temecula. According to documents related to the hike, Katkov’s captain ignored signs from Katkov of potential illness. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Alborz Kamalizad / Photography courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Warning signs\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On the day of Katkov’s hike, Cal Fire officials later found that his captain, Joe Ekblad, had missed opportunities to act on several telltale signs of heat illness. Not until Katkov collapsed at the top of that ridge did Ekblad begin emergency procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The captain later explained he believed that they could cool Katkov down if they moved fast enough. They stripped off his jacket and drenched him in water. But it didn’t work. Katkov took several deep “gulpy breaths,” according to documents obtained from the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. Still, Ekblad delayed calling for emergency help because he thought Katkov “would snap back out of it,” the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Statement from Cal Fire\"]‘[Cal Fire] vigorously rejects the notion that a punitive culture exists in relation to the fitness, safety, or wellbeing of our workforce.’[/pullquote]Katkov died of hyperthermia at a hospital the next day. Cal Fire demoted Ekblad. The department found he had “failed to identify a crew member … in physical and/mental distress.” Ekblad didn’t respond to requests for comment. Records show he told investigators that Katkov was a willing participant in the exercises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire didn’t respond to several requests to interview the department’s head of safety. In a statement, it said it “vigorously rejects the notion that a punitive culture exists in relation to the fitness, safety, or wellbeing of our workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says it trains all its firefighters — seasonal, incarcerated or otherwise — on the dangers associated with wildland firefighting, “including methods to prevent, recognize and respond to symptoms of heat related illnesses.” It described its efforts to combat heat-related injuries and deaths as “a partnership” with individual firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each must do his/her part year-round to ensure that they are preparing for the upcoming fire season,” the department wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 28, 2019, Katkov embarked on a training exercise called the Lippe Hike, a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s Station 16 in Fallbrook, California, a mountain town ringed by ranches just outside of Temecula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gavin Bledsoe, one of the station’s other fire captains, later told Cal/OSHA investigators that “he had concerns with Joe pushing Yaro hard,” and that Ekblad had pushed other firefighters without giving them enough time for breaks in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889386\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889386 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view from Lippe Hike: several hills and a light cloudy sky.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lippe Hike winds through the hills just behind Cal Fire Station 16 in northern San Diego County. \u003ccite>(Jacob Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to documents related to Ekblad’s demotion, the hike that preceded Katkov’s death had never been timed before that morning, and Bledsoe believed the standard for finishing it was set “specifically with Yaro in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Joe has been pushing really hard to get Yaro to quit or up to his standards,” Bledsoe told Cal/OSHA investigators about the rookie firefighter who regularly hiked the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bledsoe didn’t respond to multiple phone calls and text messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889397\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 427px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889397 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A studio portrait of a man in a Cal Fire uniform smiling at the camera.\" width=\"427\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1.jpeg 427w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1-160x240.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav Katkov. Katkov died of hyperthermia at a hospital the day after embarking on a training exercise called the Lippe Hike. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A quarter-mile into the hike, seasonal firefighter Matthew Guerrero told investigators, Katkov was breathing heavily. At one point, as the hike wound from mountains alongside a road, Katkov was slow to move out of oncoming traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekblad wrote in his notebook, “Road Hazard – Cognitive Question.” This was an early sign of heat illness that Ekblad ignored, Cal Fire documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trio completed the hike in about 40 minutes — 10 minutes slower than the time Ekblad had set for the station that morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re gonna do it again. The first hike was unacceptable,” Ekblad said, according to the Cal/OSHA investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekblad later told the agency’s investigators that doing the hike twice wasn’t standard practice. Cal Fire concluded that it was “clearly unnecessary” given the signs of distress Katkov had exhibited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trio rested for 20 minutes, drank some water and set off to do the hike again. By then, the temperature had climbed to nearly 88 degrees — five degrees hotter than the 40-year average for the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the steep, often-shadeless path, Katkov told Ekblad he was exhausted — another symptom of heat illness that Ekblad should have recognized, Cal Fire documents said. Rather than seek emergency care, however, the captain encouraged both firefighters to press on, and they pushed up the hill. Guerrero helped steady Katkov’s balance, but Katkov stumbled and had to pause at least 20 times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atop the 650-foot ridge, Katkov fell forward and sat down. Ekblad told him to take off some of his wildland gear, and Guerrero tried to shade him with a jacket. They poured water on him, but his eyes rolled back. He eventually passed out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly an hour after starting the hike a second time, Ekblad called for help. Katkov began to shake uncontrollably. It took another hour for an air ambulance to get to the remote location and transport Katkov to Temecula Valley Hospital. He died the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA inspectors found that Cal Fire:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Hadn’t provided enough water or shade on the hike.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Failed to monitor Katkov for preexisting sensitivities to heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Didn’t prepare Katkov for the intensity of the job, as required under Cal Fire’s heat-illness prevention plan.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Didn’t initiate an emergency medical response until it was too late.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA fined the department $80,875 — almost five times the average Cal/OSHA fine of $17,000 for all types of cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A ‘toughness mentality’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ashley Vallario, Katkov’s longtime girlfriend, said she was shocked after reading the investigation. It was clear that Cal Fire hadn’t done everything it should have done to protect Katkov, she said. Its safeguards against workplace heat appear to have failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They told me that everything that could have been done was done, and that there was no waste of time,” Vallario said. “I believed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire didn’t respond to written questions about Katkov’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889399\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889399\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sign that reads, 'Cal Fire De Luz Station 16' next to a country road.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1696\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1536x1018.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-2048x1357.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1920x1272.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov worked at Cal Fire De Luz Station 16 located in the hills just outside of Temecula.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rank matters at Cal Fire. Impressing superiors can help a seasonal firefighter move on to a coveted full-time spot. But a tough paramilitary culture often pushes Cal Fire employees to their physical limits, even in hot temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, that culture has contributed to serious heat-related injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, for instance, a Cal Fire firefighter was at a “rehire” training session in Riverside, meant for seasonal employees about to rejoin their crews. He and the other trainees were forced to do “extra rigorous” exercises after someone had arrived late, according to a Cal/OSHA investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the group practiced a simulated fire attack, the firefighter complained about feeling ill and asked his supervisor if he could take off his jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instructor said no and told the firefighter to sit down in the sun, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11886628\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS50596_019_SanFrancisco_HeatWaveImpacts_08062021-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]About 10 minutes later, a colleague reported that the firefighter did “not look good.” His legs cramped, and he was gasping for breath — both symptoms of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighter was hospitalized for two days, and Cal/OSHA fined the department $18,560 for violating California’s heat standard by failing to allow the employee to take an adequate rest break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar case in 2017, another Cal Fire firefighter was working in full wildland gear while moving a hose for a training exercise, according to Cal/OSHA records. After a break, a new instructor took over another round of the activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighter later told Cal/OSHA that the work was more strenuous the second time, and that the instructor had “pushed the employee to do more.” The firefighter struggled to finish the task. He was so confused that he couldn’t answer questions, Cal/OSHA records show. An altered mental state is a red flag for heat illness, medical experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instructor mocked the firefighter and suggested he “go to Orange County since their training is easier,” the inspector wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As in the earlier case, the firefighter spent two days in the hospital. Cal Fire was fined another $2,430 for failing to educate employees about heat’s threats and not providing ready access to water and shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Robert Salgado, Former Cal/OSHA inspector and wildland firefighter\"]‘We don’t want the smartest guy … we just want a guy who can throw on a pack and hike hills.’[/pullquote]Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie, who leads several fire stations based in San Diego, including Katkov’s former station, said the department is working to root out the “toughness” mentality that has pervaded its ranks. Some heat-related incidents “have been an unfortunate wake-up call that maybe that culture needs to change,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that may be difficult. Robert Salgado, a former Cal/OSHA inspector and wildland firefighter, notes that Cal Fire’s do-or-die attitude is one of the “very deep-rooted cultural practices in the fire service” that is passed from department to department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want the smartest guy … we don’t want the most trained guy,” Salgado said. “We just want a guy who can throw on a pack and hike hills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire union president Tim Edwards of Local 2881 recalls a recent incident in which supervisors pushed firefighters in training activities beyond their limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll admit it, we had problems in San Diego in the last four months,” he said, explaining that one supervisor was warned about the way he was treating firefighters after a union member filed a complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supervisor was pushing firefighters to hike “when they weren’t feeling good,” Edwards said, “making them hike thinking if he pushed them a little bit further, it would help them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire, for its part, acknowledges that the department spoke with the supervisor but said he was not reprimanded. It describes the incident as an example of how the department and the union can work together to address potential health issues before they get worse.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Don’t blame the firefighters’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Another problem, insiders say, is that Cal Fire doesn’t have a physical fitness standard that makes clear what kind of shape seasonal and incarcerated firefighters must be in when they return to duty after months off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11836399\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/09/44642_transform-1.jpg\"]Without such a standard, firefighters may not realize they’re not fit enough until they’re on training hikes or in the field on hot days. At that point, it’s up to individual supervisors to say whether it’s a problem for any firefighter, and what that firefighter needs to do to improve. And that can make for trouble when those supervisors push their employees too hard, especially on hot days, to reach whatever level they deem correct, insiders say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards, of Cal Fire Local 2881, notes that the union has “been pushing for years to have a minimal physical fitness standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the union wants seasonal firefighters to have their fitness tested over a week, with intense physical exercise and step-by-step goals to measure their progress. If they fail to pass those tests, he said, they could be set on a remedial path or let go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards blames the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for issues involving incarcerated firefighters. He argues that Cal Fire has little control over these abilities when they arrive at fire camps, even though the 11 heat-related incidents involving incarcerated people identified by CJI and LAist occurred during official Cal Fire trainings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corrections Department said Cal Fire has always trained incarcerated firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, when a firefighter falls behind on fitness requirements, Cal Fire’s system leaves it up to individual stations to determine how that firefighter will move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889391\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889391 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A line of firefighters wearing bright orange uniforms and carrying equipment walk alongside a forest in front of a firefighter wearing a traditional yellow uniform.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Incarcerated firefighters on a training hike with Cal Fire. Incarcerated individuals make up a big chunk of California’s firefighters during wildfire season, but some firefighter union officials point out that incarcerated firefighters don’t receive enough physical training from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation before they join a crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When firefighters are assigned to a crew for the season, they are allotted an hour each day for personal training, and given access to wellness coordinators and workout gear. Supervisors are required to sign off on each firefighter’s monthly progress as part of a “Physical Fitness Documentation Log.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In more than half of heat-illness cases examined by CJI and LAist, the firefighters didn’t have a fitness plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with a Cal/OSHA investigator, some of Katkov’s former colleagues raised concerns about his physical fitness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Statement from Cal Fire\"]‘Just as a runner cannot expect to run a marathon without months of preparation, a firefighter cannot show up for the beginning of fire season … without preparing their body for the tasks ahead.’[/pullquote]But Cal/OSHA found that Ekblad had not created a fitness plan or any documentation to measure Katkov’s progress, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its statement, Cal Fire said it has no control over its firefighters’ “fitness efforts, caffeine intake, eating habits, water intake, sun exposure, alcohol consumption, or other factors that may impact their ability to perform their job functions” when they are off-duty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can take weeks or months for firefighters to safely build up their fitness, and experts say it’s not something that can be forced with strenuous exercise in a short period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just as a runner cannot expect to run a marathon without months of preparation, a firefighter cannot show up for the beginning of fire season … without preparing their body for the tasks ahead,” Cal Fire said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brent Ruby, a University of Montana professor who has studied the physical demands of wildland firefighting, said ad hoc training is not the ideal way to train because there’s “a tendency to try to push” new or young recruits. As these firefighters press on, he said, the strain on their body builds up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hike faster, they produce more heat,” Ruby said, “but the environment is still bearing down on them and pushing back on them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Thomas Ferguson, Consultant for Cal Fire\"]‘We’ve got to educate the supervisors to recognize that they need to pay attention to this.’[/pullquote]Dr. Thomas Ferguson, a consultant who says he reviews 8,000 medical files for Cal Fire each year, has seen how firefighters who are pushed too hard can get blamed for not meeting physical expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferguson told Cal/OSHA investigators that seasonal firefighters like Katkov are most vulnerable to heat illness. According to Cal/OSHA’s investigative file on Katkov’s death, Ferguson urged the department to adopt a fitness standard for seasonal and incarcerated firefighters partly for this reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t blame the firefighters,” he said in a recent interview. “We’ve got to educate the supervisors to recognize that they need to pay attention to this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889395\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889395\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two firefighters seem to be pulling a long hose through the forest.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters with Cal Fire San Diego practice a progressive hose lay during training. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Identifying the hidden risks\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Even before starting the job, Cal Fire’s health screening processes may miss conditions that could jeopardize firefighters’ lives, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seasonal and incarcerated firefighters get little more than a basic physical, which experts say doesn’t always screen for potentially problematic health conditions. That has had dire consequences on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2001, eight firefighters with underlying health problems have died during training — five of them likely from heat exposure, experts say. All of them were incarcerated except for Katkov. Four died from cardiovascular issues, such as heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While not all of those cases were directly tied to heat, researchers say high temperatures often play a hidden role in injuries and deaths, especially in workers who have underlying or preexisting health conditions, such as heart or kidney disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire said its screening policy requires “an annual medical evaluation for all applicants and employees who are required to be medically cleared.” Tests intended to check for preexisting conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and some cancers, are voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview with CJI and LAist, Ferguson said Cal Fire has a hard time keeping up with the basic screenings for thousands of seasonal and incarcerated firefighters each year. “It’s an operational issue for them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union’s Edwards goes further. “When the State of California is hiring a temporary employee, and this is just the sad truth of it, they’re not going to want to invest a whole lot of time and money,” he said. “We don’t agree with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not until age 40 that full-time Cal Fire employees are required to take heart and blood tests, according to the union. Seasonal firefighters are offered the opportunity, but it’s not mandatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heart issues, which could be caught by more extensive tests, are among the preexisting conditions exacerbated by heat. When a firefighter dies, heat can be overlooked as the primary factor, creating a pattern of uneven enforcement, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='right']It’s not until age 40 that full-time Cal Fire employees are required to take heart and blood tests.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2015, Raymond Araujo, a 37-year-old incarcerated man assigned to work in the Bautista Conservation Camp, set off on a training hike in Banning, California, about 30 miles from Palm Springs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cal/OSHA records, Araujo covered two miles of steep terrain. The temperature reached 81 degrees — 10 degrees hotter for the area for that time of year. He stumbled during the exercise. His colleagues tried to carry him to the finish but eventually he lost his vision and fell to his knees. About an hour after the hike began, paramedics declared him dead, according to the records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11889336\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS50579_002_SanFrancisco_HeatWaveImpacts_08062021-qut-1-1020x680.jpg\"]A Cal/OSHA investigation named heat as a contributing factor in Araujo’s death, but the Riverside County coroner determined the cause was “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” according to an autopsy report. Cal/OSHA’s medical unit, noting the preexisting condition, concluded that “it did not appear likely that a heat illness or other work-related illness or injury played any role in Araujo’s sudden death,” records show. The agency closed the case without issuing any citations for violating the state’s heat standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a Cal/OSHA inspector from 1994 to 2014, investigated more than 100 work sites for heat issues. He reviewed the Araujo case at our request and said it was impossible to know why the agency chose not to address the heat standard violations. Despite that decision, Brown said the incident resembled many heat cases he had handled, in which workers suffered heart or kidney failure because of hot temperatures, and likely should’ve been handled as possible heat standard violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal/OSHA spokesperson defended the agency’s handling of Araujo’s death. “Cal/OSHA Enforcement relied on the Medical Unit’s opinion,” the spokesperson, Frank Polizzi, wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferguson isn’t the only one who’s raised concerns about Cal Fire’s health-screening process. During the Cal/OSHA investigation into Katkov’s death, Tammy Stout, manager of the Cal Fire medical unit, was blunt in her assessment of the process, explaining that she had received medical clearance even though she believed she was physically incapable of doing a firefighter’s job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Captain Cesar Nerey put it simply. “You could get a better physical playing high school football than the one required by Cal Fire,” he told the Cal/OSHA investigator.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A gap in existing heat protections\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s another concerning factor in how Cal Fire brings new firefighters onto the job: a lack of a department-wide regimented acclimatization plan that would ease employees into the heat. Instead, as with fitness training, Cal Fire leaves it up to individual stations to craft their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11886402\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1773-1020x680.jpg\"]Here’s why that matters. Acclimatization — building up a tolerance for heat — is a crucial part of training firefighters to operate in extreme conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Easing firefighters into the work in hot temperatures is widely viewed as one of the best ways to prevent heat illnesses and deaths. It should happen during a new or newly returned firefighter’s two weeks of training, health experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly 25 years, since the death of a California firefighter from heat exposure while constructing a fire line in 1997, a federal agency has recommended the state follow specific protocols for acclimatization of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The protocols, from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), call for:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>New employees working in heat no more than 20% of their first shift, with a daily increase of the same percentage until fully acclimated.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Experienced firefighters returning from an extended break working in heat more than 50% of the first day, with a gradual increase over the course of a week.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire said that it is considering those recommendations, but it “may not be achievable in all situations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said following them “could cause issues in protecting the people and resources of California,” since firefighters often are thrust into emergency situations when a fire erupts and may come from areas across the state and be used to different climates. Cal Fire did not address non-emergency training scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1976705\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/MexicanCrew-Casimiro-1020x765.jpg\"]Some heat-related incidents have occurred early in a firefighter’s tenure and during training. Of all the incidents identified by CJI and LAist, records show at least 14 employees were sickened by heat at the Cal Fire training academy during their first weeks. Dozens more suffered from heat illnesses on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over a two-month period in the summer of 2014, three firefighters were hospitalized after they had trained in the heat. Two of these incidents occurred in the same week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA considers an acclimatization plan the pinnacle of heat awareness — indeed, it is one of the four pillars of heat safety in the state’s standard. Yet the agency leaves the details on how to acclimate employees up to individual employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Cal/OSHA said “the acclimatization period, when employees are introduced to high heat, is the most critical in terms of illness prevention.” The agency rarely cites employers for failing to acclimatize their employees, as compared to other heat-related violations, having done so only 68 times since 2015, as of July 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What can prevent a tragedy\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While heat continues to be an issue during Cal Fire training activities, a responsive supervisor can make the difference between life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year after Katkov’s death, yet another firefighter came close to dying on a training hike in Mariposa, 150 miles east of San José. The firefighter had suffered leg cramps and vomited on the same trail just two weeks earlier, according to Cal Fire documents. A physician cleared him for work, but people with prior injuries can be more susceptible to heat stress, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a hike in July 2020, the temperature reached 87 degrees. According to Cal Fire records, the captain, who said he’d been aware of the firefighter’s medical issues, watched his progress during the 60-minute exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the firefighter gasped for breath, the captain implored him to slow down. When his legs cramped, a colleague helped him down a hill. The captain called an ambulance, and the crew gave him oxygen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airlifted to a trauma center, the firefigher was treated for heat stroke and a heat-related condition known as rhabdomyolysis, which causes muscle tissue to break down and leak toxins into the blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889393\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 623px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5.jpeg\" alt=\"A smiling couple in formal dress sit together at a table at a party.\" width=\"623\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5.jpeg 623w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov with his longtime partner, Ashley Vallario. Vallario considered filing a lawsuit after Katkov’s death but later decided against it. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ashley Vallario, Yaroslav Katkov’s partner, who considered filing a lawsuit but decided against it, still can’t understand why Katkov wasn’t given the same level of care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov was selfless, she said, someone who would help others even to his detriment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in their relationship, Vallario remembers Katkov taking her on a date to pick up trash on the beach. Initially, that gave her pause, but she’s come to realize it was Katkov’s way of giving back. “It definitely made me, like, a better person,” Vallario said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Katkov’s death, she has pushed Cal Fire to demand more of its leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re supposed to have faith that those people would keep them safe,” she said. “It shows what kind of leadership that they’re willing to allow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Brian Edwards reported this story as a fellow for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York, along with Jacob Margolis, a science reporter at KPCC and LAist, and a member of The California Newsroom.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "California's Firefighters Keep Getting Injured While Training. Some Have Died | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Even as he lay dying on the side of a Southern California mountain — his lips blue, the color gone from his face — wildland firefighter Yaroslav Katkov wanted to push on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting to the top. We’re finishing,” his captain recalled Katkov saying after collapsing atop a ridge during a training hike in hot weather, according to state records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov’s speech was garbled. He tried to stand, but couldn’t find his footing. His body temperature was reaching dangerous levels. He was suffering from heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happened on that sun-soaked July day in 2019 is one thread in a larger story about firefighter training in an era of intensifying heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the past 18 months, more than 150 firefighters were sickened by heat exposure while working for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a quarter of heat-related incidents — the largest category — involve firefighters who fell ill during routine training exercises, Columbia Journalism Investigations, KPCC and LAist found. Like Katkov, nearly all of these firefighters worked part time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1390px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration of a red firefighter helmet and goggles above five blurry white dots, on a black background.\" width=\"1390\" height=\"935\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration.jpg 1390w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/firefighter-hat-illustration-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1390px) 100vw, 1390px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Interviews with current and former Cal Fire employees, medical personnel and wildland firefighting experts reveal multiple issues involving workplace safety during Cal Fire training activities. This is true especially for those who don’t work year-round, such as seasonal and incarcerated firefighters. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Alborz Kamalizad / Photography courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The incidents, documented in Cal Fire’s workplace-injury logs, were specifically classified as heat related and occurred between Jan. 1, 2020, and Aug. 3, 2021. CJI and LAist were unable to ascertain how typical the case numbers are. Cal Fire refused to say whether they were unusual or in line with annual totals for heat illnesses among workers over the past decade. The department declined to provide data that could put the numbers into a broader context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and LAist compiled less comprehensive data from internal Cal Fire reports on employee training injuries dating back to 2001, in addition to other state records. These documents show at least 14 other incidents that bear what some experts say are hallmarks of heat-related illness. In five of these incidents, the firefighters died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the firefighters succumbed to injuries not on the fire line in some remote California wilderness, but during required training. Many were decked out in full wildland gear — wearing long-sleeve jackets, pants and helmets while carrying heavy tools — and doing activities meant to simulate wildfire fighting — taking short hikes into the woods, for instance, or laying hoses up a mountainside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All but one of the deaths occurred in temperatures ranging from 70 to 87 degrees. Four of the victims were incarcerated, participating in a state program meant to bolster firefighting forces that dates back to WWII.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health experts and federal workplace regulators agree that heat-related illnesses and deaths are 100% preventable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interviews with current and former Cal Fire employees, medical personnel and wildland firefighting experts, a review of hundreds of pages of government records detailing firefighter injuries and deaths and an analysis of worker heat death cases reveal multiple issues involving workplace safety during Cal Fire training activities. This is true especially for those who don’t work year-round, such as seasonal and incarcerated firefighters. Combined, they make up about half of the agency’s nearly 10,000-strong firefighting force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov’s death was exceptional in just how many institutional failures occurred during his hike, records show. But many of the other cases of heat-related injuries and deaths indicate the same underlying problems — a punitive culture that can endanger firefighters’ health, a lackluster physical screening process and an ineffective plan for building up firefighters’ tolerance for heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889384 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration composed of nine black-and-white squares that include images of the Lippe Hike, overlaid with a red outline of the trail.\" width=\"1380\" height=\"920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration.jpg 1380w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Warning-signs-illustration-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov collapsed on his second lap of the 1.45 mile Lippe Hike in Fallbrook, California, a mountain town ringed by ranches just outside of Temecula. According to documents related to the hike, Katkov’s captain ignored signs from Katkov of potential illness. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Alborz Kamalizad / Photography courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Warning signs\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On the day of Katkov’s hike, Cal Fire officials later found that his captain, Joe Ekblad, had missed opportunities to act on several telltale signs of heat illness. Not until Katkov collapsed at the top of that ridge did Ekblad begin emergency procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The captain later explained he believed that they could cool Katkov down if they moved fast enough. They stripped off his jacket and drenched him in water. But it didn’t work. Katkov took several deep “gulpy breaths,” according to documents obtained from the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. Still, Ekblad delayed calling for emergency help because he thought Katkov “would snap back out of it,” the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Katkov died of hyperthermia at a hospital the next day. Cal Fire demoted Ekblad. The department found he had “failed to identify a crew member … in physical and/mental distress.” Ekblad didn’t respond to requests for comment. Records show he told investigators that Katkov was a willing participant in the exercises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire didn’t respond to several requests to interview the department’s head of safety. In a statement, it said it “vigorously rejects the notion that a punitive culture exists in relation to the fitness, safety, or wellbeing of our workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says it trains all its firefighters — seasonal, incarcerated or otherwise — on the dangers associated with wildland firefighting, “including methods to prevent, recognize and respond to symptoms of heat related illnesses.” It described its efforts to combat heat-related injuries and deaths as “a partnership” with individual firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each must do his/her part year-round to ensure that they are preparing for the upcoming fire season,” the department wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 28, 2019, Katkov embarked on a training exercise called the Lippe Hike, a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s Station 16 in Fallbrook, California, a mountain town ringed by ranches just outside of Temecula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gavin Bledsoe, one of the station’s other fire captains, later told Cal/OSHA investigators that “he had concerns with Joe pushing Yaro hard,” and that Ekblad had pushed other firefighters without giving them enough time for breaks in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889386\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889386 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view from Lippe Hike: several hills and a light cloudy sky.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Lippe-Hike-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lippe Hike winds through the hills just behind Cal Fire Station 16 in northern San Diego County. \u003ccite>(Jacob Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to documents related to Ekblad’s demotion, the hike that preceded Katkov’s death had never been timed before that morning, and Bledsoe believed the standard for finishing it was set “specifically with Yaro in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Joe has been pushing really hard to get Yaro to quit or up to his standards,” Bledsoe told Cal/OSHA investigators about the rookie firefighter who regularly hiked the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bledsoe didn’t respond to multiple phone calls and text messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889397\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 427px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889397 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A studio portrait of a man in a Cal Fire uniform smiling at the camera.\" width=\"427\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1.jpeg 427w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-1-160x240.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav Katkov. Katkov died of hyperthermia at a hospital the day after embarking on a training exercise called the Lippe Hike. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A quarter-mile into the hike, seasonal firefighter Matthew Guerrero told investigators, Katkov was breathing heavily. At one point, as the hike wound from mountains alongside a road, Katkov was slow to move out of oncoming traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekblad wrote in his notebook, “Road Hazard – Cognitive Question.” This was an early sign of heat illness that Ekblad ignored, Cal Fire documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trio completed the hike in about 40 minutes — 10 minutes slower than the time Ekblad had set for the station that morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re gonna do it again. The first hike was unacceptable,” Ekblad said, according to the Cal/OSHA investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekblad later told the agency’s investigators that doing the hike twice wasn’t standard practice. Cal Fire concluded that it was “clearly unnecessary” given the signs of distress Katkov had exhibited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trio rested for 20 minutes, drank some water and set off to do the hike again. By then, the temperature had climbed to nearly 88 degrees — five degrees hotter than the 40-year average for the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the steep, often-shadeless path, Katkov told Ekblad he was exhausted — another symptom of heat illness that Ekblad should have recognized, Cal Fire documents said. Rather than seek emergency care, however, the captain encouraged both firefighters to press on, and they pushed up the hill. Guerrero helped steady Katkov’s balance, but Katkov stumbled and had to pause at least 20 times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atop the 650-foot ridge, Katkov fell forward and sat down. Ekblad told him to take off some of his wildland gear, and Guerrero tried to shade him with a jacket. They poured water on him, but his eyes rolled back. He eventually passed out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly an hour after starting the hike a second time, Ekblad called for help. Katkov began to shake uncontrollably. It took another hour for an air ambulance to get to the remote location and transport Katkov to Temecula Valley Hospital. He died the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA inspectors found that Cal Fire:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Hadn’t provided enough water or shade on the hike.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Failed to monitor Katkov for preexisting sensitivities to heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Didn’t prepare Katkov for the intensity of the job, as required under Cal Fire’s heat-illness prevention plan.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Didn’t initiate an emergency medical response until it was too late.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA fined the department $80,875 — almost five times the average Cal/OSHA fine of $17,000 for all types of cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A ‘toughness mentality’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ashley Vallario, Katkov’s longtime girlfriend, said she was shocked after reading the investigation. It was clear that Cal Fire hadn’t done everything it should have done to protect Katkov, she said. Its safeguards against workplace heat appear to have failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They told me that everything that could have been done was done, and that there was no waste of time,” Vallario said. “I believed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire didn’t respond to written questions about Katkov’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889399\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889399\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sign that reads, 'Cal Fire De Luz Station 16' next to a country road.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1696\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1536x1018.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-2048x1357.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Cal-Fire-Station-Sign-1920x1272.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov worked at Cal Fire De Luz Station 16 located in the hills just outside of Temecula.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rank matters at Cal Fire. Impressing superiors can help a seasonal firefighter move on to a coveted full-time spot. But a tough paramilitary culture often pushes Cal Fire employees to their physical limits, even in hot temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, that culture has contributed to serious heat-related injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, for instance, a Cal Fire firefighter was at a “rehire” training session in Riverside, meant for seasonal employees about to rejoin their crews. He and the other trainees were forced to do “extra rigorous” exercises after someone had arrived late, according to a Cal/OSHA investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the group practiced a simulated fire attack, the firefighter complained about feeling ill and asked his supervisor if he could take off his jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instructor said no and told the firefighter to sit down in the sun, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>About 10 minutes later, a colleague reported that the firefighter did “not look good.” His legs cramped, and he was gasping for breath — both symptoms of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighter was hospitalized for two days, and Cal/OSHA fined the department $18,560 for violating California’s heat standard by failing to allow the employee to take an adequate rest break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar case in 2017, another Cal Fire firefighter was working in full wildland gear while moving a hose for a training exercise, according to Cal/OSHA records. After a break, a new instructor took over another round of the activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighter later told Cal/OSHA that the work was more strenuous the second time, and that the instructor had “pushed the employee to do more.” The firefighter struggled to finish the task. He was so confused that he couldn’t answer questions, Cal/OSHA records show. An altered mental state is a red flag for heat illness, medical experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instructor mocked the firefighter and suggested he “go to Orange County since their training is easier,” the inspector wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As in the earlier case, the firefighter spent two days in the hospital. Cal Fire was fined another $2,430 for failing to educate employees about heat’s threats and not providing ready access to water and shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We don’t want the smartest guy … we just want a guy who can throw on a pack and hike hills.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie, who leads several fire stations based in San Diego, including Katkov’s former station, said the department is working to root out the “toughness” mentality that has pervaded its ranks. Some heat-related incidents “have been an unfortunate wake-up call that maybe that culture needs to change,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that may be difficult. Robert Salgado, a former Cal/OSHA inspector and wildland firefighter, notes that Cal Fire’s do-or-die attitude is one of the “very deep-rooted cultural practices in the fire service” that is passed from department to department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want the smartest guy … we don’t want the most trained guy,” Salgado said. “We just want a guy who can throw on a pack and hike hills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire union president Tim Edwards of Local 2881 recalls a recent incident in which supervisors pushed firefighters in training activities beyond their limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll admit it, we had problems in San Diego in the last four months,” he said, explaining that one supervisor was warned about the way he was treating firefighters after a union member filed a complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supervisor was pushing firefighters to hike “when they weren’t feeling good,” Edwards said, “making them hike thinking if he pushed them a little bit further, it would help them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire, for its part, acknowledges that the department spoke with the supervisor but said he was not reprimanded. It describes the incident as an example of how the department and the union can work together to address potential health issues before they get worse.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Don’t blame the firefighters’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Another problem, insiders say, is that Cal Fire doesn’t have a physical fitness standard that makes clear what kind of shape seasonal and incarcerated firefighters must be in when they return to duty after months off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Without such a standard, firefighters may not realize they’re not fit enough until they’re on training hikes or in the field on hot days. At that point, it’s up to individual supervisors to say whether it’s a problem for any firefighter, and what that firefighter needs to do to improve. And that can make for trouble when those supervisors push their employees too hard, especially on hot days, to reach whatever level they deem correct, insiders say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards, of Cal Fire Local 2881, notes that the union has “been pushing for years to have a minimal physical fitness standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the union wants seasonal firefighters to have their fitness tested over a week, with intense physical exercise and step-by-step goals to measure their progress. If they fail to pass those tests, he said, they could be set on a remedial path or let go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards blames the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for issues involving incarcerated firefighters. He argues that Cal Fire has little control over these abilities when they arrive at fire camps, even though the 11 heat-related incidents involving incarcerated people identified by CJI and LAist occurred during official Cal Fire trainings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corrections Department said Cal Fire has always trained incarcerated firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, when a firefighter falls behind on fitness requirements, Cal Fire’s system leaves it up to individual stations to determine how that firefighter will move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889391\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889391 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A line of firefighters wearing bright orange uniforms and carrying equipment walk alongside a forest in front of a firefighter wearing a traditional yellow uniform.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Incarcerated-Hike-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Incarcerated firefighters on a training hike with Cal Fire. Incarcerated individuals make up a big chunk of California’s firefighters during wildfire season, but some firefighter union officials point out that incarcerated firefighters don’t receive enough physical training from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation before they join a crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When firefighters are assigned to a crew for the season, they are allotted an hour each day for personal training, and given access to wellness coordinators and workout gear. Supervisors are required to sign off on each firefighter’s monthly progress as part of a “Physical Fitness Documentation Log.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In more than half of heat-illness cases examined by CJI and LAist, the firefighters didn’t have a fitness plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with a Cal/OSHA investigator, some of Katkov’s former colleagues raised concerns about his physical fitness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Just as a runner cannot expect to run a marathon without months of preparation, a firefighter cannot show up for the beginning of fire season … without preparing their body for the tasks ahead.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Cal/OSHA found that Ekblad had not created a fitness plan or any documentation to measure Katkov’s progress, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its statement, Cal Fire said it has no control over its firefighters’ “fitness efforts, caffeine intake, eating habits, water intake, sun exposure, alcohol consumption, or other factors that may impact their ability to perform their job functions” when they are off-duty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can take weeks or months for firefighters to safely build up their fitness, and experts say it’s not something that can be forced with strenuous exercise in a short period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just as a runner cannot expect to run a marathon without months of preparation, a firefighter cannot show up for the beginning of fire season … without preparing their body for the tasks ahead,” Cal Fire said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brent Ruby, a University of Montana professor who has studied the physical demands of wildland firefighting, said ad hoc training is not the ideal way to train because there’s “a tendency to try to push” new or young recruits. As these firefighters press on, he said, the strain on their body builds up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hike faster, they produce more heat,” Ruby said, “but the environment is still bearing down on them and pushing back on them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We’ve got to educate the supervisors to recognize that they need to pay attention to this.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dr. Thomas Ferguson, a consultant who says he reviews 8,000 medical files for Cal Fire each year, has seen how firefighters who are pushed too hard can get blamed for not meeting physical expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferguson told Cal/OSHA investigators that seasonal firefighters like Katkov are most vulnerable to heat illness. According to Cal/OSHA’s investigative file on Katkov’s death, Ferguson urged the department to adopt a fitness standard for seasonal and incarcerated firefighters partly for this reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t blame the firefighters,” he said in a recent interview. “We’ve got to educate the supervisors to recognize that they need to pay attention to this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889395\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889395\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two firefighters seem to be pulling a long hose through the forest.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Progressive-Hoselay-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters with Cal Fire San Diego practice a progressive hose lay during training. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Identifying the hidden risks\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Even before starting the job, Cal Fire’s health screening processes may miss conditions that could jeopardize firefighters’ lives, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seasonal and incarcerated firefighters get little more than a basic physical, which experts say doesn’t always screen for potentially problematic health conditions. That has had dire consequences on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2001, eight firefighters with underlying health problems have died during training — five of them likely from heat exposure, experts say. All of them were incarcerated except for Katkov. Four died from cardiovascular issues, such as heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While not all of those cases were directly tied to heat, researchers say high temperatures often play a hidden role in injuries and deaths, especially in workers who have underlying or preexisting health conditions, such as heart or kidney disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire said its screening policy requires “an annual medical evaluation for all applicants and employees who are required to be medically cleared.” Tests intended to check for preexisting conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and some cancers, are voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview with CJI and LAist, Ferguson said Cal Fire has a hard time keeping up with the basic screenings for thousands of seasonal and incarcerated firefighters each year. “It’s an operational issue for them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union’s Edwards goes further. “When the State of California is hiring a temporary employee, and this is just the sad truth of it, they’re not going to want to invest a whole lot of time and money,” he said. “We don’t agree with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not until age 40 that full-time Cal Fire employees are required to take heart and blood tests, according to the union. Seasonal firefighters are offered the opportunity, but it’s not mandatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heart issues, which could be caught by more extensive tests, are among the preexisting conditions exacerbated by heat. When a firefighter dies, heat can be overlooked as the primary factor, creating a pattern of uneven enforcement, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2015, Raymond Araujo, a 37-year-old incarcerated man assigned to work in the Bautista Conservation Camp, set off on a training hike in Banning, California, about 30 miles from Palm Springs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cal/OSHA records, Araujo covered two miles of steep terrain. The temperature reached 81 degrees — 10 degrees hotter for the area for that time of year. He stumbled during the exercise. His colleagues tried to carry him to the finish but eventually he lost his vision and fell to his knees. About an hour after the hike began, paramedics declared him dead, according to the records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A Cal/OSHA investigation named heat as a contributing factor in Araujo’s death, but the Riverside County coroner determined the cause was “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” according to an autopsy report. Cal/OSHA’s medical unit, noting the preexisting condition, concluded that “it did not appear likely that a heat illness or other work-related illness or injury played any role in Araujo’s sudden death,” records show. The agency closed the case without issuing any citations for violating the state’s heat standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a Cal/OSHA inspector from 1994 to 2014, investigated more than 100 work sites for heat issues. He reviewed the Araujo case at our request and said it was impossible to know why the agency chose not to address the heat standard violations. Despite that decision, Brown said the incident resembled many heat cases he had handled, in which workers suffered heart or kidney failure because of hot temperatures, and likely should’ve been handled as possible heat standard violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal/OSHA spokesperson defended the agency’s handling of Araujo’s death. “Cal/OSHA Enforcement relied on the Medical Unit’s opinion,” the spokesperson, Frank Polizzi, wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferguson isn’t the only one who’s raised concerns about Cal Fire’s health-screening process. During the Cal/OSHA investigation into Katkov’s death, Tammy Stout, manager of the Cal Fire medical unit, was blunt in her assessment of the process, explaining that she had received medical clearance even though she believed she was physically incapable of doing a firefighter’s job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Captain Cesar Nerey put it simply. “You could get a better physical playing high school football than the one required by Cal Fire,” he told the Cal/OSHA investigator.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A gap in existing heat protections\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s another concerning factor in how Cal Fire brings new firefighters onto the job: a lack of a department-wide regimented acclimatization plan that would ease employees into the heat. Instead, as with fitness training, Cal Fire leaves it up to individual stations to craft their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Here’s why that matters. Acclimatization — building up a tolerance for heat — is a crucial part of training firefighters to operate in extreme conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Easing firefighters into the work in hot temperatures is widely viewed as one of the best ways to prevent heat illnesses and deaths. It should happen during a new or newly returned firefighter’s two weeks of training, health experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly 25 years, since the death of a California firefighter from heat exposure while constructing a fire line in 1997, a federal agency has recommended the state follow specific protocols for acclimatization of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The protocols, from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), call for:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>New employees working in heat no more than 20% of their first shift, with a daily increase of the same percentage until fully acclimated.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Experienced firefighters returning from an extended break working in heat more than 50% of the first day, with a gradual increase over the course of a week.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire said that it is considering those recommendations, but it “may not be achievable in all situations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said following them “could cause issues in protecting the people and resources of California,” since firefighters often are thrust into emergency situations when a fire erupts and may come from areas across the state and be used to different climates. Cal Fire did not address non-emergency training scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some heat-related incidents have occurred early in a firefighter’s tenure and during training. Of all the incidents identified by CJI and LAist, records show at least 14 employees were sickened by heat at the Cal Fire training academy during their first weeks. Dozens more suffered from heat illnesses on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over a two-month period in the summer of 2014, three firefighters were hospitalized after they had trained in the heat. Two of these incidents occurred in the same week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA considers an acclimatization plan the pinnacle of heat awareness — indeed, it is one of the four pillars of heat safety in the state’s standard. Yet the agency leaves the details on how to acclimate employees up to individual employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Cal/OSHA said “the acclimatization period, when employees are introduced to high heat, is the most critical in terms of illness prevention.” The agency rarely cites employers for failing to acclimatize their employees, as compared to other heat-related violations, having done so only 68 times since 2015, as of July 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What can prevent a tragedy\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While heat continues to be an issue during Cal Fire training activities, a responsive supervisor can make the difference between life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year after Katkov’s death, yet another firefighter came close to dying on a training hike in Mariposa, 150 miles east of San José. The firefighter had suffered leg cramps and vomited on the same trail just two weeks earlier, according to Cal Fire documents. A physician cleared him for work, but people with prior injuries can be more susceptible to heat stress, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a hike in July 2020, the temperature reached 87 degrees. According to Cal Fire records, the captain, who said he’d been aware of the firefighter’s medical issues, watched his progress during the 60-minute exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the firefighter gasped for breath, the captain implored him to slow down. When his legs cramped, a colleague helped him down a hill. The captain called an ambulance, and the crew gave him oxygen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airlifted to a trauma center, the firefigher was treated for heat stroke and a heat-related condition known as rhabdomyolysis, which causes muscle tissue to break down and leak toxins into the blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889393\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 623px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5.jpeg\" alt=\"A smiling couple in formal dress sit together at a table at a party.\" width=\"623\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5.jpeg 623w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Yaro-5-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav Katkov with his longtime partner, Ashley Vallario. Vallario considered filing a lawsuit after Katkov’s death but later decided against it. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ashley Vallario, Yaroslav Katkov’s partner, who considered filing a lawsuit but decided against it, still can’t understand why Katkov wasn’t given the same level of care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katkov was selfless, she said, someone who would help others even to his detriment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in their relationship, Vallario remembers Katkov taking her on a date to pick up trash on the beach. Initially, that gave her pause, but she’s come to realize it was Katkov’s way of giving back. “It definitely made me, like, a better person,” Vallario said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Katkov’s death, she has pushed Cal Fire to demand more of its leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re supposed to have faith that those people would keep them safe,” she said. “It shows what kind of leadership that they’re willing to allow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Brian Edwards reported this story as a fellow for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York, along with Jacob Margolis, a science reporter at KPCC and LAist, and a member of The California Newsroom.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11889315\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png\" alt=\"Cartoon: a cross section of a giant sequoia labeled to show when the tree sprouted, when fire suppression began, when the automobile was mass-produced, when CO2 levels climbed and when the tree died in a wildfire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1306\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-800x544.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-1020x694.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-160x109.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-1536x1045.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/fioregiantsequoias\">10,000 giant sequoias were killed in last year’s Castle Fire\u003c/a>. Now scientists and firefighters are working to save the remaining trees as the KNP Complex Fire spreads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a last-ditch effort to save some of the majestic trees in Sequoia National Park, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889177/aluminum-blankets-are-protecting-giant-sequoias-from-wildfires\">firefighters are wrapping the base of huge trunks in protective foil blankets\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though it looks like recent efforts to protect the ancient trees may be working, climate change and the ongoing risk of extreme wildfire don’t bode well for these giants, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/sequoia-research.htm\">some of which have been standing here for over 3,000 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11889315\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png\" alt=\"Cartoon: a cross section of a giant sequoia labeled to show when the tree sprouted, when fire suppression began, when the automobile was mass-produced, when CO2 levels climbed and when the tree died in a wildfire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1306\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-800x544.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-1020x694.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-160x109.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/sequoia_092121_final-1536x1045.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/fioregiantsequoias\">10,000 giant sequoias were killed in last year’s Castle Fire\u003c/a>. Now scientists and firefighters are working to save the remaining trees as the KNP Complex Fire spreads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a last-ditch effort to save some of the majestic trees in Sequoia National Park, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889177/aluminum-blankets-are-protecting-giant-sequoias-from-wildfires\">firefighters are wrapping the base of huge trunks in protective foil blankets\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though it looks like recent efforts to protect the ancient trees may be working, climate change and the ongoing risk of extreme wildfire don’t bode well for these giants, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/sequoia-research.htm\">some of which have been standing here for over 3,000 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On a hill in Oakland, Igor Lacan looks out from under his Stetson hat at the neighborhood below and begins listing trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maples to birches to plums to liquid amber,” says Lacan, horticulture adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension. “A cedar. I see some palms, and then you’ve got a monkey puzzle up here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In between the trees is a crisscrossing web of power lines, delivering electricity to the houses below. Lacan works as an adviser for California utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric, and he says while most of the trees seem to be flourishing, that’s not true for some nearby acacias. He points upward to a spiral of dead bark hanging off an acacia branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can see the wood underneath, which in this case you can, that’s typically a sign that that part of the tree is dead, which is why we didn’t stand under that branch,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/matteo-garbelotto\">researchers at the University of California, Berkeley\u003c/a>, opportunistic \u003ca href=\"https://www.suddenoakdeath.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Garbelotto.summary.AcaciaStudy.03.30.21.pdf\">fungi \u003c/a>are killing these trees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">California’s climate change-fueled drought\u003c/a>, which has persisted for the better part of two decades, has stressed the trees and made them vulnerable to parasites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lacan says of the local acacias, “We have never seen the sort of mass mortality that we’re seeing now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change has stoked a host of threats to trees, not just in California but across the country. Extreme storms, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20455-y\">droughts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/drought-and-climate-change-shift-tree-disease-sierra-nevada\">disease\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/technology/pdfs/MpbWestbb_Summary.pdf\">insects\u003c/a> are stressing and killing trees, and these trees pose a growing threat of wildfires, and a threat to grid reliability, many large utilities say. The Dixie Fire in Northern California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/\">which has already burned more than 950,000 acres\u003c/a>, likely was sparked by a tree falling onto a power line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to more than a dozen of the country’s largest utilities, branches and trees falling on power lines are a leading source of power outages. Some utilities say that because of factors related to climate change, trees are dying faster than they can reach them on their normal trimming cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outages caused by falling vegetation go beyond inconvenience for customers, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/0,9535,7-395-93218_93291-506867--,00.html\">Tremaine Phillips\u003c/a>, commissioner on the Michigan Public Service Commission. “We know that there are individuals who rely on medical equipment, and that equipment requires electricity. We know that there are families who have medications that need to be kept refrigerated,” he says. “So these impacts are real and, for certain families, very acute and potentially dire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889274 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85.jpg\" alt=\"On the left is a photo of a dead acacia tree with an eye-shaped hole. On the right, a hand touches the branches of a dying acacia tree.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-800x298.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-1020x379.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-160x60.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-1536x571.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley say that a fungus is killing this acacia tree (left). The eye-shaped hole is a canker, a sign of the fungus’s presence. Lacan shows the yellowed phyllodes (right) of a dying acacia. Climate change-fueled drought weakened the trees and made them vulnerable to parasites. \u003ccite>(Julia Simon/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Climate change make trees more likely to fall\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cals.cornell.edu/nina-lauren-bassuk\">Nina Bassuk\u003c/a>, professor of urban horticulture at Cornell University, explains that climate change can kill tree cells through a confluence of stressors. “It’s not like an animal, which dies when you pierce the heart — trees die cell by cell,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shorter and warmer winters can allow insects and diseases to proliferate, she says. Fluctuating temperatures, heat waves and drought can disrupt growth or health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So if you have a bunch of cells that are dead, a branch, for instance, … will be more apt to fall,\u003cem>“\u003c/em> she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias left 1.2 million Connecticut residents without power for a week in the middle of a summer heat wave. The state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority recently fined the state’s largest utility, Eversource, the maximum $28.5 million for failing to prepare and respond to that storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diego Cerrai is assistant professor of engineering at the University of Connecticut, and he’s been working with Eversource to study why the outages occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That storm created many more outages than what was expected by anyone,” says Cerrai, who manages the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eversource.uconn.edu/\">Eversource Energy Center\u003c/a>. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.eversource.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/PSR_Hurricane_Isaias_final.pdf\">We started investigating why\u003c/a>. And one of the reasons was that there was a severe drought over the past two years in this area of the United States, and trees were weaker and more likely to fail.\u003cem>” \u003c/em>(Tree “failure” is industry speak for when trees or branches fall.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connecticut’s drought, severe storms and winds have weakened trees’ defenses, says Sean Redding, vegetation manager for Eversource Connecticut. That makes trees vulnerable to insects such as gypsy moths, the emerald ash borer and the hemlock woolly adelgid, and diseases such as root rot. Now those dead trees and their branches are falling on power lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have that amount of trees succumbing to these bugs and resulting in mortality, you have a large impact to customers,” Redding says. “Because of the cumulative effect of climate change, insect infestation and disease on our forests here in Connecticut, more trees came down, resulting in more outages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding says these days when it comes to dead trees, “there are more of them than we can manage in a timely manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889235 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/img_1770_custom-4407b08858894a9caf002d4a6f291bbfa27dcc55-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a wide-brimmed hat points to a hole on an acacia trunk.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1918\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Igor Lacan points to an eye-shaped hole in the acacia trunk. “Sort of a wound that doesn’t heal,” he says. “That’s a good indication there’s something going on.” \u003ccite>(Julia Simon/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>More ‘hazard trees’ are falling onto power lines\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Trees don’t need to be ravaged by insects, fungi or drought to feel the effects of climate change. Unusually intense storms can be enough to topple trees, especially with high winds and heavily saturated soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several storms in quick succession have crashed through Michigan this summer, including \u003ca href=\"https://wdet.org/posts/2021/07/07/91168-detroiters-still-sorting-through-aftermath-of-flood/\">severe floods\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2021/07/25/suspected-tornado-leaves-path-devastation-armada-rallies-community/8085959002/\">tornadoes\u003c/a>. Some storms packed winds of 75 mph, according to the National Weather Service, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php\">slightly more than the minimum wind speed for a Category 1 hurricane\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late June and July, around 740,000 customers of the state’s largest utility, DTE Energy, lost power in a series of storms. Then, in August, at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/08/20/whitmer-michigan-utilities-power-outages-compensation/8214068002/\">500,000 DTE customers lost power\u003c/a>, some for as long as a week. When he went out in the Detroit suburbs after one of the summer storms, Jamie Kryscynski, DTE’s tree trim manager, saw large trees “completely sheared apart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oaks, they’re very strong trees, like they’re one of the strongest trees out there. And we had oaks that just snapped,” he says. “The point is … we had a lot more very large tree impacts compared to what I’d say an average large storm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan is seeing increased rainfall intensity, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/david_macfarlane\">David MacFarlane\u003c/a>, professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry. Some areas of the state now can get a month’s worth of rain in half a day. In the summer when trees are covered with leaves, the leaves sop up that extra water. “When you get heavier rains all at once, it softens the soil and also creates extra weight on the crowns of the trees,” MacFarlane says. “So it makes them more susceptible to being uprooted and pulled over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In vegetation management, there’s the concept of the “right of way” — the area around lines that transmit electricity to people’s houses. A patchwork of national and state regulations require utilities to trim around these lines, says Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eei.org/pages/default.aspx\">Edison Electric Institute\u003c/a>, the largest trade group for investor-owned electric utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as more trees and branches topple due to climate-related stresses, trees that might not have been technically in utilities’ jurisdiction now pose a danger to utility infrastructure. Utilities call them “hazard trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you might have a right of way, but maybe just a couple of feet beyond that you might have a 150-foot tree that is being impacted by drought or by a bug infestation,” Aaronson says. “And so it’s a constant battle to not just keep up with the right of way but to also identify those hazard trees outside of the right of way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Arizona, a 20-year-drought and an infestation of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/coconino/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprdb5351278\">bark beetles\u003c/a> are all leading to a mass mortality of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/brca/learn/nature/ponderosapine.htm\">ponderosa pines\u003c/a>, a tree that can grow to 200 feet. Because these dead pines are so tall, it falls on the utility to manage them, says Andrew Rable, manager of forestry, fire and resource management of Arizona Public Service Co., or APS, the state’s largest utility. “If they do fail,” he says, “they do have the ability to impact or strike our equipment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>APS is one of several large utilities that has created a new vegetation management cycle to remove dead and dying trees at risk of toppling. Rable describes it as “an entire program that addresses trees that will fail prior to us getting there during our routine maintenance schedule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889236\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1487px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889236 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/exhibitj_custom-c9c36454627776ebddc083de00bd6ce7e2d41450.jpg\" alt=\"A fir tree lying atop, and weighing down, power lines.\" width=\"1487\" height=\"987\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This fir tree lies on a power line in an area near the start of the Dixie Fire in California. PG&E says the costs of maintaining trees near power lines are part of the reason it is moving to bury 10,000 miles of new power lines at a cost of at least $15 billion. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Utilities are rethinking putting lines underground\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Vegetation management isn’t cheap. DTE Energy is another utility on an “enhanced” tree trimming cycle, meaning cutting trees farther away from the power lines and wires. It spent $150 million on clearing trees from power lines last year alone. This month the company’s CEO announced \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/09/01/dte-michigan-tree-trimming/5680124001/\">another $70 million for tree trimming\u003c/a> in light of this summer’s outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some utilities, the high costs of maintaining trees have them turning underground. In July, PG&E announced plans to bury 10,000 miles of electricity lines, a process the utility projects will cost at least $15 billion. The utility declined to specify a timetable for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s after PG&E cut down about 564,000 hazard trees suffering from drought or bark beetle infestation from 2014 to 2020. PG&E told NPR in an email that undergrounding lines will “ease the need for vegetation management efforts” and that the utility will “over time, transition more and more to undergrounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Putting power lines underground was long considered prohibitively expensive but not anymore. In July, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/wildfires/wildfires-staff-investigations\">PG&E told state regulators in a preliminary report on the Dixie Fire\u003c/a>, the largest fire burning now in the U.S. and second largest fire in California history, that \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kqed.org/news/11881837/why-it-took-pge-9-5-hours-to-get-to-the-scene-where-dixie-fire-started__;!!Iwwt!B7vZUHv41EFeyp8xZmUsztgj8subNWSknf8PPd6umJiPIdyTgi9Q-kxumT4%24\">an employee discovered the fire near a tree that had fallen onto live power lines\u003c/a>. The increasing costs of vegetation management of above-ground lines as well as the legal liabilities that come with fires and outages mean undergrounding looks more and more attractive, says Aaronson of the Edison Electric Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something that is evolving, the cost benefit analysis of ‘Do we underground?’ or ‘Do we more aggressively maintain above-ground overhead lines?’ is kind of constantly changing,” Aaronson says. PG&E says that, ultimately, costs of maintaining above-ground lines are now on par with undergrounding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889231 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The top of a utility pole and power lines, with trees trimmed back from around them.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A patchwork of national and state regulations requires utilities to trim around their power lines. More than a dozen of the country’s largest utilities told NPR that falling trees and branches represent a leading cause of outages. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Utilities help fuel the climate change now affecting them\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Daniel Tait of the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog group, says it’s important to remember the context for why utilities are now having to adapt vegetation management programs to the changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Utilities are now seeing the impacts of climate change, but the big thing is that utilities have fueled climate change for decades,” he says, pointing out that \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php\">60% of U.S. electricity comes from fossil fuels\u003c/a>, whose emissions heat up the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tait says some of the same utilities grappling with tree mortality related to climate change still invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure. DTE Energy, for example, is currently building a new natural gas plant. “They share culpability for the fact that trees are dying,” Tait says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DTE Energy says in an email that the \u003ca href=\"https://empoweringmichigan.com/bluewater/\">new gas plant \u003c/a>has about 70% less carbon emissions than the coal plants it’s replacing and that it will “bring on more renewables.” \u003ca href=\"https://newlook.dteenergy.com/wps/wcm/connect/dte-web/home/community-and-news/common/environment/fuel-mix\">DTE Energy produces more than two-thirds of its electricity from coal and gas.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As climate change leads to more tree mortality and more blackouts, horticulturalists such as Lacan say the solution isn’t to plant fewer trees. It’s to plant different trees that can better endure drought and a hotter climate — plus shorter trees, he adds. “There are a number of short tree species that work quite well under those distribution lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking out at the Oakland hills, Lacan says planting trees is a long-term decision. “What you see here before you is a result of someone’s decision 50 years ago,” he says. “So I think we should be planting more trees and the right trees, the trees that are more able to withstand some of these stresses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+Change+Is+Killing+Trees+And+Causing+Power+Outages&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Fungi, parasites, root rot: Climate change is increasing the risk of trees weakening and dying. Falling trees have increased power outages nationwide, threatening public health and safety.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a hill in Oakland, Igor Lacan looks out from under his Stetson hat at the neighborhood below and begins listing trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maples to birches to plums to liquid amber,” says Lacan, horticulture adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension. “A cedar. I see some palms, and then you’ve got a monkey puzzle up here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In between the trees is a crisscrossing web of power lines, delivering electricity to the houses below. Lacan works as an adviser for California utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric, and he says while most of the trees seem to be flourishing, that’s not true for some nearby acacias. He points upward to a spiral of dead bark hanging off an acacia branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can see the wood underneath, which in this case you can, that’s typically a sign that that part of the tree is dead, which is why we didn’t stand under that branch,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/matteo-garbelotto\">researchers at the University of California, Berkeley\u003c/a>, opportunistic \u003ca href=\"https://www.suddenoakdeath.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Garbelotto.summary.AcaciaStudy.03.30.21.pdf\">fungi \u003c/a>are killing these trees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">California’s climate change-fueled drought\u003c/a>, which has persisted for the better part of two decades, has stressed the trees and made them vulnerable to parasites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lacan says of the local acacias, “We have never seen the sort of mass mortality that we’re seeing now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change has stoked a host of threats to trees, not just in California but across the country. Extreme storms, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20455-y\">droughts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/drought-and-climate-change-shift-tree-disease-sierra-nevada\">disease\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/technology/pdfs/MpbWestbb_Summary.pdf\">insects\u003c/a> are stressing and killing trees, and these trees pose a growing threat of wildfires, and a threat to grid reliability, many large utilities say. The Dixie Fire in Northern California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/\">which has already burned more than 950,000 acres\u003c/a>, likely was sparked by a tree falling onto a power line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to more than a dozen of the country’s largest utilities, branches and trees falling on power lines are a leading source of power outages. Some utilities say that because of factors related to climate change, trees are dying faster than they can reach them on their normal trimming cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outages caused by falling vegetation go beyond inconvenience for customers, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/0,9535,7-395-93218_93291-506867--,00.html\">Tremaine Phillips\u003c/a>, commissioner on the Michigan Public Service Commission. “We know that there are individuals who rely on medical equipment, and that equipment requires electricity. We know that there are families who have medications that need to be kept refrigerated,” he says. “So these impacts are real and, for certain families, very acute and potentially dire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889274 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85.jpg\" alt=\"On the left is a photo of a dead acacia tree with an eye-shaped hole. On the right, a hand touches the branches of a dying acacia tree.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-800x298.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-1020x379.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-160x60.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/dip2_custom-8160679c53597d4944a5a4a9fe798ce028c39553-s1600-c85-1536x571.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley say that a fungus is killing this acacia tree (left). The eye-shaped hole is a canker, a sign of the fungus’s presence. Lacan shows the yellowed phyllodes (right) of a dying acacia. Climate change-fueled drought weakened the trees and made them vulnerable to parasites. \u003ccite>(Julia Simon/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Climate change make trees more likely to fall\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cals.cornell.edu/nina-lauren-bassuk\">Nina Bassuk\u003c/a>, professor of urban horticulture at Cornell University, explains that climate change can kill tree cells through a confluence of stressors. “It’s not like an animal, which dies when you pierce the heart — trees die cell by cell,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shorter and warmer winters can allow insects and diseases to proliferate, she says. Fluctuating temperatures, heat waves and drought can disrupt growth or health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So if you have a bunch of cells that are dead, a branch, for instance, … will be more apt to fall,\u003cem>“\u003c/em> she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias left 1.2 million Connecticut residents without power for a week in the middle of a summer heat wave. The state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority recently fined the state’s largest utility, Eversource, the maximum $28.5 million for failing to prepare and respond to that storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diego Cerrai is assistant professor of engineering at the University of Connecticut, and he’s been working with Eversource to study why the outages occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That storm created many more outages than what was expected by anyone,” says Cerrai, who manages the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eversource.uconn.edu/\">Eversource Energy Center\u003c/a>. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.eversource.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/PSR_Hurricane_Isaias_final.pdf\">We started investigating why\u003c/a>. And one of the reasons was that there was a severe drought over the past two years in this area of the United States, and trees were weaker and more likely to fail.\u003cem>” \u003c/em>(Tree “failure” is industry speak for when trees or branches fall.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connecticut’s drought, severe storms and winds have weakened trees’ defenses, says Sean Redding, vegetation manager for Eversource Connecticut. That makes trees vulnerable to insects such as gypsy moths, the emerald ash borer and the hemlock woolly adelgid, and diseases such as root rot. Now those dead trees and their branches are falling on power lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have that amount of trees succumbing to these bugs and resulting in mortality, you have a large impact to customers,” Redding says. “Because of the cumulative effect of climate change, insect infestation and disease on our forests here in Connecticut, more trees came down, resulting in more outages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding says these days when it comes to dead trees, “there are more of them than we can manage in a timely manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889235 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/img_1770_custom-4407b08858894a9caf002d4a6f291bbfa27dcc55-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a wide-brimmed hat points to a hole on an acacia trunk.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1918\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Igor Lacan points to an eye-shaped hole in the acacia trunk. “Sort of a wound that doesn’t heal,” he says. “That’s a good indication there’s something going on.” \u003ccite>(Julia Simon/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>More ‘hazard trees’ are falling onto power lines\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Trees don’t need to be ravaged by insects, fungi or drought to feel the effects of climate change. Unusually intense storms can be enough to topple trees, especially with high winds and heavily saturated soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several storms in quick succession have crashed through Michigan this summer, including \u003ca href=\"https://wdet.org/posts/2021/07/07/91168-detroiters-still-sorting-through-aftermath-of-flood/\">severe floods\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2021/07/25/suspected-tornado-leaves-path-devastation-armada-rallies-community/8085959002/\">tornadoes\u003c/a>. Some storms packed winds of 75 mph, according to the National Weather Service, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php\">slightly more than the minimum wind speed for a Category 1 hurricane\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late June and July, around 740,000 customers of the state’s largest utility, DTE Energy, lost power in a series of storms. Then, in August, at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/08/20/whitmer-michigan-utilities-power-outages-compensation/8214068002/\">500,000 DTE customers lost power\u003c/a>, some for as long as a week. When he went out in the Detroit suburbs after one of the summer storms, Jamie Kryscynski, DTE’s tree trim manager, saw large trees “completely sheared apart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oaks, they’re very strong trees, like they’re one of the strongest trees out there. And we had oaks that just snapped,” he says. “The point is … we had a lot more very large tree impacts compared to what I’d say an average large storm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan is seeing increased rainfall intensity, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/david_macfarlane\">David MacFarlane\u003c/a>, professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry. Some areas of the state now can get a month’s worth of rain in half a day. In the summer when trees are covered with leaves, the leaves sop up that extra water. “When you get heavier rains all at once, it softens the soil and also creates extra weight on the crowns of the trees,” MacFarlane says. “So it makes them more susceptible to being uprooted and pulled over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In vegetation management, there’s the concept of the “right of way” — the area around lines that transmit electricity to people’s houses. A patchwork of national and state regulations require utilities to trim around these lines, says Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eei.org/pages/default.aspx\">Edison Electric Institute\u003c/a>, the largest trade group for investor-owned electric utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as more trees and branches topple due to climate-related stresses, trees that might not have been technically in utilities’ jurisdiction now pose a danger to utility infrastructure. Utilities call them “hazard trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you might have a right of way, but maybe just a couple of feet beyond that you might have a 150-foot tree that is being impacted by drought or by a bug infestation,” Aaronson says. “And so it’s a constant battle to not just keep up with the right of way but to also identify those hazard trees outside of the right of way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Arizona, a 20-year-drought and an infestation of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/coconino/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprdb5351278\">bark beetles\u003c/a> are all leading to a mass mortality of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/brca/learn/nature/ponderosapine.htm\">ponderosa pines\u003c/a>, a tree that can grow to 200 feet. Because these dead pines are so tall, it falls on the utility to manage them, says Andrew Rable, manager of forestry, fire and resource management of Arizona Public Service Co., or APS, the state’s largest utility. “If they do fail,” he says, “they do have the ability to impact or strike our equipment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>APS is one of several large utilities that has created a new vegetation management cycle to remove dead and dying trees at risk of toppling. Rable describes it as “an entire program that addresses trees that will fail prior to us getting there during our routine maintenance schedule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889236\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1487px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889236 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/exhibitj_custom-c9c36454627776ebddc083de00bd6ce7e2d41450.jpg\" alt=\"A fir tree lying atop, and weighing down, power lines.\" width=\"1487\" height=\"987\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This fir tree lies on a power line in an area near the start of the Dixie Fire in California. PG&E says the costs of maintaining trees near power lines are part of the reason it is moving to bury 10,000 miles of new power lines at a cost of at least $15 billion. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Utilities are rethinking putting lines underground\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Vegetation management isn’t cheap. DTE Energy is another utility on an “enhanced” tree trimming cycle, meaning cutting trees farther away from the power lines and wires. It spent $150 million on clearing trees from power lines last year alone. This month the company’s CEO announced \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/09/01/dte-michigan-tree-trimming/5680124001/\">another $70 million for tree trimming\u003c/a> in light of this summer’s outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some utilities, the high costs of maintaining trees have them turning underground. In July, PG&E announced plans to bury 10,000 miles of electricity lines, a process the utility projects will cost at least $15 billion. The utility declined to specify a timetable for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s after PG&E cut down about 564,000 hazard trees suffering from drought or bark beetle infestation from 2014 to 2020. PG&E told NPR in an email that undergrounding lines will “ease the need for vegetation management efforts” and that the utility will “over time, transition more and more to undergrounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Putting power lines underground was long considered prohibitively expensive but not anymore. In July, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/wildfires/wildfires-staff-investigations\">PG&E told state regulators in a preliminary report on the Dixie Fire\u003c/a>, the largest fire burning now in the U.S. and second largest fire in California history, that \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kqed.org/news/11881837/why-it-took-pge-9-5-hours-to-get-to-the-scene-where-dixie-fire-started__;!!Iwwt!B7vZUHv41EFeyp8xZmUsztgj8subNWSknf8PPd6umJiPIdyTgi9Q-kxumT4%24\">an employee discovered the fire near a tree that had fallen onto live power lines\u003c/a>. The increasing costs of vegetation management of above-ground lines as well as the legal liabilities that come with fires and outages mean undergrounding looks more and more attractive, says Aaronson of the Edison Electric Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something that is evolving, the cost benefit analysis of ‘Do we underground?’ or ‘Do we more aggressively maintain above-ground overhead lines?’ is kind of constantly changing,” Aaronson says. PG&E says that, ultimately, costs of maintaining above-ground lines are now on par with undergrounding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889231 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The top of a utility pole and power lines, with trees trimmed back from around them.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/0b6a9623_custom-ec2164bbbee0603aa485cfc1e2e4eb086e95e7e2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A patchwork of national and state regulations requires utilities to trim around their power lines. More than a dozen of the country’s largest utilities told NPR that falling trees and branches represent a leading cause of outages. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Utilities help fuel the climate change now affecting them\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Daniel Tait of the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog group, says it’s important to remember the context for why utilities are now having to adapt vegetation management programs to the changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Utilities are now seeing the impacts of climate change, but the big thing is that utilities have fueled climate change for decades,” he says, pointing out that \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php\">60% of U.S. electricity comes from fossil fuels\u003c/a>, whose emissions heat up the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tait says some of the same utilities grappling with tree mortality related to climate change still invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure. DTE Energy, for example, is currently building a new natural gas plant. “They share culpability for the fact that trees are dying,” Tait says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DTE Energy says in an email that the \u003ca href=\"https://empoweringmichigan.com/bluewater/\">new gas plant \u003c/a>has about 70% less carbon emissions than the coal plants it’s replacing and that it will “bring on more renewables.” \u003ca href=\"https://newlook.dteenergy.com/wps/wcm/connect/dte-web/home/community-and-news/common/environment/fuel-mix\">DTE Energy produces more than two-thirds of its electricity from coal and gas.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As climate change leads to more tree mortality and more blackouts, horticulturalists such as Lacan say the solution isn’t to plant fewer trees. It’s to plant different trees that can better endure drought and a hotter climate — plus shorter trees, he adds. “There are a number of short tree species that work quite well under those distribution lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking out at the Oakland hills, Lacan says planting trees is a long-term decision. “What you see here before you is a result of someone’s decision 50 years ago,” he says. “So I think we should be planting more trees and the right trees, the trees that are more able to withstand some of these stresses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+Change+Is+Killing+Trees+And+Causing+Power+Outages&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "aluminum-blankets-are-protecting-giant-sequoias-from-wildfires",
"title": "Aluminum Blankets Are Protecting Giant Sequoias From Wildfires",
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"headTitle": "Aluminum Blankets Are Protecting Giant Sequoias From Wildfires | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/sherman.htm\">world’s largest tree recently got a blanket\u003c/a> to help protect it from a raging wildfire. Photos of the sequoia named General Sherman — with a base measuring a massive 36 feet in diameter — set off a flurry of interest in why and how a blanket might work against flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/posts/4503348089685873\">KNP Complex Fire has now burned 23,743 acres and is 0% contained\u003c/a>, the park said in an update Monday morning. The fire has grown by thousands of acres in each recent day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General Sherman looms over the north end of Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. Firefighters and park officials have been on alert in recent days, as the KNP Complex Fire has neared the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intent on saving General Sherman and other high-priority trees, firefighters wrapped sequoias in aluminum-based blankets, sheathing the trees’ foot-thick bark with a synthetic material to help them survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are signs that the strategy works: The famous Four Guardsmen, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/us-news-fires-environment-and-nature-forests-california-cf666a6f3e55c1414ace0e27dee89a52\">sequoias that stand at the edge of the forest, were saved over the weekend\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwdith]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Blankets have already been used to protect houses\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/1594285614235749\">The sequoias are “wrapped with house-wrapping material\u003c/a>, kind of an aluminum-foil fabric that goes around the base of the trees,” firefighter Jon Wallace, who is the operations section chief for the KNP Complex Fire, said on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/knp-complex-fire-map-sequoia-update/11027956/\">Firefighters are using the blankets “to prevent embers from getting into the tree through old fire scars,”\u003c/a> Christy M. Brigham, chief of resources management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, told ABC station KGO-TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.firelab.org/project/condition-live-fire-scarred-ponderosa-pine-twenty-one-years-after-removing-partial-cross\">Fire scars, or “catfaces,” pose a particular threat\u003c/a>, as they can give an opening to a new fire to attack one of the giant trees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/928499251344638\">As crews mop up spot fires, they’re also taking care to douse any fire scars on sequoias\u003c/a>, Wallace said Monday morning, providing an update on the effort. For high-priority trees, blankets were used to help cover those scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire blankets have been used for a long time to protect structures,” Brigham said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We basically told the fire crews to treat all our special sequoias like they were buildings and wrap them all up, and rake all the litter away and roll away the heavy logs,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/sequoias-wrapped-knp-complex-fire-trnd/index.html\">Brigham told CNN\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It’s not all about the aluminum\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The shiny fire blankets have attracted a lot of attention, but they’re not the only tool firefighters are using to protect the ancient sequoias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Work crews have also been moving duff — decaying organic matter on the forest floor — away from the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want that duff catching on fire and smoldering long term at the base of those trees,” Wallace said, adding that it could “start cooking the roots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s really what’s going to hurt them,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extraordinary steps are being taken to protect the trees, Wallace added, because of the intense dry conditions in the forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with those measures, firefighting crews have been digging fire lines and conducting protective burns in some areas near trees, lodges and other structures in the park. Aircraft have also been able to fly over the area, dropping to help limit or put out flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/1898422660331986\">Sprinklers were also used “pretty much nonstop”\u003c/a> to protect the museum and other buildings near General Sherman, Wallace said on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Access has also been key. In the area of the Giant Forest, firefighters were able to use walking paths to combat the nearing blaze. And with large trees falling across highways, timber cutters have been sent to clear roads and maintain vital access for firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889194 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1235346676-scaled-e1632180076266.jpg\" alt=\"A sign completely wrapped in what looks like aluminum foil, beyond an informational sign, beneath smoky skies.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sequoia National Park historic entrance sign, wrapped in fire-resistant foil, stands along Generals Highway during a media tour of the KNP Complex Fire near Three Rivers, California, on Sept. 18, 2021. Firefighters battling to protect the world’s biggest tree said they are optimistic it can be saved. Crews are battling the fire, comprised of the spreading Paradise and Colony Fires, which have consumed 11,400 acres of forest since they were sparked by lightning a week ago. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Decades of controlled burns are now helping sequoias\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“The fortunate thing is, the Park Service has done a lot of prescribed burning in there since the 1960s,” Wallace said as he described the firefighters’ task of protecting the Giant Forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it’s making their job a lot easier,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When flames ran through the brush and up a slope toward the forest, Wallace added, their height dropped from fearsome heights to a much more manageable two or three feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Teams from \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SequoiaKingsNPS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SequoiaKingsNPS\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sequoiaforest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sequoiaforest\u003c/a> and others are rapidly identifying the sequoia groves surrounded by overgrown forests. They hope to use prescribed burns and other tools to make them more fire-resistant. But to move quickly, huge challenges remain. 5/ \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/OAYAM3eqIY\">pic.twitter.com/OAYAM3eqIY\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Lauren Sommer (@lesommer) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesommer/status/1438918925748609030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 17, 2021\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Sequoias can live for thousands of years — some of the specimens in the 68 groves along the Sierra Nevada’s western flank have been alive for more than 3,200 years. These trees have lived through fires before, but officials are concerned by recent wildfires’ frequency and intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Castle Fire in 2020 killed up to 14% of the large sequoias in the Sierra Nevada area, totaling up to 10,600 of the trees, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preliminary-estimates-of-sequoia-mortality-in-the-2020-castle-fire.htm\">early estimates\u003c/a>. That accounts for about a third of the total area of their groves in the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are now working to identify which sequoia groves are overdue for a controlled burn and are most vulnerable to wildfires, through a project called the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/news/giant-sequoia-lands-coalition-formed-to-protect-iconic-trees-from-threats-of-climate-change-and-catastrophic-wildfire.htm\">The group’s members\u003c/a> range from federal agencies to the University of California and the Tule River Indian Tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sequoias are “pioneer” trees that rely on fire to reproduce\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.150.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27588\">Giant sequoia trees “need the unpredictable heat of fire to reproduce,”\u003c/a> according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before they can grow to heights of 300 feet or more, the department says, sequoia seeds must be released from cones — a process aided by fires, which dry and crack them open. Flames also help in other ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire loosens the soil, allowing seeds to fall into the mineral-rich earth and gather moisture that was previously drawn by larger plants,” the department says. In the process, fires also give sequoia seedlings a chance to establish themselves by clearing out duff and growth on the forest floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for about 100 years — from the late 1800s through the late 1900s — fire became a rarity in sequoia forests, after European colonizers forcibly removed Native American peoples, who originated the practice of controlled burns in these areas. That triggered \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/giant-sequoias-and-fire.htm\">“a massive failure of giant sequoia reproduction,”\u003c/a> the National Park Service said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giant sequoias are a pioneer species — they are among the first to take root after a disturbance occurs,” according to the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Here%27s+Why+Firefighters+Are+Wrapping+Sequoia+Trees+In+Aluminum+Blankets&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The sequoias are \"wrapped with house-wrapping material, kind of an aluminum-foil fabric that goes around the base of the trees,\" says Jon Wallace, who is helping to lead the firefighting effort.",
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"title": "Aluminum Blankets Are Protecting Giant Sequoias From Wildfires | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/sherman.htm\">world’s largest tree recently got a blanket\u003c/a> to help protect it from a raging wildfire. Photos of the sequoia named General Sherman — with a base measuring a massive 36 feet in diameter — set off a flurry of interest in why and how a blanket might work against flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/posts/4503348089685873\">KNP Complex Fire has now burned 23,743 acres and is 0% contained\u003c/a>, the park said in an update Monday morning. The fire has grown by thousands of acres in each recent day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General Sherman looms over the north end of Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. Firefighters and park officials have been on alert in recent days, as the KNP Complex Fire has neared the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intent on saving General Sherman and other high-priority trees, firefighters wrapped sequoias in aluminum-based blankets, sheathing the trees’ foot-thick bark with a synthetic material to help them survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are signs that the strategy works: The famous Four Guardsmen, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/us-news-fires-environment-and-nature-forests-california-cf666a6f3e55c1414ace0e27dee89a52\">sequoias that stand at the edge of the forest, were saved over the weekend\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Blankets have already been used to protect houses\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/1594285614235749\">The sequoias are “wrapped with house-wrapping material\u003c/a>, kind of an aluminum-foil fabric that goes around the base of the trees,” firefighter Jon Wallace, who is the operations section chief for the KNP Complex Fire, said on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/knp-complex-fire-map-sequoia-update/11027956/\">Firefighters are using the blankets “to prevent embers from getting into the tree through old fire scars,”\u003c/a> Christy M. Brigham, chief of resources management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, told ABC station KGO-TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.firelab.org/project/condition-live-fire-scarred-ponderosa-pine-twenty-one-years-after-removing-partial-cross\">Fire scars, or “catfaces,” pose a particular threat\u003c/a>, as they can give an opening to a new fire to attack one of the giant trees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/928499251344638\">As crews mop up spot fires, they’re also taking care to douse any fire scars on sequoias\u003c/a>, Wallace said Monday morning, providing an update on the effort. For high-priority trees, blankets were used to help cover those scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire blankets have been used for a long time to protect structures,” Brigham said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We basically told the fire crews to treat all our special sequoias like they were buildings and wrap them all up, and rake all the litter away and roll away the heavy logs,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/sequoias-wrapped-knp-complex-fire-trnd/index.html\">Brigham told CNN\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It’s not all about the aluminum\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The shiny fire blankets have attracted a lot of attention, but they’re not the only tool firefighters are using to protect the ancient sequoias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Work crews have also been moving duff — decaying organic matter on the forest floor — away from the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want that duff catching on fire and smoldering long term at the base of those trees,” Wallace said, adding that it could “start cooking the roots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s really what’s going to hurt them,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extraordinary steps are being taken to protect the trees, Wallace added, because of the intense dry conditions in the forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with those measures, firefighting crews have been digging fire lines and conducting protective burns in some areas near trees, lodges and other structures in the park. Aircraft have also been able to fly over the area, dropping to help limit or put out flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/videos/1898422660331986\">Sprinklers were also used “pretty much nonstop”\u003c/a> to protect the museum and other buildings near General Sherman, Wallace said on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Access has also been key. In the area of the Giant Forest, firefighters were able to use walking paths to combat the nearing blaze. And with large trees falling across highways, timber cutters have been sent to clear roads and maintain vital access for firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889194 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1235346676-scaled-e1632180076266.jpg\" alt=\"A sign completely wrapped in what looks like aluminum foil, beyond an informational sign, beneath smoky skies.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sequoia National Park historic entrance sign, wrapped in fire-resistant foil, stands along Generals Highway during a media tour of the KNP Complex Fire near Three Rivers, California, on Sept. 18, 2021. Firefighters battling to protect the world’s biggest tree said they are optimistic it can be saved. Crews are battling the fire, comprised of the spreading Paradise and Colony Fires, which have consumed 11,400 acres of forest since they were sparked by lightning a week ago. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Decades of controlled burns are now helping sequoias\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“The fortunate thing is, the Park Service has done a lot of prescribed burning in there since the 1960s,” Wallace said as he described the firefighters’ task of protecting the Giant Forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it’s making their job a lot easier,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When flames ran through the brush and up a slope toward the forest, Wallace added, their height dropped from fearsome heights to a much more manageable two or three feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Teams from \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SequoiaKingsNPS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SequoiaKingsNPS\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sequoiaforest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sequoiaforest\u003c/a> and others are rapidly identifying the sequoia groves surrounded by overgrown forests. They hope to use prescribed burns and other tools to make them more fire-resistant. But to move quickly, huge challenges remain. 5/ \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/OAYAM3eqIY\">pic.twitter.com/OAYAM3eqIY\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Lauren Sommer (@lesommer) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesommer/status/1438918925748609030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 17, 2021\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Sequoias can live for thousands of years — some of the specimens in the 68 groves along the Sierra Nevada’s western flank have been alive for more than 3,200 years. These trees have lived through fires before, but officials are concerned by recent wildfires’ frequency and intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Castle Fire in 2020 killed up to 14% of the large sequoias in the Sierra Nevada area, totaling up to 10,600 of the trees, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preliminary-estimates-of-sequoia-mortality-in-the-2020-castle-fire.htm\">early estimates\u003c/a>. That accounts for about a third of the total area of their groves in the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are now working to identify which sequoia groves are overdue for a controlled burn and are most vulnerable to wildfires, through a project called the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/news/giant-sequoia-lands-coalition-formed-to-protect-iconic-trees-from-threats-of-climate-change-and-catastrophic-wildfire.htm\">The group’s members\u003c/a> range from federal agencies to the University of California and the Tule River Indian Tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sequoias are “pioneer” trees that rely on fire to reproduce\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.150.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27588\">Giant sequoia trees “need the unpredictable heat of fire to reproduce,”\u003c/a> according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before they can grow to heights of 300 feet or more, the department says, sequoia seeds must be released from cones — a process aided by fires, which dry and crack them open. Flames also help in other ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire loosens the soil, allowing seeds to fall into the mineral-rich earth and gather moisture that was previously drawn by larger plants,” the department says. In the process, fires also give sequoia seedlings a chance to establish themselves by clearing out duff and growth on the forest floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for about 100 years — from the late 1800s through the late 1900s — fire became a rarity in sequoia forests, after European colonizers forcibly removed Native American peoples, who originated the practice of controlled burns in these areas. That triggered \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/giant-sequoias-and-fire.htm\">“a massive failure of giant sequoia reproduction,”\u003c/a> the National Park Service said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giant sequoias are a pioneer species — they are among the first to take root after a disturbance occurs,” according to the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Here%27s+Why+Firefighters+Are+Wrapping+Sequoia+Trees+In+Aluminum+Blankets&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-single-fire-killed-thousands-of-sequoias-scientists-are-racing-to-save-the-rest",
"title": "A Single Fire Killed Thousands of Sequoias. Scientists Are Racing to Save the Rest",
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"headTitle": "A Single Fire Killed Thousands of Sequoias. Scientists Are Racing to Save the Rest | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>On a hot afternoon in California’s Sequoia National Park, Alexis Bernal squints up at the top of a 200-foot-tall tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is what we would call a real giant sequoia monarch,” she says. “It’s massive.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Alexis Bernal, UC Berkeley fire science researcher\"]‘It’s hard to see these trees that have lived hundreds to potentially thousands of years just die because it’s just not a normal thing for them.’[/pullquote]At 40 feet in diameter, the tree easily meets the definition of a monarch, the name given to the largest sequoias. It’s likely more than 1,500 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, that’s as old as this tree will get. The trunk is pitch black, the char reaching almost all the way to the top. Not a single green branch is visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s 100% dead,” Bernal says. “There’s no living foliage on it at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorched carcasses of eight other giants surround this one in the Alder Creek Grove. A fire science research assistant at UC Berkeley, Bernal is here with a team cataloguing the destruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not easy to kill a giant sequoia. They can live more than 3,000 years and withstand repeated wildfires and droughts over the centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with humans changing both the climate and the landscape surrounding the trees, these giants face dangers they might not survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Castle Fire burned through the Sierra Nevada, fueled by hot, dry conditions and overgrown forests. Based on early estimates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preliminary-estimates-of-sequoia-mortality-in-the-2020-castle-fire.htm\">as many as 10,600 large sequoias were killed\u003c/a> — up to 14% of the entire population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889064 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg\" alt=\"Two very tall trees, forested caps and reddish trunks towering high above the trees around them, on a sunny day.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"865\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Living more than 3,000 years, giant sequoias normally survive dozens of low-grade wildfires in their lifetimes by towering over the rest of the forest. But these barely escaped the Castle Fire in 2020. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is unprecedented to see so many of these large old-growth trees dead, and I think it’s a travesty,” says Scott Stephens, fire scientist at UC Berkeley, as he surveys the damage. “This is pure disaster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extreme fires increasing on a hotter planet, scientists are urgently trying to save the sequoias that remain. Researchers from federal agencies and universities are teaming up to find the sequoia groves at highest risk. The hope is to make them more fire-resistant by reducing the dense, overgrown vegetation around them before the next wildfire hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, one year later, the sequoia groves again are under threat. At the time of publication, wildfires burning in Sequoia National Park were within a mile of a grove with thousands of sequoias. Firefighters are battling to contain the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to see these trees that have lived hundreds to potentially thousands of years just die,” Bernal says, “because it’s just not a normal thing for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sequoias need fire, but fires are changing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Giant sequoias only grow in isolated pockets, tucked in the mountains of California. Losing even a few groves spells significant loss to the entire population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sequoias are one of the most fire-adapted trees on the planet. With tough, foot-thick bark, they’re insulated from the heat. They tower above the rest of the forest, and the bottom of the tree trunk is bare, without low branches that might be ignited by trees burning around it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Old-growth sequoias weathered the low-intensity wildfires that were once the norm in the Sierra Nevada. Fires regularly spread along the forest floor, either ignited by lightning or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along\">set by Native American tribes who used burns\u003c/a> to shape the landscape and cultivate food and materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the arrival of white colonizers, fire began to disappear from these forests. Tribes were forcibly removed from lands they once maintained, and federal firefighting agencies mounted a campaign of fire suppression, extinguishing blazes as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant forests grew denser over the last century. Now, the built-up vegetation has become a tinder box, fueling hotter, more extreme fires, like the Castle Fire, that kill vast swaths of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These trees have been here 1,500 years, so how many fires have they withstood? Eighty?” Stephens says. “And then one fire comes in 2020 and suddenly they’re gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-20-at-1.11.08-PM-e1632169044591.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11889149\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-20-at-1.11.08-PM-e1632169044591.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1323\">\u003c/a>The Castle Fire’s fierce heat was also fueled by the changing climate. In 2012, when a drought hit California, hotter temperatures amplified the toll it took on Sierra Nevada forests. While the largest sequoias could handle it, other kinds of conifers around them succumbed. \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/massive-forest-die-sierra-nevada-caused-multiyear-drought\">Millions of trees were killed.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"climate-change\"]“The extra warmth that came with the drought pushed it into a whole new terrain,” says Nate Stephenson, an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “That’s what really helped kill a lot of trees, and they became fuel for fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his four decades of studying the trees, Stephenson had rarely seen an old-growth sequoia die. When the first images emerged after the Castle Fire hit, he wasn’t prepared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I couldn’t help it,” he says. “I don’t cry often, but I cried when I saw the photos. Because I love these trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Few seedlings sprout from the ash\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A year later, the soil is still powdery black in the Alder Creek sequoia grove. The UC Berkeley team is scanning it for signs of hope: any spot of green.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Two tiny sequoias here growing from the regeneration from the fire,” Stephens says, finding 2-inch-tall seedlings, impossibly tiny compared to what they could become.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The life cycle of a sequoia hinges on wildfire, which is the trigger for releasing its seeds. The blast of heat opens the cones, sending a shower of seeds to the forest floor, which get established quickly on the newly cleared ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some groves, researchers are finding hundreds of seedlings where the Castle Fire burned with low intensity, more like the kind of fire sequoias are accustomed to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the Alder Creek Grove, where the fire burned with ferocious heat, the team only finds a dozen seedlings the entire afternoon. Other groves look similarly bare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even under normal conditions, around 98% of sequoia seedlings die in their first year. This year could be even tougher, with extreme drought gripping the landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am very concerned that some areas will not have sequoias,” says Christy Brigham, head of resources management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. “All the adults are killed and there will not be enough seedlings to repopulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889070\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889070 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg\" alt=\"Three people look up at the charred remains of a forest, one pointing skyward.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers, including Scott Stephens (left), hope to identify which sequoia groves are most at risk from extreme fires, with the goal of making them more fire-resistant. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s leading land managers to consider planting new sequoias, so the scorched groves don’t disappear entirely. But in a changing climate, it’s not a simple question. As temperatures rise, young trees planted today face surviving in a vastly different future. The most suitable habitat for sequoias could move somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is one of the gifts of giant sequoias … that they force us to think in deep time,” says Brigham. “It forces us to confront the challenge of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rush to save remaining sequoias\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Federal land managers say that given the millennia-length time frame, planting new sequoias is a back-up plan at this point. The more pressing need is saving the trees that are left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/gslc.htm\">Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition\u003c/a>, a partnership of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, universities, local Native American tribes and nonprofits, is identifying the groves most at risk and this summer has been rapidly assessing conditions on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just saw what one wildfire did,” Brigham says. “Can we find the places, do the plans, and get the funding and put the people on the ground fast enough to prevent loss like this in the future?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigham estimates around 40% of the sequoia groves on national park land alone are at risk of severe wildfires, because the surrounding forests haven’t burned in decades. Other groves at risk are found on Forest Service or private land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889073 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg\" alt=\"A bright green seedling pops through the brown forest floor.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"865\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In some sequoia groves, few seedlings are being found in the aftermath of the Castle Fire. Those that have sprouted face surviving a summer of extreme drought. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sequoia National Park has used controlled burns, also known as prescribed fire, since the 1960s to prevent forests from becoming overgrown. But Brigham says burning continues to be a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, when cooler conditions are better for controlled burns, projects are limited because of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/05/15/2020-09153/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-endangered-species-status-for-southern-sierra-nevada\">threatened pacific fisher\u003c/a>. The slender, mink-like animal was listed as endangered in 2020, and its habitat is protected during the spring denning season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But burning in the summer can be tough because of air quality concerns, extremely dry vegetation or lack of personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are all these constraints on prescribed fire that we can’t control,” Brigham says. “As it gets hotter and drier, that window is smaller and smaller.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigham says she’s hopeful that land managers can move quickly over the next year to prioritize the sequoia groves that need help the most. With extreme fires becoming increasingly common, time is running short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not too late,” says Brigham. “We can do better. People love these trees. So I just hope we can take that love and translate it into immediate action to protect the groves and long-term action to limit climate change and its impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Single+Fire+Killed+Thousands+Of+Sequoias.+Scientists+Are+Racing+To+Save+The+Rest&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a hot afternoon in California’s Sequoia National Park, Alexis Bernal squints up at the top of a 200-foot-tall tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is what we would call a real giant sequoia monarch,” she says. “It’s massive.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At 40 feet in diameter, the tree easily meets the definition of a monarch, the name given to the largest sequoias. It’s likely more than 1,500 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, that’s as old as this tree will get. The trunk is pitch black, the char reaching almost all the way to the top. Not a single green branch is visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s 100% dead,” Bernal says. “There’s no living foliage on it at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorched carcasses of eight other giants surround this one in the Alder Creek Grove. A fire science research assistant at UC Berkeley, Bernal is here with a team cataloguing the destruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not easy to kill a giant sequoia. They can live more than 3,000 years and withstand repeated wildfires and droughts over the centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with humans changing both the climate and the landscape surrounding the trees, these giants face dangers they might not survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Castle Fire burned through the Sierra Nevada, fueled by hot, dry conditions and overgrown forests. Based on early estimates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preliminary-estimates-of-sequoia-mortality-in-the-2020-castle-fire.htm\">as many as 10,600 large sequoias were killed\u003c/a> — up to 14% of the entire population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889064 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg\" alt=\"Two very tall trees, forested caps and reddish trunks towering high above the trees around them, on a sunny day.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"865\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-3-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Living more than 3,000 years, giant sequoias normally survive dozens of low-grade wildfires in their lifetimes by towering over the rest of the forest. But these barely escaped the Castle Fire in 2020. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is unprecedented to see so many of these large old-growth trees dead, and I think it’s a travesty,” says Scott Stephens, fire scientist at UC Berkeley, as he surveys the damage. “This is pure disaster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extreme fires increasing on a hotter planet, scientists are urgently trying to save the sequoias that remain. Researchers from federal agencies and universities are teaming up to find the sequoia groves at highest risk. The hope is to make them more fire-resistant by reducing the dense, overgrown vegetation around them before the next wildfire hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, one year later, the sequoia groves again are under threat. At the time of publication, wildfires burning in Sequoia National Park were within a mile of a grove with thousands of sequoias. Firefighters are battling to contain the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to see these trees that have lived hundreds to potentially thousands of years just die,” Bernal says, “because it’s just not a normal thing for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sequoias need fire, but fires are changing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Giant sequoias only grow in isolated pockets, tucked in the mountains of California. Losing even a few groves spells significant loss to the entire population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sequoias are one of the most fire-adapted trees on the planet. With tough, foot-thick bark, they’re insulated from the heat. They tower above the rest of the forest, and the bottom of the tree trunk is bare, without low branches that might be ignited by trees burning around it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Old-growth sequoias weathered the low-intensity wildfires that were once the norm in the Sierra Nevada. Fires regularly spread along the forest floor, either ignited by lightning or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along\">set by Native American tribes who used burns\u003c/a> to shape the landscape and cultivate food and materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the arrival of white colonizers, fire began to disappear from these forests. Tribes were forcibly removed from lands they once maintained, and federal firefighting agencies mounted a campaign of fire suppression, extinguishing blazes as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant forests grew denser over the last century. Now, the built-up vegetation has become a tinder box, fueling hotter, more extreme fires, like the Castle Fire, that kill vast swaths of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These trees have been here 1,500 years, so how many fires have they withstood? Eighty?” Stephens says. “And then one fire comes in 2020 and suddenly they’re gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-20-at-1.11.08-PM-e1632169044591.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11889149\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-20-at-1.11.08-PM-e1632169044591.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1323\">\u003c/a>The Castle Fire’s fierce heat was also fueled by the changing climate. In 2012, when a drought hit California, hotter temperatures amplified the toll it took on Sierra Nevada forests. While the largest sequoias could handle it, other kinds of conifers around them succumbed. \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/massive-forest-die-sierra-nevada-caused-multiyear-drought\">Millions of trees were killed.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The extra warmth that came with the drought pushed it into a whole new terrain,” says Nate Stephenson, an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “That’s what really helped kill a lot of trees, and they became fuel for fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his four decades of studying the trees, Stephenson had rarely seen an old-growth sequoia die. When the first images emerged after the Castle Fire hit, he wasn’t prepared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I couldn’t help it,” he says. “I don’t cry often, but I cried when I saw the photos. Because I love these trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Few seedlings sprout from the ash\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A year later, the soil is still powdery black in the Alder Creek sequoia grove. The UC Berkeley team is scanning it for signs of hope: any spot of green.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Two tiny sequoias here growing from the regeneration from the fire,” Stephens says, finding 2-inch-tall seedlings, impossibly tiny compared to what they could become.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The life cycle of a sequoia hinges on wildfire, which is the trigger for releasing its seeds. The blast of heat opens the cones, sending a shower of seeds to the forest floor, which get established quickly on the newly cleared ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some groves, researchers are finding hundreds of seedlings where the Castle Fire burned with low intensity, more like the kind of fire sequoias are accustomed to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the Alder Creek Grove, where the fire burned with ferocious heat, the team only finds a dozen seedlings the entire afternoon. Other groves look similarly bare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even under normal conditions, around 98% of sequoia seedlings die in their first year. This year could be even tougher, with extreme drought gripping the landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am very concerned that some areas will not have sequoias,” says Christy Brigham, head of resources management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. “All the adults are killed and there will not be enough seedlings to repopulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889070\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889070 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg\" alt=\"Three people look up at the charred remains of a forest, one pointing skyward.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-6-1-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers, including Scott Stephens (left), hope to identify which sequoia groves are most at risk from extreme fires, with the goal of making them more fire-resistant. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s leading land managers to consider planting new sequoias, so the scorched groves don’t disappear entirely. But in a changing climate, it’s not a simple question. As temperatures rise, young trees planted today face surviving in a vastly different future. The most suitable habitat for sequoias could move somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is one of the gifts of giant sequoias … that they force us to think in deep time,” says Brigham. “It forces us to confront the challenge of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rush to save remaining sequoias\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Federal land managers say that given the millennia-length time frame, planting new sequoias is a back-up plan at this point. The more pressing need is saving the trees that are left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/gslc.htm\">Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition\u003c/a>, a partnership of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, universities, local Native American tribes and nonprofits, is identifying the groves most at risk and this summer has been rapidly assessing conditions on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just saw what one wildfire did,” Brigham says. “Can we find the places, do the plans, and get the funding and put the people on the ground fast enough to prevent loss like this in the future?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigham estimates around 40% of the sequoia groves on national park land alone are at risk of severe wildfires, because the surrounding forests haven’t burned in decades. Other groves at risk are found on Forest Service or private land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889073 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg\" alt=\"A bright green seedling pops through the brown forest floor.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"865\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pic-5-1-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In some sequoia groves, few seedlings are being found in the aftermath of the Castle Fire. Those that have sprouted face surviving a summer of extreme drought. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sequoia National Park has used controlled burns, also known as prescribed fire, since the 1960s to prevent forests from becoming overgrown. But Brigham says burning continues to be a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, when cooler conditions are better for controlled burns, projects are limited because of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/05/15/2020-09153/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-endangered-species-status-for-southern-sierra-nevada\">threatened pacific fisher\u003c/a>. The slender, mink-like animal was listed as endangered in 2020, and its habitat is protected during the spring denning season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But burning in the summer can be tough because of air quality concerns, extremely dry vegetation or lack of personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are all these constraints on prescribed fire that we can’t control,” Brigham says. “As it gets hotter and drier, that window is smaller and smaller.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigham says she’s hopeful that land managers can move quickly over the next year to prioritize the sequoia groves that need help the most. With extreme fires becoming increasingly common, time is running short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not too late,” says Brigham. “We can do better. People love these trees. So I just hope we can take that love and translate it into immediate action to protect the groves and long-term action to limit climate change and its impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Single+Fire+Killed+Thousands+Of+Sequoias.+Scientists+Are+Racing+To+Save+The+Rest&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Smoky skies. Wildfires. The skyrocketing cost of living in the Golden State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland-based artist Fantastic Negrito has figured out a way to make a joyful melody about some of California’s toughest issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>music video for “Rolling Through California,” released last month and featuring fellow Oakland musician Miko Marks, shows a young boy dressed up as a firefighter, surveying a burned landscape. Fantastic Negrito appreciates the simplicity and honesty with which kids think about and process massive problems like climate change and the housing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the video unfolds on a ranch owned by the Oakland Black Cowboy Association — a way to celebrate and highlight the role Black people played in shaping the American West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFx88DdixyA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha talked with Fantastic Negrito about his creative process — and why he remains hopeful and optimistic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>On how the lyrics for the song came to him\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: I remember it was, I guess, September 9th. That \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\">day of the red sky\u003c/a>. It was extremely surreal and it felt apocalyptic and it felt like a message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It felt like that something greater than us was speaking. And I just stood there looking at this bloodshot sun in the sky with this orange hue. I got my guitar and sat out there for a little while and I guess the riff just came to me. I wanted to tell the story of what was happening in the moment.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On staying optimistic in times of crisis\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: Someone said it’s the happiest climate change song ever. I’m going with this visceral energy that I’m feeling. I want to live the full spectrum of this life that I’m afforded to live, this opportunity that I have every day to contribute, exist, agitate, enlighten, disappoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I live in that free fall of emotions. That’s when you can feel life — when you can accept that, hey, it’s all going to happen. I thought that it was really appropriate to be celebratory, and to be optimistic about the challenges that we have to face, because at least we’re alive here and hopefully healthy to face them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those obstacles that we face become fuel, and that’s how we keep this motor running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11888824\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1708px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11888824 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man and a woman, brightly dressed and wearing sunglasses, stand back-to-back looking at the camera on a path beside a large body of water.\" width=\"1708\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-scaled.jpg 1708w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-800x1199.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1366x2048.jpg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1920x2878.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1708px) 100vw, 1708px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fantastic Negrito and Miko Marks, singer, songwriter and fellow Oakland resident, collaborated on the new single ‘Rolling Through California.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Fantastic Negrito)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Behind the scenes of the music video\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito:\u003c/strong> I thought that it would be interesting to get a young person. I wanted it to be through his eyes. He had to find his tribe of people that believed in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kid is someone that I know very well. He’s kind of like family. I talked to him about the fires and I really loved how simple his view was on fires, climate change. I thought that he — in an honest way — could embody that message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove him out to Santa Rosa and you see him looking at all these charred remains of what was a forest. And I wanted to get his truest, real reaction. What does a 9-year-old think about that? I thought that was very important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I [also] was so ignorant to the role of Black cowboys in America. I think it’s a chapter that is untold. So I decided to have the video right there on their ranch and I just thought it was important to shine the light on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On optimism in his genes\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: I come from Southern people. All of my mama’s relatives go back to Virginia. A lot of my attitude comes from spending those summers and those Thanksgivings with my Virginia folks who are all very elderly people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember we’re talking about the blues and spirituals. I was young. I didn’t really even care about the blues, but I remember one of them saying, “White folks thought we were sad. We weren’t sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means [that] things are dismal, things are tough, there are obstacles, but we’re going to keep on moving here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever we got to do, we’re going to make it through this. I’m here now because of the kind of courage my ancestors probably faced under fire. That attitude permeates. It’s pervasive. That’s the way I feel about everything: No matter what, stay upbeat and look at how things can be done. Stop looking at how things can’t be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On the past, present and future for California\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='related coverage' tag='climate-change']\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: We were once seen as the place to be, California, the dreamland that is the land of milk and honey. Twenty years ago, I remember this being the place people were overwhelmingly trying to live in. It is a beautiful place, we just have challenges right now, so that doesn’t mean that we abandon or retreat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The future of the state, the country, of all of us, is that we embrace possibilities. Affordable housing, that can be done if we want it to be done. I think the control of the fires, containing fires, global warming, climate change — it can be done if we get on the right side of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If someone can have their own private satellite that we see up in the sky and people can take trips to the moon, we can do anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Smoky skies. Wildfires. The skyrocketing cost of living in the Golden State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland-based artist Fantastic Negrito has figured out a way to make a joyful melody about some of California’s toughest issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>music video for “Rolling Through California,” released last month and featuring fellow Oakland musician Miko Marks, shows a young boy dressed up as a firefighter, surveying a burned landscape. Fantastic Negrito appreciates the simplicity and honesty with which kids think about and process massive problems like climate change and the housing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the video unfolds on a ranch owned by the Oakland Black Cowboy Association — a way to celebrate and highlight the role Black people played in shaping the American West.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/aFx88DdixyA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/aFx88DdixyA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha talked with Fantastic Negrito about his creative process — and why he remains hopeful and optimistic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>On how the lyrics for the song came to him\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: I remember it was, I guess, September 9th. That \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\">day of the red sky\u003c/a>. It was extremely surreal and it felt apocalyptic and it felt like a message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It felt like that something greater than us was speaking. And I just stood there looking at this bloodshot sun in the sky with this orange hue. I got my guitar and sat out there for a little while and I guess the riff just came to me. I wanted to tell the story of what was happening in the moment.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On staying optimistic in times of crisis\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: Someone said it’s the happiest climate change song ever. I’m going with this visceral energy that I’m feeling. I want to live the full spectrum of this life that I’m afforded to live, this opportunity that I have every day to contribute, exist, agitate, enlighten, disappoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I live in that free fall of emotions. That’s when you can feel life — when you can accept that, hey, it’s all going to happen. I thought that it was really appropriate to be celebratory, and to be optimistic about the challenges that we have to face, because at least we’re alive here and hopefully healthy to face them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those obstacles that we face become fuel, and that’s how we keep this motor running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11888824\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1708px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11888824 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man and a woman, brightly dressed and wearing sunglasses, stand back-to-back looking at the camera on a path beside a large body of water.\" width=\"1708\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-scaled.jpg 1708w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-800x1199.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1366x2048.jpg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/images_uploads_gallery_SBG07799-1920x2878.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1708px) 100vw, 1708px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fantastic Negrito and Miko Marks, singer, songwriter and fellow Oakland resident, collaborated on the new single ‘Rolling Through California.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Fantastic Negrito)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Behind the scenes of the music video\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito:\u003c/strong> I thought that it would be interesting to get a young person. I wanted it to be through his eyes. He had to find his tribe of people that believed in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kid is someone that I know very well. He’s kind of like family. I talked to him about the fires and I really loved how simple his view was on fires, climate change. I thought that he — in an honest way — could embody that message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove him out to Santa Rosa and you see him looking at all these charred remains of what was a forest. And I wanted to get his truest, real reaction. What does a 9-year-old think about that? I thought that was very important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I [also] was so ignorant to the role of Black cowboys in America. I think it’s a chapter that is untold. So I decided to have the video right there on their ranch and I just thought it was important to shine the light on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On optimism in his genes\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: I come from Southern people. All of my mama’s relatives go back to Virginia. A lot of my attitude comes from spending those summers and those Thanksgivings with my Virginia folks who are all very elderly people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember we’re talking about the blues and spirituals. I was young. I didn’t really even care about the blues, but I remember one of them saying, “White folks thought we were sad. We weren’t sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means [that] things are dismal, things are tough, there are obstacles, but we’re going to keep on moving here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever we got to do, we’re going to make it through this. I’m here now because of the kind of courage my ancestors probably faced under fire. That attitude permeates. It’s pervasive. That’s the way I feel about everything: No matter what, stay upbeat and look at how things can be done. Stop looking at how things can’t be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>On the past, present and future for California\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fantastic Negrito\u003c/strong>: We were once seen as the place to be, California, the dreamland that is the land of milk and honey. Twenty years ago, I remember this being the place people were overwhelmingly trying to live in. It is a beautiful place, we just have challenges right now, so that doesn’t mean that we abandon or retreat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The future of the state, the country, of all of us, is that we embrace possibilities. Affordable housing, that can be done if we want it to be done. I think the control of the fires, containing fires, global warming, climate change — it can be done if we get on the right side of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If someone can have their own private satellite that we see up in the sky and people can take trips to the moon, we can do anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Chevron, PBF Energy Sue Air District Over New Bay Area Refinery Pollution Rule",
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"content": "\u003cp>Two of the nation's biggest oil companies are suing Bay Area air regulators to block a new rule that would force their regional refineries to significantly reduce the amount of pollution they spew into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron and PBF Energy filed separate lawsuits this week in Contra Costa County Superior Court against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), whose \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876301/bay-area-refineries-must-dramatically-cut-pollution-air-district-says-in-historic-vote\">board voted 19 to 3 to require both refineries to reduce the particulate matter\u003c/a> their plants emit. The rule is set to take effect in five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878624/a-pivotal-moment-for-regulating-the-bay-areas-oil-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In the lead-up to the July vote\u003c/a>, both companies slammed the rule and threatened legal action.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Andres Soto, Richmond community activist\"]'Chevron and PBF would rather spend endless dollars on their army of lawyers rather than implement a hard-won victory by frontline polluted communities to improve their health.'[/pullquote]Chevron says the air district overstated the public health benefits of the new rule and underestimated the costs of implementing it at the company's Richmond refinery. It contends the new rule represents the most expensive particulate matter regulation in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Air Board's rulemaking process was flawed and the Board's actions ... conflict with state law and are based on faulty science,\" Chevron said in a statement Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBF — the second company — has argued that having to buy and install a device \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11754005/shell-to-sell-martinez-refinery-for-1-billion\">to meet the particulate matter reduction requirements would force it to shut down its Martinez refinery\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its lawsuit, PBF says its own emissions proposal, which called for a reduction in particulate matter releases, but to a lesser degree than the one approved, was improperly removed from consideration by the air district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues the district ignored requirements set forth by the California Environmental Quality Act, and says the technology likely needed to meet the new standard \"will have significant adverse cost, operational, and business impacts to regulated refineries.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Davis, president of PBF Energy's Western Region, said in a statement that the refinery is moving forward on a planned project that will significantly reduce its particulate matter releases by early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\"Despite being disappointed by the ... board's decision,\" the refinery is \"committed to continue working with the air district to reduce particulate matter emissions,\" Davis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874932/air-regulators-weigh-plan-aimed-at-dramatically-cutting-bay-area-refinery-pollution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new rule\u003c/a> focuses on key refinery components called fluidized catalytic cracking units, which break down heavy crude oil into lighter products like gasoline. During that process — a part of normal daily operations at many large refineries — carbon material known as coke is burned off, producing large amounts of particulate matter released into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To satisfy the new rule, PBF and Chevron would most likely need to buy and install devices known as wet-gas scrubbers at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district says the rule could cut annual Chevron and PBF emissions of PM10 particulates by an estimated 400 tons a year, reducing preventable deaths and increasing the average lifespan of people who live near the refineries. That so-called \"dirty air,\" which contains soot, dust and dirt, represents the most significant air pollution health hazard in the Bay Area, it asserts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and health advocates lobbied the air district for the change. They argued the district needed to follow through on its stated mission to keep nearby residents, many of whom are lower-income people of color who have suffered from disproportionately high rates of respiratory disease, safe from air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andres Soto, a Richmond organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, called the lawsuits an egregious act of racial and environmental injustice by some of the world's largest corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"bay-area-refineries\"]\"Chevron and PBF would rather spend endless dollars on their army of lawyers rather than implement a hard-won victory by frontline polluted communities to improve their health,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Amanda Millstein, a Richmond pediatrician and co-founder of Climate Health Now, a group of California health professionals pushing to transition away from fossil fuels, took aim at Chevron, the oil giant that runs the refinery in her city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Chevron's shameless and predictable delay is coming at the expense of my patients' and their families' lives,\" Millstein said. \"It is outrageous for the oil industry to sue a government entity for acting in the public's interest while fulfilling its charter.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, said the lawsuits fly in the face of research that shows fossil fuel pollution causes thousands of premature deaths in California every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's contemptible for Chevron to pay its pricey lawyers to sue rather than just install pollution-control equipment that many refineries already have in place,\" Kretzmann said. \"Given this is a matter of life and death for frontline communities, Chevron's penny-pinching is completely immoral.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jed Holtzman, a former policy analyst with 350 Bay Area, which pushed for the rule, said local advocates fought hard to get the district to put the life-saving rule in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Bay Area communities should be outraged that Big Oil is trying to subvert democratic government action to protect our health,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change is not expected to affect the Bay Area's three other refineries. Valero's Benicia plant already has a wet-gas scrubber; Phillips 66 in Rodeo does not have a fluid catalytic cracking unit; and Marathon in Martinez has been idled for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Phillips 66 and Marathon also plan to convert their local facilities into renewable diesel plants in the coming years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Two of the nation's biggest oil companies are suing Bay Area air regulators to block a new rule that would force their regional refineries to significantly reduce the amount of pollution they spew into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron and PBF Energy filed separate lawsuits this week in Contra Costa County Superior Court against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), whose \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876301/bay-area-refineries-must-dramatically-cut-pollution-air-district-says-in-historic-vote\">board voted 19 to 3 to require both refineries to reduce the particulate matter\u003c/a> their plants emit. The rule is set to take effect in five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878624/a-pivotal-moment-for-regulating-the-bay-areas-oil-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In the lead-up to the July vote\u003c/a>, both companies slammed the rule and threatened legal action.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chevron says the air district overstated the public health benefits of the new rule and underestimated the costs of implementing it at the company's Richmond refinery. It contends the new rule represents the most expensive particulate matter regulation in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Air Board's rulemaking process was flawed and the Board's actions ... conflict with state law and are based on faulty science,\" Chevron said in a statement Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBF — the second company — has argued that having to buy and install a device \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11754005/shell-to-sell-martinez-refinery-for-1-billion\">to meet the particulate matter reduction requirements would force it to shut down its Martinez refinery\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its lawsuit, PBF says its own emissions proposal, which called for a reduction in particulate matter releases, but to a lesser degree than the one approved, was improperly removed from consideration by the air district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues the district ignored requirements set forth by the California Environmental Quality Act, and says the technology likely needed to meet the new standard \"will have significant adverse cost, operational, and business impacts to regulated refineries.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Davis, president of PBF Energy's Western Region, said in a statement that the refinery is moving forward on a planned project that will significantly reduce its particulate matter releases by early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"Despite being disappointed by the ... board's decision,\" the refinery is \"committed to continue working with the air district to reduce particulate matter emissions,\" Davis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874932/air-regulators-weigh-plan-aimed-at-dramatically-cutting-bay-area-refinery-pollution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new rule\u003c/a> focuses on key refinery components called fluidized catalytic cracking units, which break down heavy crude oil into lighter products like gasoline. During that process — a part of normal daily operations at many large refineries — carbon material known as coke is burned off, producing large amounts of particulate matter released into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To satisfy the new rule, PBF and Chevron would most likely need to buy and install devices known as wet-gas scrubbers at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district says the rule could cut annual Chevron and PBF emissions of PM10 particulates by an estimated 400 tons a year, reducing preventable deaths and increasing the average lifespan of people who live near the refineries. That so-called \"dirty air,\" which contains soot, dust and dirt, represents the most significant air pollution health hazard in the Bay Area, it asserts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and health advocates lobbied the air district for the change. They argued the district needed to follow through on its stated mission to keep nearby residents, many of whom are lower-income people of color who have suffered from disproportionately high rates of respiratory disease, safe from air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andres Soto, a Richmond organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, called the lawsuits an egregious act of racial and environmental injustice by some of the world's largest corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"Chevron and PBF would rather spend endless dollars on their army of lawyers rather than implement a hard-won victory by frontline polluted communities to improve their health,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Amanda Millstein, a Richmond pediatrician and co-founder of Climate Health Now, a group of California health professionals pushing to transition away from fossil fuels, took aim at Chevron, the oil giant that runs the refinery in her city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Chevron's shameless and predictable delay is coming at the expense of my patients' and their families' lives,\" Millstein said. \"It is outrageous for the oil industry to sue a government entity for acting in the public's interest while fulfilling its charter.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, said the lawsuits fly in the face of research that shows fossil fuel pollution causes thousands of premature deaths in California every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's contemptible for Chevron to pay its pricey lawyers to sue rather than just install pollution-control equipment that many refineries already have in place,\" Kretzmann said. \"Given this is a matter of life and death for frontline communities, Chevron's penny-pinching is completely immoral.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jed Holtzman, a former policy analyst with 350 Bay Area, which pushed for the rule, said local advocates fought hard to get the district to put the life-saving rule in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Bay Area communities should be outraged that Big Oil is trying to subvert democratic government action to protect our health,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change is not expected to affect the Bay Area's three other refineries. Valero's Benicia plant already has a wet-gas scrubber; Phillips 66 in Rodeo does not have a fluid catalytic cracking unit; and Marathon in Martinez has been idled for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Phillips 66 and Marathon also plan to convert their local facilities into renewable diesel plants in the coming years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Sharks Are Circling Again': With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning",
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"content": "\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Victoria Gann, Camp Fire survivor\"]‘It’s like a free-for-fall.’[/pullquote]Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Mikal Watts, Trial lawyer to wildfire survivors\"]‘The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people.’[/pullquote]On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11884610\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg\"]In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11879943\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/02/Powell-Camp-Fire-1020x698.jpg\"]In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Geoff Reed, Survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire\"]‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’[/pullquote]When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Stories' tag='camp-fire']At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Potter Handy, Attorney representing 200 victims of the Camp Fire,\"]‘It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy … the clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged.’[/pullquote]Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Coverage' tag='2021-wildfires']Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of wildfires like the Camp and Dixie fires, but some past and current clients advise caution.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "despite-containment-gains-caldor-fire-continues-march-toward-tahoe-basin",
"title": "Caldor Fire Nearly 50% Contained, As Crews Continue Battling 'Troublesome' Spots",
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"headTitle": "Caldor Fire Nearly 50% Contained, As Crews Continue Battling ‘Troublesome’ Spots | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cem>Find \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">the latest on evacuation orders and warnings\u003c/a>, including a map from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">current shelter information for evacuees\u003c/a>. Follow \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU\">Cal Fire AEU on Twitter\u003c/a> for up-to-date information. This post, originally published on Aug. 27, was continually updated through Sept. 7. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 11 a.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite rising temperatures and low humidity, fire crews made steady progress in an ongoing quest to subdue the massive Caldor Fire, with almost 50% of the voracious blaze contained as of Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which means we don’t expect any movement of the fire outside those containment lines,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Tim Ernst, proudly pointing to the solid black containment lines ringing most of the southern and southwestern sections of the perimeter, nearly up the Highway 50 corridor to Kyburz. “As a matter of fact, yesterday we didn’t have any significant runs of the fire that pushed any of those containment lines, nor did we have any significant spots. So that’s a great accomplishment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1392px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887695 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1392\" height=\"814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png 1392w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-800x468.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-1020x596.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-160x94.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1392px) 100vw, 1392px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of Cal Fire Incident Commander Tim Ernst during Tuesday morning’s Caldor Fire update, as he points to hard-fought black containment lines along the blaze’s southern and southwestern flank. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire via Facebook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even as communities in the South Lake Tahoe basin and other recently evacuated areas returned home this weekend, Ernst noted the blaze was far from quenched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said crews were still contending with “troublesome” areas in its northern and eastern reaches, including near Wrights Lake, northwest of Highway 50, where a tenacious offshoot of the blaze had entered Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/LakeTahoeUSFS/status/1434942634544361473\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while crews in the basin made incremental progress beefing up containment efforts near Heavenly Mountain Resort, staving off any major structural damage in the vicinity, the eastern flank of the blaze continued to push against the Highway 88 corridor, posing a lingering threat to the Kirkwood Mountain Resort community. Ernst, though, said crews had just done firing operations near homes in that area — referring to the tactic of intentionally burning brush and other fuels as a preventive measure — and were now\u003cbr>\n“seeing much better results there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire, which first sparked on Aug. 14 near Grizzly Flats, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1435245060136652804\">has destroyed at least 776 homes\u003c/a> and devoured more than 216,000 acres. Full containment of the blaze is expected by Sept. 27, Cal Fire said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Explore a map of current Caldor Fire activity:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003csmall>\u003ca style=\"color: #0000ff;text-align: left\" href=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=50e4ec29f91141be9af4cad557147544&extent=-121.2534,38.3922,-119.2251,39.2631&zoom=true&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&legendlayers=true&disable_scroll=true&theme=light\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clear here to view larger map (or if not loading on mobile)\u003c/a>\u003c/small>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Current Wildfire Perimeters\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=50e4ec29f91141be9af4cad557147544&extent=-121.2534,38.3922,-119.2251,39.2631&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&legendlayers=true&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Containment on the Caldor Fire improved over Labor Day weekend to 44% as fire officials let people return to South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The repopulation of South Lake Tahoe began on Sunday afternoon after the evacuation order for the city of more than 20,000 people was downgraded to an evacuation warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes everything within the city limits, the area north of State Highway 50 between the Nevada state line and the Lake Tahoe airport, and all properties on both sides of Highway 89 from Emerald Bay north through Tahoma, among a few other spots in El Dorado County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887662\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1288px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887662 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the southern shore of Lake Tahoe. Tahoma, Fallen Leaf A, South Lake Tahoe, and Lower and Upper Kingsbury are in yellow.\" width=\"1288\" height=\"859\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021.jpg 1288w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1288px) 100vw, 1288px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">While South Lake Tahoe has been downgraded to an evacuation warning, many other parts of El Dorado County remain under an evacuation order. On Sept. 5, Cal Fire AED published this map to show which areas remain under an evacuation order (violet) and which are now under an evacuation warning (yellow). \u003ccite>(Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the weekend, fire crews made progress in containing the flames along the northwest and northeast sections of the perimeter, including the section closest to South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]“A lot of great work has gone on there,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Tim Ernst in a Monday morning community briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on the morning of Labor Day, fire officials also signaled that conditions on Monday are a lot drier, which could make the work of containing what is left of the Caldor Fire much more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cannot emphasize how dry things are across this fire today. The humidity was very, very poor recovery last night,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley, who also added that the wind is blowing a lot more strongly than it did during the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With stronger winds comes a greater risk of embers flying out and widening the perimeter of the fire, Stephen Vollmer, fire analyst with Cal Fire, reminded fire crews Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got this thing, we’re wrapping our arms around it. We’re trying to take it down, but don’t get complacent on it,” he said. “Stay focused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, Highway 50 has reopened from the Nevada border to the South Lake Tahoe city limits to allow residents back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are really excited to get back into town,” said Mayor of South Lake Tahoe Tamara Wallace. She was quick to point out that the repopulation effort does not include all of El Dorado County and that there are many other communities still under an evacuation order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s … a testament to the firefighters and their amazing work that we are able to get back into our homes and all our homes are safe,” said Wallace, who for the moment plans to hold off for a few days until she returns to her own home in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s limited services,” she explained, pointing to the fact that, as of Monday morning, only one grocery store in the entire city had reopened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Wallace and Cal Fire recommend that residents who are allowed to return to their homes first stock up on groceries, gas and other essential supplies before making the trip back. This also goes for folks who don’t live full-time in South Lake Tahoe but have a cabin or property in the area and want to check up on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a fire has burned through an area, many dangers remain: Damage to buildings can make them unstable; debris and downed trees can block roads; and downed utility lines pose serious electrical and other hazards. Fire officials also warn that the risk of flooding remains high for weeks and months after a wildfire, due to the amount of destroyed vegetation that once stabilized the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 a.m. Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Saturday morning, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1434186869915357187\">Cal Fire AEU reported a continued decrease in fire behavior\u003c/a> “thanks to a slight rise in humidity levels and decrease in temperatures.” Ongoing inspections for damage continue, but Cal Fire said 75% of structures were assessed. The fire is still most active on the south side of Echo Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://fires.airfire.org/outlooks/LakeTahoeBasin\">smoke outlook for the Tahoe area\u003c/a> is expected to be between moderate to unhealthy throughout the day with some light winds predicted to provide some relief. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd945702.pdf\">temporary closure of all national forests in California\u003c/a> is still in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 5:30 p.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire crews manage the seemingly insurmountable feat of beating back the Caldor Fire from South Lake Tahoe, one question has been repeatedly aired by the public: When will people be allowed back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospects are “looking good” for repopulating South Lake Tahoe, said U.S. Forest Service Operations Sections Chief Jake Cagle, but it depends on the weather and the efforts of hundreds of people — so officially, there’s no answer yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cagle said, “we’re getting close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool said he and his fellow firefighters have been evacuated from their homes as well, “so we can empathize with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savacool thanked South Lake Tahoe citizens for pushing for more information, and said, “I wanted to assure you we’re going to get you home as soon as we can, as soon as the fire is safe. … It’s also our position to be your voice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire has burned 212,907 acres as of Friday evening, and is 29% contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Repopulating areas that have been evacuated was on the minds of most fire officials at Friday evening’s community meeting, as they downgraded various areas from evacuation orders — which mandate evacuations — to warnings, which merely caution them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Areas downgraded Friday afternoon include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>South Sly Park: South of Starkes Grade Road, north of Sly Park Creek, east of Pleasant Valley Road up to and including the Diamond Garnet subdivision.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grizzly Flats West: East of Highway E16, west of Steely Ridge Road, south of the North Fork of the Cosumnes River and north of the Middle Fork of the Cosumnes River.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Happy Valley: All properties accessed from Happy Valley Road.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Other fronts of the fire showed signs of fire crews finding success, including Christmas Valley, with fire officials saying “everything looks good” there, and Sierra Springs and the Lower Pines area both being downgraded to evacuation warnings, from orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savacool had one more thought to reassure South Lake Tahoe citizens: We’re making sure the bears aren’t rummaging around your homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gotten a lot of calls and concerns about the bears in town,” Savacool said Friday evening. He said law enforcement is “patrolling 24/7 to make sure your homes are safe, to scare off the bears, so your homes are protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Make sure to check for full and up-to-date evacuation orders and warnings \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">with Cal Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 2 p.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire has so far been successfully steered from South Lake Tahoe thanks to a break in weather conditions, defensive fire prevention and a continuous push from fire crews, officials said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the fire has encroached on nearby areas, like Christmas Valley, and fire officials said the battle is far from over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Friday afternoon community briefing, Anthony Scardina, deputy regional forester with the United States Forest Service, said a lot of the day’s success came from defensive field treatments like forest thinning and prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were conditions where there were 150-foot flame lengths, and when they hit, those field treatments worked, bringing them down to 20-foot flame lengths,” Scardina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we’re still not out of the woods,” he said. “We’re having some success, but there’s still a lot of fire on the landscape. And weather conditions can change pretty quickly, as you’ve seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some evacuation orders were downgraded to evacuation warnings as of 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The area south of Pleasant Valley between Bucks Bar Road and Newtown Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>East of Bucks Bar Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The areas of Gopher Hole Road and Moon-Shadow\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The area just south of U.S. Highway 50, north of Starkes Grade Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>East of Snows Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>West of Fresh Pond\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The successful field treatments that aided fire efforts this week were the result of 10 years of fire prevention, Scardina said, and that’s work that needs to be ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have forest conditions that are overstocked. They’re too dense, and you combine that with a series of years of drought, and combine that with some of the warming temperatures we’ve seen,” he said, “with those three elements we have to continue working on them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire expressed cautious optimism this morning, after another night of more favorable weather conditions allowed them to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">inch up containment on the Caldor Fire to 29%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll sum everything up with the incident with the words ‘cautiously optimistic,'” Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst said at the Friday morning briefing. “The humidities came in again last night, and fortunately we’ve had no significant fire runs through the entire shift yesterday. So we’ve definitely turned that corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ernst credited the consistent hard work of fire crews for saving thousands of homes and countless acres of forest. More than 4,400 firefighters are currently on the ground and in the air fighting the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since first erupting on Aug. 14, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433791946573504519\">the massive blaze\u003c/a> has destroyed 661 homes and devoured nearly 213,000 acres, while continuing to threaten some 32,000 other structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While overall conditions are still dry, firefighters are taking advantage of the marginally improved humidity and reduced winds to secure key areas, like those along the Highway 50 corridor and near the Heavenly Mountain Resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433794960201957376?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going into a new phase in the weather,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley. “We’re going back to the inversion. We got the smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dudley said that while this weather will result in lighter winds, regular terrain-driven winds throughout the day will continue to be a challenge because of their unpredictability and tendency to move in “squirrely directions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are also working to improve containment lines near Meyers and South Lake Tahoe, where the blaze continues to be active. Northeast of the Pioneer Trail, hand crews and bulldozers are working to build lines that would usher the fire toward Cold Creek, where containment is more secure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across Highway 50, at Lower Echo Lake, firefighters worked through the night extinguishing hot spots and battling the fire directly to keep it from spreading to nearby cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11886903 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51240_GettyImages-1337303910-qut-1020x674.jpg']Christmas Valley, which sits just south of South Lake Tahoe, remains among the areas of greatest concern. The fire is still very active in the area, prompting firefighters last night to build control lines to coax it east toward Saxon Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not out of the woods, but we have not seen any growth there as well,” Ernst said. Crews, he added, will continue to focus heavily on that area today in an effort to contain the fire’s spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big priority Friday is securing areas near homes so officials can begin lifting evacuation orders and allowing residents to return. Nearly \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cal_OES/status/1433815874796863491\">48,000 people\u003c/a> in the region still remain under evacuation orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging the positive developments, officials urged residents not to get complacent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got this thing kind of lassoed. We just need to keep holding on to it with what we’ve got,” said Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire. “So know that there’s still a lot of hot material out there, know that there’s a lot of unburned islands in the middle of this thing that could still threaten our line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s especially true, he said, along much of Highway 50, an area that remains hot and windy, where embers can still blow up to half a mile into unburned islands of brush and start new spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paraphrasing from a World War II speech by Winston Churchill, U.S. Forest Service Supervisor Dean Gould said: “This isn’t the end. It’s not the beginning of the end, but it’s the end of the beginning. So please keep that in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6:30 p.m. Thursday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Favorable weather conditions Thursday gave firefighters a slight advantage, as they worked to keep the Caldor Fire from moving into populated areas in the Tahoe basin and nearby communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire has already destroyed 649 homes, and some 32,000 more structures are still under threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following three extremely gusty, dry red flag condition days that fueled the spread of the fire — which is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">27% contained\u003c/a> — calmer winds throughout much of the massive fire area helped an army of more than 4,400 firefighters gain some ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/kentphotos/status/1433280641919971333\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those conditions are expected to continue through Saturday and possibly even Sunday, giving weary crews a crucial window to make steady containment gains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Weather’s gotten better. We got good news on the weather front. The light winds will continue for about two to three days,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley during the Thursday evening briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decrease in winds means a decrease in fire activity, particularly the spot fires that have been largely responsible for spreading this blaze, added Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire. Although ignition rates will remain very high, he said embers were now being cast less than half a mile, down from over a mile just days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which is great for the resources on the ground, so we can get in there and mop up all those hot spots,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sign of improved conditions, officials on Thursday \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433478019654426658\">downgraded mandatory evacuation orders\u003c/a> to warnings in the area of Omo Ranch, on the southwestern heel of the fire — where there is a growing segment of continuous containment line — and lifted evacuation warnings altogether in several nearby communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we did get today is a little bit of good news. The colors are starting to change,” said John Davis, a Cal Fire liaison officer, pointing to the updated recent evacuation map. “Everyone’s getting in here, doing the work necessary to put everybody back as soon as safely possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters on Thursday were also able to maintain control over a stubborn section of fire along Butte Creek and Sturdevant Ridge, north of Grizzly Flats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This continued to be probably one of our major challenges for the first two weeks of the incident,” said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst. “By [containing it], we were able to save about 600 or 700 structures, over 10,000 additional acres in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading up Highway 50 into the Tahoe basin, fire activity continued at Lower Echo Lake, where firefighters yesterday were ferried by boat to protect and prepare structures. Crews on Thursday worked along the edges of the blaze to steer it away from cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite earlier concerns, the fire had not spread to the area of Upper Truckee Road, where crews worked to put in contingency line up to Fallen Leaf Lake, in case conditions change. “Right now there’s not imminent threat or anticipation that it’s going to get in there,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jake Cagle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While crews made overall progress on the fire Thursday, the northeastern edge of the blaze continued to menace communities in the Tahoe basin as it moved toward the Nevada state line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tongue of fire was still “bumping up” against the border of Heavenly Mountain Resort, Tahoe’s largest ski area, although the blaze was not spreading as fast as it has in recent days, Ernst said. He said crews there are continuing to shore up the northeast perimeter by putting in strong bulldozer lines and removing hazardous trees, in a thus-far successful effort to protect nearby housing developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was some increased fire activity in the area on Thursday, with crews working the edge of the blaze and trying to push it toward the power line grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resort, which is now being used as a staging area by firefighters, also brought out its big guns — snowmaking devices that were being used to hose down buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thick smoke continues to envelop South Lake Tahoe, which remains under a mandatory evacuation order and is all but deserted at a time when it would normally be swarming with tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After casinos and stores closed on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe on Wednesday morning, evacuees lined up outside the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa in Stateline, waiting for a bus to take them to Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cagle also said crews had made good progress on the fire’s northeastern flank in a bid to prevent it from crossing into Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lower end of that same spur of the fire, roughly 3 miles south of South Lake Tahoe, also continued to threaten communities in Meyers and Christmas Valley. Firefighters there, aided by air tankers, hustled Thursday to keep the flames as high up on the eastern ridge as possible, and away from dense concentrations of homes. But Christmas Valley was looking good by day’s end Thursday, Cagle said, noting that crews there were being “extremely aggressive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433450121698574337\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews were also still struggling to gain control over the blaze near the Kirkwood ski resort area, to the south of the basin. Aircraft bombarded the area with water and retardant throughout day, as hand crews and bulldozers put in line to keep the blaze from coming down the ridge into the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since first sparking on Aug. 14, the blaze has charred nearly 211,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Thursday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: Improved weather is expected to continue today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost the winds aloft. It’s a good day today to not have gusty winds up on the ridges,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley at a Thursday morning briefing. “What we are going to have today are terrain-driven winds,” which occur as the sun heats the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, those winds, he warned, tend to be “quite variable in direction,” and given the ongoing dry conditions can still easily spark spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the west side of the blaze, firefighters are working to secure the Highway 50 corridor and keep the fire from burning cabins near Wrights Lake on the edge of Desolation Wilderness, in hopes the granite fields there will block its advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got a lot of resources heading up there to make sure we prevent any fire spread from heading back to the west,” said Beale Monday, a U.S. Forest Service operations section chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a positive development, crews overnight were able to use air support to drop water near the Kirkwood ski resort, holding back the blaze, which is hung up on a ridge just outside the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials on Thursday planned to fly in pumps to bring more water into the area to reinforce containment lines and protect homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/EldoradoNF/status/1433481005730435074\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late Wednesday night, \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/01/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-california-emergency-declaration/\">President Biden issued an emergency declaration for the Caldor Fire\u003c/a> — following a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom — directing federal assistance to support state, local and tribal officials in battling the blaze. The order also authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts and provide assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the fire has charred more than 210,000 acres, only five injuries — three firefighters and two civilians — have been reported so far, with no fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire managers on Wednesday also announced a major change in command structure, with the fire now divided into a western and eastern zone, each managed by separate teams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 8 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facing a third consecutive red flag warning day amid dry, blustery conditions, thousands of firefighters labored Wednesday to block the ravenous Caldor Fire from reaching two major ski resort areas near Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews doubled down on efforts to corral a large finger of the blaze that was rapidly spreading northeast toward Heavenly Mountain Resort and the Nevada state line, where it posed an immediate threat to South Lake Tahoe and neighboring communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heavy, heavy resource commitment. We’ve got folks from all over the country here pushed into this entire area,” Beale Monday, a U.S. Forest Service operations section chief, said on Wednesday. “This is some very tough country. Very steep, very rugged. And it’s just not safe to try to put people right on the fire edge right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the fire was expected to spread further northeast, crossing into Nevada, and that crews with heavy equipment were doing prep work around the clock on sections of Highways 206, 207 and 88 to try to create “a catcher’s mitt as close to this as we possibly can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have a lot of equipment, a lot of people working on this periphery out here,” Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze also skirted across the north side of Christmas Valley, with crews scrambling to keep flames east of Pioneer Trail and away from homes. Monday said there has so far been no reported damage to homes in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/RaquelMDillon/status/1433152762645291012\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South of the Tahoe basin, crews hardened their defense of the Kirkwood ski area along Highway 88, where strong, erratic winds continued to fuel the blaze, spreading spot fires dangerously close to that community. As of Wednesday evening, the fire had not entered Kirkwood proper, Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on the northwest side of the blaze, the fire on Wednesday continued moving aggressively up Wrights Lake Road off Highway 50 toward Desolation Wilderness. Aided by heavy air tankers dumping retardant, ground crews there moved quickly to connect control lines to the nearby granite fields in an effort to steer the blaze away from cabins and prevent it from spreading west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re actively engaged way up high here into the wilderness, trying to make sure that we do not get any more fire spread to the west,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wind-fueled spot fires continue to be the biggest hurdle to control efforts, said Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been a problem since the very first day of this incident, and that’s what’s causing this fire to grow exponentially,” he said. “So we’re battling what we can battle and waiting for those winds to subside so that we can get in there and actively engage those fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, crews also toiled to stop an offshoot of fire along the Highway 50 corridor east of Pollock Pines, as bulldozers tried to build a contingency line on the north side of the highway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our biggest fears is that fire jumping across the highway,” Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the many challenges firefighters continued to face, much progress had been made in various sections of the massive fire area, including most of the southern flank, where the perimeter remained strong, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were also generally looking under control in much of the southwestern section of the blaze, near where it first ignited more than two weeks ago, he added, although crews were still working to connect containment lines there, after a fierce spot fire erupted Tuesday on a ridge above Sly Park Road — setting a bulldozer on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still have a lot of work to do in there,” Monday said. “This has been a real troublesome spot for us over the last 14 to 15 days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters, he said, were “trying to put the wet stuff on the hot stuff as much as we can,” hoping to “call this line contained” in the next few days and then begin repopulating much of the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11887278\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A black bear cub hangs over a tree branch near a burned structure in Phillips on Tues., Aug. 31, 2021. The Caldor Fire spread through the area on Monday evening. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As containment lines grew, officials on Wednesday \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433210214409408513\">downgraded an evacuation order to a warning\u003c/a> in the area near North Camino and Pollock Pines north of Highway 50 and west of Sly Park Road, allowing residents there to return to their homes for the first time in about two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some 53,000 residents in El Dorado County alone were still under evacuation orders Wednesday. Officials have not given a timeline for when those areas can be repopulated, noting the many steps necessary before lifting evacuation orders, including removing firefighting equipment, cutting down damaged trees, and getting critical infrastructure running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an expected positive turn in the weather in the coming days may help hasten those repopulation efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finally some good news on the weather side here on this fire,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley, emphasizing that the region’s red flag warning would finally be ending late Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While dry conditions will continue into tomorrow, with high ignition rates, he said the strong, erratic winds that have so effectively fueled the fire in recent days are likely to subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And getting into Friday, the winds get even lighter,” he said. “So the issues and conditions that weather was causing, especially for the last couple of days, are going to be mitigated by much lighter winds across the fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burning since Aug. 14, the Caldor Fire has charred nearly 208,000 acres and is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">23% contained\u003c/a>. The blaze has destroyed almost 600 residences and continues to threaten more than 32,000 homes and other structures. Amazingly, only five injuries — three firefighters and two civilians — have been reported so far, with no fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Wednesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After another long night of working to protect structures in the southern Tahoe basin from the sprawling Caldor Fire, firefighters face a challenging day again Wednesday as gusty winds and extremely dry conditions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire crews dodged a bit of a bullet Tuesday as southwesterly winds didn’t blow as hard as forecast, instead pushing the fire northeast — further into the Carson Range toward Nevada — instead of north toward South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lucked out yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected,” said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst in a Wednesday morning briefing. “We’re fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ernst said a thick layer of smoke that came in around midnight “put a damper on things and slowed a lot of growth,” giving crews opportunities to make some progress, despite very low humidity and warm temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got some great dozer line to protect structures here,” Ernst said of efforts to keep the dangerous easternmost tongue of the fire from spreading into nearby communities, including South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now burning just a few miles southwest of the Heavenly Mountain Resort, which on Tuesday began activating snowmaking equipment in an effort to slow the fire should it reach the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/KrisAnkarlo/status/1432856342213976067?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire crews Wednesday will also continue on protecting the Kirkwood area south of the Tahoe basin along Highway 88.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our major concerns was the Kirkwood bowl area where the Kirkwood ski area is. The fire is currently hung up right on the ridge outside Kirkwood, so that’s something we’ll be looking at today as one of our priorities,” Ernst said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As to the active fire area further west of Kirkwood along Highway 88, Ernst said fire crews are continuing to work on buttoning it up and keeping it from spreading further south across the highway — but he said the area “won’t show containment for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overnight, the fire also moved quickly up Wrights Lake Road, above Highway 50, spreading north toward a group of nearby cabins and Desolation Wilderness beyond that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This continues to be probably one of the biggest challenges of this last shift,” said Ernst, adding that crews were putting in contingency lines and doing structure defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a positive note, Ernst said things were “looking real good” in most of the southern and southwestern sections of the fire, where firefighters had made steady containment gains, including the area along Sly Park Road, south of Pollock Pines. Crews, though, were still fighting hard to clean up and secure one small area near Grizzly Flats, close to where the fire began more than two weeks — and where a bulldozer went up in flames yesterday. “We expect to probably see another 36 to 48 hours before we show full containment here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The entire fire is still in a red flag warning,” warned Cal Fire incident meteorologist Jim Dudley Wednesday morning. “The wind regime you saw yesterday will continue today. The speeds may be a little bit less than [Tuesday] … but we’ll still have swirling gusty winds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The red flag warning is set to expire at 11 p.m. Wednesday — but fire behavior analyst Stephen Vollmer warned that extreme fire behavior is likely to continue for at least another week, and indicated that officials fully expect the fire to cross the California-Nevada state line. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432853046065709058\">Mandatory evacuation orders have already been issued\u003c/a> for several communities just across the state line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In El Dorado County alone, more than 53,000 residents are currently under \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cal_OES/status/1433093655095496709\">mandatory evacuation orders\u003c/a>, with no timeline yet in place for repopulating those areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve talked about fire-weakened timber falling across roads, across escape routes. … We’ve talked about long-distance spotting and high probability of ignition with extremely dry fuels,” Vollmer said Wednesday morning. “All those things are still in play today. And they’re still going to be in play for the next week or so until we get a severe change in the weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/eldoradonf/status/1433088467664211980?s=21\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sprawling army of firefighters worked furiously Tuesday to protect communities in and around the South Lake Tahoe area, as fierce alpine gusts continued fanning the flames of the fast-growing Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 4,000 personnel kept fighting the ferocious blaze from all directions in an all-out scramble not so much to extinguish the flames, but merely to keep them from destroying houses and other structures.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jim Dudley, incident meteorologist\"]‘We’ve got to get through tonight and tomorrow. Things look better come Thursday.’[/pullquote]“We can’t control it. We don’t have any tools out there to stop the fire,” Erich Schwab, a Cal Fire operations section chief, told reporters during a Tuesday evening briefing, noting the exceptionally windy, dry conditions — expected to continue through Wednesday — that have stymied control efforts. “So we resort to herding the fire away from structures and away from people, so that’s what we’re actively doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That strategy has so far proved successful in protecting most buildings in the densely populated Tahoe basin and in many of the communities along the Highway 50 corridor heading up to Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the fire had already reached into Meyers Tuesday, the flames had yet to extend into neighboring South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said crews were also still actively fighting the blaze in pockets of “unburned islands” along Highway 50 near Twin Bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are literally fire engines from here all the way down into Tahoe,” he said. “I did see some damage to structures. The fire burned through there extremely fast, extremely hot. And we did the best that we could. And we’re still in there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/kentphotos/status/1432902756117909507\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since sparking more than two weeks ago, the blaze has charred nearly 200,000 acres and destroyed nearly 500 homes, along with some 100 other structures, while continuing to threaten more than 33,000 more, officials said. It is now 18% contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab also said crews had kept the head of the fire — which jumped Highway 89 Monday night — from reaching the Heavenly Mountain Resort area, and were now putting in bulldozer lines and waiting for fire activity to “settle down” before beginning their attack. That growth prompted a \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432853046065709058\">mandatory evacuation order\u003c/a> for several communities just across the state line in Nevada — adding to the many thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes in areas throughout the region, including the nearly 22,000 South Lake residents ordered to leave on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432862340060381189\">new evacuation order\u003c/a> was also issued late Tuesday for a small section of Alpine County along Highway 88, near Kirkwood, where the fire gained ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We’ll] go back in and get it when the fire behaves and calms down on us,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze, which on Monday jumped Highway 88, had not yet reached Kirkwood, he said, but a structure defense operation with 20 engines had been established there in preparation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire on Tuesday also jumped the control line on Wrights Lake Road, Schwab added, and was making a run east toward Wrights Lake and Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The undesirable trio of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures continues to make the probability of ignition incredibly high, explained Cal Fire’s Stephen Vollmer, a fire behavior analyst. Those conditions enable active crown runs, where the fire jumps from treetop to treetop, sometimes casting embers more than a mile away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So that’s what’s propagating the spread of the fire right now,” he said. “Those embers are landing in the very old, very dense fuels that are out there in the fire environment … in an area that has not seen fire history all the way back before 1940.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A red flag warning will remain in place for the region through Wednesday night, amid ongoing windy gusts and low humidity, incident meteorologist Jim Dudley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think today is the worst of the weather days,” he said. “Tomorrow’s going to be another bad weather day — I’ll be honest with you — but it’ll be the last one of those.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dudley said winds were expected to weaken considerably by Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s gonna make for a much better situation here on the fire footprint,” he said. “So keep that in mind. We’ve got to get through tonight and tomorrow. Things look better come Thursday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although most of the southern and southwestern edges of the fire are now contained, officials said there is no timeline to repopulate most of those areas still under mandatory evacuation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is making every effort to get you back in your homes,” said Sgt. Eric Palmberg with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. “When these people determine it is safe to get back into our homes, we will put that information out and we will get you back in there as soon as we can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 4 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An army of firefighters faced an increasingly challenging fight against the Caldor Fire overnight, as the blaze’s eastern flank continued to burn downslope from near Echo Summit into the Tahoe basin, with the fire establishing itself on both sides of Highway 89 south of Meyers — the third major roadway it has now jumped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pushed by strong winds, flames on the eastern side of Highway 89 have now begun burning into the mountains on the other side of the valley, south of South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/KQEDnews/status/1432715647763550217?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We saw spotting distances of a half mile to a mile yesterday. The spots went all the way to the other side of the 89 and are working their way back up,” said Tim Ernst, Cal Fire section chief, in a morning briefing Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews in the Christmas Valley area, near Meyers, worked overnight to protect homes on the west side of 89, as the fire backed down the slope behind them. Amazingly, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BrandonRittiman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1432811274845376513%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fww2.kqed.org%2Fnews%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D11886590action%3Deditclassic-editor\">there did not appear to be any significant structure loss in the neighborhoods that the flames had reached into\u003c/a>, according to ABC10 reporter Brandon Rittiman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to show you how close the Caldor Fire came to getting some of these structures. You can see the blackened forest just right up into the backyards,” Rittiman said in a Twitter video posted on Tuesday afternoon, which he filmed near the intersection of Highway 89 and Santa Claus Drive. “I don’t see any structures lost down here, which is just incredible given the way-big flame lengths that we were seeing last night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “This took a lot of work from fire crews.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/BrandonRittiman/status/1432811274845376513\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in similarly positive news, a Cal Fire firefighter told KQED’s Beth LaBerge that all structures at the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort — where the blaze had run through on Sunday night — were saved except for one vehicle maintenance building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/KQEDnews/status/1432807453343633409\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are likely to face even more challenging conditions and very dangerous rates of fire spread Tuesday, as winds are expected to pick up significantly and a red flag warning remains in effect until 11 p.m. Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have even more flow coming across the fire to cause more turbulent winds, [with] gusts to 45 mph, maybe 50 mph depending on where you are,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley on Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stronger winds will be more pronounced at higher elevations, he said, with the general wind direction pushing the fire toward South Lake Tahoe to the northeast and further into the mountains to the east. But crews will likely have to contend with more chaotic winds on the valley floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t emphasize [enough] the wind issues we’re going to have up top,” Dudley said. “That wind is going to channel through the canyons and drainages up there. The overall direction is going to want to take it off to the northeast and east, but when you’re down on the terrain it’s going to be all over the place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jeff Ike, Cal Fire incident commander\"]‘This fire is going to stand up and rip. Under no circumstances get in front of the head of this fire.’[/pullquote]Those winds mean the Caldor Fire will likely continue to grow at dangerous rates of spread — with crown fires torching large trees and throwing embers for long distances, especially in drainages that align with the southwesterly wind direction, said Stephen Vollmer, Cal Fire fire behavior analyst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day when those trees torch out we’ve got that long distance spotting. Today is not going to be any different,” Vollmer said Tuesday morning. “We’re going to see rates of spread go up to about 200 feet per minute, and the spotting distances go over a mile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extremely dry conditions also mean extremely high rates of ignition for spot fires created by those embers. “Ignition is about 90%,” Vollmer said. “But it probably should be about 150%.” Vollmer said long-distance spotting would likely continue for the next two days due to forecast winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This fire is going to stand up and rip,” said Cal Fire incident commander Jeff Ike on Tuesday morning, emphasizing the danger for fire crews and advising them to stay out of the fire’s direct path. “Under no circumstances get in front of the head of this fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thick smoke prevented air firefighting operations periodically last week. But since then, nearly two dozen helicopters and three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of water and retardant on the fire, fire spokesperson Dominic Polito said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of South Lake Tahoe, usually bustling with summer tourists, was eerily empty Tuesday morning, the air thick with smoke from the approaching blaze. On Monday, thousands of residents jammed Highway 50 heading toward Nevada — one of the only exit routes — after being ordered by authorities to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/ARCGoldCountry/status/1432760035143081984\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials said only a handful defied the order. But nearly everyone worried Tuesday about what the fire would do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just kind of sucks waiting. I mean, I know it’s close down that way,” said Russ Crupi, gesturing south from his home in the Heavenly Valley Estates mobile home park, which he and his wife manage. He had arranged sprinklers and tractors around the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about what’ll be here when people come back. People want to come back to their houses and that’s what I’m going to try to do,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/TahoeWarmRoom/status/1432768289629884416\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>José Mora, 37, a construction worker from South Lake Tahoe, waited until yesterday’s evacuation order to leave town, jumping in his car with just a bag of clothes. He moved here as a young child from his native Jalisco, Mexico, where many of South Lake’s Latino residents come from. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/southlaketahoecitycalifornia\">Latino community here, which has grown markedly in recent years\u003c/a>, now accounts for more than 30% of the city’s population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mora, who on Tuesday was sheltering at the Carson City Community Center, said if the area is hit hard by the fire, he’ll likely have to relocate in search of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it burns, it’s going to be hard, a lot of years to recover, and it’s not going to be the same,” he said. “It’s going to take years to be where we’re at right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Tuesday morning, the Caldor Fire had burned over 191,607 acres, destroyed at least 669 structures, and was 16% contained. Just five injuries have so far been reported since the start of the blaze more than two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1432686814553378822\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire crews continued battling the Caldor Fire’s advancing eastern perimeter along the Highway 50 corridor near Echo Summit on Monday afternoon, after officials put the entirety of South Lake Tahoe under a mandatory evacuation order late Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a rough long day for the troops up there today. But they have been decently successful,” said Cody Bogan, a Cal Fire operations section chief, during an evening briefing. “Luckily the fuel’s kind of run out and it kind of slowed the fire progression down, up on that north piece.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/SRodd_CPR/status/1432512413576749059\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire was casting embers up to half a mile earlier Monday, according to fire officials, causing spot fires to ignite downslope into the Tahoe basin. The blaze, which has now charred more than 186,500 acres and is only 15% contained, continues to pose a serious threat to the basin amid a red flag warning due to higher winds and exceptionally dry conditions. That \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1432410570955706376?s=20\">warning has been extended until 11 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearer air in the area allowed some aircraft to provide much-needed support from above on Monday, Bogan said, with firefighters on the ground continuing to chase spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further south, along the fire’s southeastern flank, crews were unable to keep the blaze from jumping Highway 88 for the first time, into Amador County. The fire jumped the highway approximately two miles west of Kirkwood, and was pushing eastward toward the resort area. Kirkwood was placed under mandatory evacuation orders on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Highway 88 corridor got hit pretty hard today,” Bogan said, noting that bulldozers were digging line to try to cut it off and “get it tamed back” onto the north side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among Monday’s positive developments: Firefighters have been successful in protecting the town of Strawberry, which just days earlier was under imminent threat, Bogan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything through Strawberry’s looking a lot better now. They’re continuing to mop up around structures and trying to secure things,” he said of the community that lies along Highway 50 on the western side of the pass, east of Twin Bridges. “As of right now, there’s been no structure loss in the Strawberry area that we are aware of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bogan also called it “a very successful day” in the southwestern sections of the fire, near where it first ignited two weeks ago, with crews making steady containment gains. That progress prompted officials late Monday to downgrade evacuation orders to warnings in several nearby areas close to Omo Ranch Road, near the Amador/El Dorado County line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions, he added, were also “looking real good” heading northeast toward the Pollock Pines area, with “no real issues at all to report,” although evacuation orders there remained in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 3 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 22,000 South Lake Tahoe residents were ordered to evacuate late Monday morning as the Caldor Fire continued its rapid advance eastward, crossing Echo Summit and threatening to extend further into the Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that’s always in the back of your mind that you hope never happens,” said South Lake Mayor Pro Tem Devin Middlebrook, who evacuated late Sunday night. “But here we are today, with this threat to our community. And it’s something that we, as a city and as a community, have been preparing for, and hopefully that preparation pays off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/sullyfoto/status/1432427762271145987\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By early Monday afternoon, vehicles packed to the brim with bikes, camping gear and other personal belongings — some even towing boats — were backed up for miles in the thick, brown air along eastbound Highway 50 heading toward Nevada, the main evacuation route, as residents anxiously waited to escape the smoke-choked basin. One man broke out his violin and played a mournful melody as he ambled along the vast line of motionless cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/JoshEdelson/status/1432431380588228608\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a systematic evacuation, one neighborhood at a time,” South Lake Tahoe police Lt. Travis Cabral said on social media. “I am asking you as our community to please remain calm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An evacuation order is defined as an immediate threat to life. \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/14L8o2P-uvwSK_gyLCnhFRTon7nzLUNo2t98HjP30uAY/edit\">Evacuation shelters\u003c/a> are located at Truckee Veterans Hall and the Douglas County Community and Senior Center in Gardnerville, Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432405511014522886\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The orders come as the eastern edge of the Caldor Fire continues its rapid advance. On Sunday night, the blaze extended 8 1/2 miles up to the border of the Tahoe basin, incinerating cabins and other structures in the forest along Highway 50 between Twin Bridges and Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By Monday morning, the blaze had grown to more than 177,000 acres — a run of more than 20,000 acres over just one day — leaping over hard-fought containment lines cut with bulldozers, as crews battled the flames on multiple sides. The fire remained only 14% contained, down from 19% containment earlier this weekend, after rapid growth on the northeast and southern edges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By midday Monday, the fire had breached several points along the ridge and begun its descent into the basin, reaching spots around Lower Echo Lake and parts of Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So there’s fire in the basin,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter reported solemnly at a Monday afternoon briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Caldor is a real tough one for us,” he said, noting the steep challenges firefighters face controlling the northeastern edge’s side of the massive blaze, which continues to churn through rugged, difficult-to-reach terrain. “It’s been burning in heavy timber, just very, very difficult conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter said last week’s inversion layer in the atmosphere, which helped keep a lid on the fire, disappeared yesterday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the air clears, it’s like taking the lid off of your pot of boiling water — all of a sudden there’s that plume of heat and steam that comes out. Same thing happens on a fire,” he said. “Also sucks in oxygen from all directions, puts fire and spot fires in all directions. That’s what happened yesterday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials are still assessing last night’s damage in the El Dorado County communities the fire swept through, including the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort, where snowmaking equipment had been activated in the hopes of gaining some protection from the blaze. More than 600 structures have already been destroyed, and at least 20,000 more were threatened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/JoshEdelson/status/1432296909645832192\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather conditions were expected to worsen throughout the day, with strong wind gusts and low humidity raising concerns of erratic fire behavior and prompting the National Weather Service to issue a \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/sto/\">red flag warning\u003c/a> extending through Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter underscored the unprecedented ferocity of California fires this season , which is still just in its early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t had fires burn from one side of the Sierras to the other. [But] we did with the Dixie, now we have with the Caldor. Two times in our history, and they’re both happening this month,” he said, urging residents to be prepared and evacuate as early as possible. “We need to be really cognizant that there is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/kentphotos/status/1432306480854667265\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 p.m. Sunday\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEvacuation orders and warnings hit South Lake Tahoe and additional areas in the Tahoe basin on Sunday night after a challenging weekend for crews battling the massive Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evacuation orders in El Dorado County were extended to include the community of Meyers and communities south of Meyers along Highway 89 to the Alpine County line. An evacuation warning is now in effect for the remainder of El Dorado County in the Tahoe basin, including all of South Lake Tahoe and communities along the southern shores of the lake north to the Placer County line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional evacuation orders in Alpine County included the Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Caples Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Lake Tahoe’s main medical facility, Barton Memorial Hospital, proactively evacuated 36 patients needing skilled nursing and 16 in acute care beds Sunday, sending them to regional facilities far from the fire, public information officer Mindi Befu said. The rest of the hospital was evacuating following Monday’s expanded orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/BartonHealth/status/1432201690569076738?s=19\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire officials sounded resigned in a community meeting Sunday evening, as new evacuation orders were issued across El Dorado and Alpine counties in the wake of “extreme rates” of fire spread, said Eric Schwab, Cal Fire’s operation section chief.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jim Dudley, Cal Fire incident meteorologist\"]‘Today’s been the hottest, driest day so far on the fire.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">evacuation orders\u003c/a> include Meyers, just 7 miles south of South Lake Tahoe, which itself was issued an evacuation warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A couple days ago I really felt we were turning the corner with it,” Schwab told the community. But without adequate staffing and with changing weather conditions, firefighters found themselves playing defense over the weekend, fire officials said — not so much stopping the spread, as working to save structures from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said that in the last two weeks, the Caldor Fire’s perimeter had advanced less than a half mile, but on Sunday the perimeter “moved about 2 1/2 miles on us with no sign it’s slowing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In those conditions, Schwab said, fire crews moved to their No. 1 priority: evacuating people and preserving life. Much of their defense of structures was around Highway 50 and the Kirkwood Mountain Resort, with 25 strike teams of engines, 25 bulldozers and 25 hand crews set to defend nearby structures Sunday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the wind blows like this, our primary modes are one — hold onto what we have,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A favorable turn in weather Saturday afternoon allowed firefighters to make progress and increase containment of the fire to 19%, up from 12% the day before, said Capt. Stephen Horner, a Cal Fire spokesperson for the Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sunday’s effort was far more of a struggle, with crews having to carry hoses by hand through rough terrain. Triple-digit weather also lies ahead through Tuesday, leaving little optimism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s been a rough day and there’s no bones about it,” said Jeff Marsolais, forest supervisor for Eldorado National Forest. A few days ago, he thought crews could halt the Caldor Fire’s eastern progress, but “today it let loose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/R5_Fire_News/status/1432142906119364608\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eleven days ago we had 240 people, and that was it to try to work and contain this fire,” said Keith Wade, a Cal Fire captain and public information officer. “Now we’re upwards of 3,500 personnel. … That means more help. And that means more containment lines getting down on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 7 p.m. Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Cal Fire has ordered evacuations across portions of El Dorado County, including near Echo Summit. Cal Fire also asked other communities near Echo Summit — like Christmas Valley near Highway 89 — to prepare for that possibility. Check Cal Fire’s incident page for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">a full list of evacuation orders\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massive blaze has raged across a vast expanse of steep, mountainous terrain southwest of Lake Tahoe and \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/21/map-caldor-fire-structure-damage/\">destroyed more than 470 structures\u003c/a> since igniting on Aug. 14, even as the fire continued to advance northeast toward the much more populated Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some low humidity on Saturday afternoon increased fire activity, according to Cal Fire, with erratic winds casting embers up to half a mile from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s been the hottest, driest day so far on the fire,” said Jim Dudley, Cal Fire incident meteorologist, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CALFIREAEU/videos/1202995556829423\">a Saturday evening community meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday night and Monday, wind will increase, Dudley said, prompting officials to call a red flag warning for the northern Sierra and the southern Cascades, which takes effect 11 a.m. Monday through Tuesday evening. Those conditions may mean more “rapid spread of fire,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1431739221140668419\">National Weather Service\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire officials said they’ll expect to see increased fire activity Sunday and Monday morning, since an inversion layer of air is expected to bottle up smoky air in the area and release it those mornings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visibility improved enough near Saturday evening to allow Cal Fire to bring in more air support, said Cal Fire Section Chief Cody Bogan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1430676198099591169\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post: Updated 8 p.m. Friday\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAs of Friday morning, much of the southwestern and western flanks of the sprawling Caldor Fire, along with its southern perimeter, had been largely contained, with no major growth reported, fire officials said. Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Erich Schwab echoed that sentiment about the southwestern portion of the blaze in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CALFIREAEU/videos/143879924593222/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVbYUAtW09muDQHgYMvpoOyg-iiNyt8bTlt0XzI13BuilkJLhDjyrQKPKO04xSFaV9sVB2nIG0ag7n0AsAhJdWIZBQFHGjeqPyTJ_4jZYn68ZoyESqivZv3xdf_JqBckwAkIz7rnQRLgZPxjwiGgIjZV8UilVZdXIEd9md-x3R9Bw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\">evening briefing\u003c/a>, saying fire officials were “finally comfortable and confident that that’s not going to move any further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said technical burning operations on the northwestern edge of the fire — the portion closest to Placerville — resulted in some minor spot fires, which were difficult to fight in extremely limited visibility due to smoke. “We hope to get it boxed in,” Schwab said, as a daylong smoke inversion had lifted and allowed an air attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most active and dangerous portions of the Caldor Fire remain the eastern and northeastern sections currently burning toward the Lake Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most problematic flank of the blaze — the northeastern section, which has jumped Highway 50 between Kyburz and Strawberry — “got very active [Thursday] and jumped over our proposed control line and ran about 800 acres … burning up to the 7,500 elevation line,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fuels are extremely critical up there,” he added. “Fuels that normally wouldn’t be available to burn actively are burning with extreme conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That portion of the fire has also “completely torched” much of the area along Highway 50 between Kyburz and Strawberry, hurling fallen trees and other debris onto the roadway, said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst earlier on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This road is extremely treacherous right now,” Ernst added, while noting that firefighters have so far been able to protect all the structures in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1431383703238819843?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Schwab sounded a note of optimism Friday evening regarding the blaze’s eastern section south of Highway 50, calling it a “success story for today.” Crews were able to establish multiple bulldozer containment lines east of where the fire is burning — that is, between the fire and the Tahoe basin — and Schwab was hopeful that planned overnight backfire operations would succeed in halting the blaze’s eastern progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Answering a question about the likelihood of the blaze reaching the Tahoe basin, Schwab said, “We’re doing everything that we can to ensure that it doesn’t. … That’s why [the eastern branch of the fire south of Highway 50] is such a critical priority for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for winds that could significantly drive the fire, Cal Fire incident meteorologist Jim Dudley said Friday evening that relatively light winds are forecast for the weekend, but that the situation could change Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll probably be hearing terms like ‘possibly a red flag might be coming out this weekend for strong winds for Monday,'” said Cal Fire incident met\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Monica Lam contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Since the Caldor Fire first erupted on Aug. 14, the blaze has devoured nearly than 217,000 acres and destroyed at least 776 homes, forcing mass evacuations. As of Tuesday morning, it was 49% contained.",
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"title": "Caldor Fire Nearly 50% Contained, As Crews Continue Battling 'Troublesome' Spots | KQED",
"description": "Since the Caldor Fire first erupted on Aug. 14, the blaze has devoured nearly than 217,000 acres and destroyed at least 776 homes, forcing mass evacuations. As of Tuesday morning, it was 49% contained.",
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"headline": "Caldor Fire Nearly 50% Contained, As Crews Continue Battling 'Troublesome' Spots",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cem>Find \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">the latest on evacuation orders and warnings\u003c/a>, including a map from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">current shelter information for evacuees\u003c/a>. Follow \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU\">Cal Fire AEU on Twitter\u003c/a> for up-to-date information. This post, originally published on Aug. 27, was continually updated through Sept. 7. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 11 a.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite rising temperatures and low humidity, fire crews made steady progress in an ongoing quest to subdue the massive Caldor Fire, with almost 50% of the voracious blaze contained as of Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which means we don’t expect any movement of the fire outside those containment lines,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Tim Ernst, proudly pointing to the solid black containment lines ringing most of the southern and southwestern sections of the perimeter, nearly up the Highway 50 corridor to Kyburz. “As a matter of fact, yesterday we didn’t have any significant runs of the fire that pushed any of those containment lines, nor did we have any significant spots. So that’s a great accomplishment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1392px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887695 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1392\" height=\"814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM.png 1392w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-800x468.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-1020x596.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-07-at-10.31.07-AM-160x94.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1392px) 100vw, 1392px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of Cal Fire Incident Commander Tim Ernst during Tuesday morning’s Caldor Fire update, as he points to hard-fought black containment lines along the blaze’s southern and southwestern flank. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire via Facebook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even as communities in the South Lake Tahoe basin and other recently evacuated areas returned home this weekend, Ernst noted the blaze was far from quenched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said crews were still contending with “troublesome” areas in its northern and eastern reaches, including near Wrights Lake, northwest of Highway 50, where a tenacious offshoot of the blaze had entered Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>And while crews in the basin made incremental progress beefing up containment efforts near Heavenly Mountain Resort, staving off any major structural damage in the vicinity, the eastern flank of the blaze continued to push against the Highway 88 corridor, posing a lingering threat to the Kirkwood Mountain Resort community. Ernst, though, said crews had just done firing operations near homes in that area — referring to the tactic of intentionally burning brush and other fuels as a preventive measure — and were now\u003cbr>\n“seeing much better results there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire, which first sparked on Aug. 14 near Grizzly Flats, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1435245060136652804\">has destroyed at least 776 homes\u003c/a> and devoured more than 216,000 acres. Full containment of the blaze is expected by Sept. 27, Cal Fire said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Explore a map of current Caldor Fire activity:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003csmall>\u003ca style=\"color: #0000ff;text-align: left\" href=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=50e4ec29f91141be9af4cad557147544&extent=-121.2534,38.3922,-119.2251,39.2631&zoom=true&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&legendlayers=true&disable_scroll=true&theme=light\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clear here to view larger map (or if not loading on mobile)\u003c/a>\u003c/small>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Current Wildfire Perimeters\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=50e4ec29f91141be9af4cad557147544&extent=-121.2534,38.3922,-119.2251,39.2631&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&legendlayers=true&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Containment on the Caldor Fire improved over Labor Day weekend to 44% as fire officials let people return to South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The repopulation of South Lake Tahoe began on Sunday afternoon after the evacuation order for the city of more than 20,000 people was downgraded to an evacuation warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes everything within the city limits, the area north of State Highway 50 between the Nevada state line and the Lake Tahoe airport, and all properties on both sides of Highway 89 from Emerald Bay north through Tahoma, among a few other spots in El Dorado County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887662\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1288px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887662 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the southern shore of Lake Tahoe. Tahoma, Fallen Leaf A, South Lake Tahoe, and Lower and Upper Kingsbury are in yellow.\" width=\"1288\" height=\"859\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021.jpg 1288w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/evacuation-map-2021-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1288px) 100vw, 1288px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">While South Lake Tahoe has been downgraded to an evacuation warning, many other parts of El Dorado County remain under an evacuation order. On Sept. 5, Cal Fire AED published this map to show which areas remain under an evacuation order (violet) and which are now under an evacuation warning (yellow). \u003ccite>(Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the weekend, fire crews made progress in containing the flames along the northwest and northeast sections of the perimeter, including the section closest to South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“A lot of great work has gone on there,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Tim Ernst in a Monday morning community briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on the morning of Labor Day, fire officials also signaled that conditions on Monday are a lot drier, which could make the work of containing what is left of the Caldor Fire much more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cannot emphasize how dry things are across this fire today. The humidity was very, very poor recovery last night,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley, who also added that the wind is blowing a lot more strongly than it did during the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With stronger winds comes a greater risk of embers flying out and widening the perimeter of the fire, Stephen Vollmer, fire analyst with Cal Fire, reminded fire crews Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got this thing, we’re wrapping our arms around it. We’re trying to take it down, but don’t get complacent on it,” he said. “Stay focused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, Highway 50 has reopened from the Nevada border to the South Lake Tahoe city limits to allow residents back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are really excited to get back into town,” said Mayor of South Lake Tahoe Tamara Wallace. She was quick to point out that the repopulation effort does not include all of El Dorado County and that there are many other communities still under an evacuation order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s … a testament to the firefighters and their amazing work that we are able to get back into our homes and all our homes are safe,” said Wallace, who for the moment plans to hold off for a few days until she returns to her own home in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s limited services,” she explained, pointing to the fact that, as of Monday morning, only one grocery store in the entire city had reopened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Wallace and Cal Fire recommend that residents who are allowed to return to their homes first stock up on groceries, gas and other essential supplies before making the trip back. This also goes for folks who don’t live full-time in South Lake Tahoe but have a cabin or property in the area and want to check up on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a fire has burned through an area, many dangers remain: Damage to buildings can make them unstable; debris and downed trees can block roads; and downed utility lines pose serious electrical and other hazards. Fire officials also warn that the risk of flooding remains high for weeks and months after a wildfire, due to the amount of destroyed vegetation that once stabilized the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 a.m. Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Saturday morning, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1434186869915357187\">Cal Fire AEU reported a continued decrease in fire behavior\u003c/a> “thanks to a slight rise in humidity levels and decrease in temperatures.” Ongoing inspections for damage continue, but Cal Fire said 75% of structures were assessed. The fire is still most active on the south side of Echo Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://fires.airfire.org/outlooks/LakeTahoeBasin\">smoke outlook for the Tahoe area\u003c/a> is expected to be between moderate to unhealthy throughout the day with some light winds predicted to provide some relief. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd945702.pdf\">temporary closure of all national forests in California\u003c/a> is still in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 5:30 p.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire crews manage the seemingly insurmountable feat of beating back the Caldor Fire from South Lake Tahoe, one question has been repeatedly aired by the public: When will people be allowed back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospects are “looking good” for repopulating South Lake Tahoe, said U.S. Forest Service Operations Sections Chief Jake Cagle, but it depends on the weather and the efforts of hundreds of people — so officially, there’s no answer yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cagle said, “we’re getting close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool said he and his fellow firefighters have been evacuated from their homes as well, “so we can empathize with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savacool thanked South Lake Tahoe citizens for pushing for more information, and said, “I wanted to assure you we’re going to get you home as soon as we can, as soon as the fire is safe. … It’s also our position to be your voice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire has burned 212,907 acres as of Friday evening, and is 29% contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Repopulating areas that have been evacuated was on the minds of most fire officials at Friday evening’s community meeting, as they downgraded various areas from evacuation orders — which mandate evacuations — to warnings, which merely caution them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Areas downgraded Friday afternoon include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>South Sly Park: South of Starkes Grade Road, north of Sly Park Creek, east of Pleasant Valley Road up to and including the Diamond Garnet subdivision.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grizzly Flats West: East of Highway E16, west of Steely Ridge Road, south of the North Fork of the Cosumnes River and north of the Middle Fork of the Cosumnes River.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Happy Valley: All properties accessed from Happy Valley Road.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Other fronts of the fire showed signs of fire crews finding success, including Christmas Valley, with fire officials saying “everything looks good” there, and Sierra Springs and the Lower Pines area both being downgraded to evacuation warnings, from orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savacool had one more thought to reassure South Lake Tahoe citizens: We’re making sure the bears aren’t rummaging around your homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gotten a lot of calls and concerns about the bears in town,” Savacool said Friday evening. He said law enforcement is “patrolling 24/7 to make sure your homes are safe, to scare off the bears, so your homes are protected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Make sure to check for full and up-to-date evacuation orders and warnings \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/IMT6\">with Cal Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 2 p.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire has so far been successfully steered from South Lake Tahoe thanks to a break in weather conditions, defensive fire prevention and a continuous push from fire crews, officials said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the fire has encroached on nearby areas, like Christmas Valley, and fire officials said the battle is far from over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Friday afternoon community briefing, Anthony Scardina, deputy regional forester with the United States Forest Service, said a lot of the day’s success came from defensive field treatments like forest thinning and prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were conditions where there were 150-foot flame lengths, and when they hit, those field treatments worked, bringing them down to 20-foot flame lengths,” Scardina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we’re still not out of the woods,” he said. “We’re having some success, but there’s still a lot of fire on the landscape. And weather conditions can change pretty quickly, as you’ve seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some evacuation orders were downgraded to evacuation warnings as of 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The area south of Pleasant Valley between Bucks Bar Road and Newtown Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>East of Bucks Bar Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The areas of Gopher Hole Road and Moon-Shadow\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The area just south of U.S. Highway 50, north of Starkes Grade Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>East of Snows Road\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>West of Fresh Pond\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The successful field treatments that aided fire efforts this week were the result of 10 years of fire prevention, Scardina said, and that’s work that needs to be ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have forest conditions that are overstocked. They’re too dense, and you combine that with a series of years of drought, and combine that with some of the warming temperatures we’ve seen,” he said, “with those three elements we have to continue working on them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Friday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire expressed cautious optimism this morning, after another night of more favorable weather conditions allowed them to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">inch up containment on the Caldor Fire to 29%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll sum everything up with the incident with the words ‘cautiously optimistic,'” Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst said at the Friday morning briefing. “The humidities came in again last night, and fortunately we’ve had no significant fire runs through the entire shift yesterday. So we’ve definitely turned that corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ernst credited the consistent hard work of fire crews for saving thousands of homes and countless acres of forest. More than 4,400 firefighters are currently on the ground and in the air fighting the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since first erupting on Aug. 14, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433791946573504519\">the massive blaze\u003c/a> has destroyed 661 homes and devoured nearly 213,000 acres, while continuing to threaten some 32,000 other structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While overall conditions are still dry, firefighters are taking advantage of the marginally improved humidity and reduced winds to secure key areas, like those along the Highway 50 corridor and near the Heavenly Mountain Resort.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“We are going into a new phase in the weather,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley. “We’re going back to the inversion. We got the smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dudley said that while this weather will result in lighter winds, regular terrain-driven winds throughout the day will continue to be a challenge because of their unpredictability and tendency to move in “squirrely directions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are also working to improve containment lines near Meyers and South Lake Tahoe, where the blaze continues to be active. Northeast of the Pioneer Trail, hand crews and bulldozers are working to build lines that would usher the fire toward Cold Creek, where containment is more secure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across Highway 50, at Lower Echo Lake, firefighters worked through the night extinguishing hot spots and battling the fire directly to keep it from spreading to nearby cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Christmas Valley, which sits just south of South Lake Tahoe, remains among the areas of greatest concern. The fire is still very active in the area, prompting firefighters last night to build control lines to coax it east toward Saxon Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not out of the woods, but we have not seen any growth there as well,” Ernst said. Crews, he added, will continue to focus heavily on that area today in an effort to contain the fire’s spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big priority Friday is securing areas near homes so officials can begin lifting evacuation orders and allowing residents to return. Nearly \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cal_OES/status/1433815874796863491\">48,000 people\u003c/a> in the region still remain under evacuation orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging the positive developments, officials urged residents not to get complacent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got this thing kind of lassoed. We just need to keep holding on to it with what we’ve got,” said Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire. “So know that there’s still a lot of hot material out there, know that there’s a lot of unburned islands in the middle of this thing that could still threaten our line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s especially true, he said, along much of Highway 50, an area that remains hot and windy, where embers can still blow up to half a mile into unburned islands of brush and start new spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paraphrasing from a World War II speech by Winston Churchill, U.S. Forest Service Supervisor Dean Gould said: “This isn’t the end. It’s not the beginning of the end, but it’s the end of the beginning. So please keep that in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6:30 p.m. Thursday \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Favorable weather conditions Thursday gave firefighters a slight advantage, as they worked to keep the Caldor Fire from moving into populated areas in the Tahoe basin and nearby communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire has already destroyed 649 homes, and some 32,000 more structures are still under threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following three extremely gusty, dry red flag condition days that fueled the spread of the fire — which is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">27% contained\u003c/a> — calmer winds throughout much of the massive fire area helped an army of more than 4,400 firefighters gain some ground.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Those conditions are expected to continue through Saturday and possibly even Sunday, giving weary crews a crucial window to make steady containment gains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Weather’s gotten better. We got good news on the weather front. The light winds will continue for about two to three days,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley during the Thursday evening briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decrease in winds means a decrease in fire activity, particularly the spot fires that have been largely responsible for spreading this blaze, added Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire. Although ignition rates will remain very high, he said embers were now being cast less than half a mile, down from over a mile just days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which is great for the resources on the ground, so we can get in there and mop up all those hot spots,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sign of improved conditions, officials on Thursday \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433478019654426658\">downgraded mandatory evacuation orders\u003c/a> to warnings in the area of Omo Ranch, on the southwestern heel of the fire — where there is a growing segment of continuous containment line — and lifted evacuation warnings altogether in several nearby communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we did get today is a little bit of good news. The colors are starting to change,” said John Davis, a Cal Fire liaison officer, pointing to the updated recent evacuation map. “Everyone’s getting in here, doing the work necessary to put everybody back as soon as safely possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters on Thursday were also able to maintain control over a stubborn section of fire along Butte Creek and Sturdevant Ridge, north of Grizzly Flats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This continued to be probably one of our major challenges for the first two weeks of the incident,” said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst. “By [containing it], we were able to save about 600 or 700 structures, over 10,000 additional acres in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading up Highway 50 into the Tahoe basin, fire activity continued at Lower Echo Lake, where firefighters yesterday were ferried by boat to protect and prepare structures. Crews on Thursday worked along the edges of the blaze to steer it away from cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite earlier concerns, the fire had not spread to the area of Upper Truckee Road, where crews worked to put in contingency line up to Fallen Leaf Lake, in case conditions change. “Right now there’s not imminent threat or anticipation that it’s going to get in there,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jake Cagle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While crews made overall progress on the fire Thursday, the northeastern edge of the blaze continued to menace communities in the Tahoe basin as it moved toward the Nevada state line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tongue of fire was still “bumping up” against the border of Heavenly Mountain Resort, Tahoe’s largest ski area, although the blaze was not spreading as fast as it has in recent days, Ernst said. He said crews there are continuing to shore up the northeast perimeter by putting in strong bulldozer lines and removing hazardous trees, in a thus-far successful effort to protect nearby housing developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was some increased fire activity in the area on Thursday, with crews working the edge of the blaze and trying to push it toward the power line grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resort, which is now being used as a staging area by firefighters, also brought out its big guns — snowmaking devices that were being used to hose down buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thick smoke continues to envelop South Lake Tahoe, which remains under a mandatory evacuation order and is all but deserted at a time when it would normally be swarming with tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After casinos and stores closed on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe on Wednesday morning, evacuees lined up outside the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa in Stateline, waiting for a bus to take them to Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cagle also said crews had made good progress on the fire’s northeastern flank in a bid to prevent it from crossing into Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lower end of that same spur of the fire, roughly 3 miles south of South Lake Tahoe, also continued to threaten communities in Meyers and Christmas Valley. Firefighters there, aided by air tankers, hustled Thursday to keep the flames as high up on the eastern ridge as possible, and away from dense concentrations of homes. But Christmas Valley was looking good by day’s end Thursday, Cagle said, noting that crews there were being “extremely aggressive.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Crews were also still struggling to gain control over the blaze near the Kirkwood ski resort area, to the south of the basin. Aircraft bombarded the area with water and retardant throughout day, as hand crews and bulldozers put in line to keep the blaze from coming down the ridge into the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since first sparking on Aug. 14, the blaze has charred nearly 211,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Thursday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: Improved weather is expected to continue today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost the winds aloft. It’s a good day today to not have gusty winds up on the ridges,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley at a Thursday morning briefing. “What we are going to have today are terrain-driven winds,” which occur as the sun heats the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, those winds, he warned, tend to be “quite variable in direction,” and given the ongoing dry conditions can still easily spark spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the west side of the blaze, firefighters are working to secure the Highway 50 corridor and keep the fire from burning cabins near Wrights Lake on the edge of Desolation Wilderness, in hopes the granite fields there will block its advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got a lot of resources heading up there to make sure we prevent any fire spread from heading back to the west,” said Beale Monday, a U.S. Forest Service operations section chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a positive development, crews overnight were able to use air support to drop water near the Kirkwood ski resort, holding back the blaze, which is hung up on a ridge just outside the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials on Thursday planned to fly in pumps to bring more water into the area to reinforce containment lines and protect homes.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Late Wednesday night, \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/01/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-california-emergency-declaration/\">President Biden issued an emergency declaration for the Caldor Fire\u003c/a> — following a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom — directing federal assistance to support state, local and tribal officials in battling the blaze. The order also authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts and provide assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the fire has charred more than 210,000 acres, only five injuries — three firefighters and two civilians — have been reported so far, with no fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire managers on Wednesday also announced a major change in command structure, with the fire now divided into a western and eastern zone, each managed by separate teams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 8 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facing a third consecutive red flag warning day amid dry, blustery conditions, thousands of firefighters labored Wednesday to block the ravenous Caldor Fire from reaching two major ski resort areas near Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews doubled down on efforts to corral a large finger of the blaze that was rapidly spreading northeast toward Heavenly Mountain Resort and the Nevada state line, where it posed an immediate threat to South Lake Tahoe and neighboring communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heavy, heavy resource commitment. We’ve got folks from all over the country here pushed into this entire area,” Beale Monday, a U.S. Forest Service operations section chief, said on Wednesday. “This is some very tough country. Very steep, very rugged. And it’s just not safe to try to put people right on the fire edge right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the fire was expected to spread further northeast, crossing into Nevada, and that crews with heavy equipment were doing prep work around the clock on sections of Highways 206, 207 and 88 to try to create “a catcher’s mitt as close to this as we possibly can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have a lot of equipment, a lot of people working on this periphery out here,” Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze also skirted across the north side of Christmas Valley, with crews scrambling to keep flames east of Pioneer Trail and away from homes. Monday said there has so far been no reported damage to homes in the area.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>South of the Tahoe basin, crews hardened their defense of the Kirkwood ski area along Highway 88, where strong, erratic winds continued to fuel the blaze, spreading spot fires dangerously close to that community. As of Wednesday evening, the fire had not entered Kirkwood proper, Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on the northwest side of the blaze, the fire on Wednesday continued moving aggressively up Wrights Lake Road off Highway 50 toward Desolation Wilderness. Aided by heavy air tankers dumping retardant, ground crews there moved quickly to connect control lines to the nearby granite fields in an effort to steer the blaze away from cabins and prevent it from spreading west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re actively engaged way up high here into the wilderness, trying to make sure that we do not get any more fire spread to the west,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wind-fueled spot fires continue to be the biggest hurdle to control efforts, said Stephen Vollmer, a fire analyst with Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been a problem since the very first day of this incident, and that’s what’s causing this fire to grow exponentially,” he said. “So we’re battling what we can battle and waiting for those winds to subside so that we can get in there and actively engage those fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, crews also toiled to stop an offshoot of fire along the Highway 50 corridor east of Pollock Pines, as bulldozers tried to build a contingency line on the north side of the highway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our biggest fears is that fire jumping across the highway,” Monday said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the many challenges firefighters continued to face, much progress had been made in various sections of the massive fire area, including most of the southern flank, where the perimeter remained strong, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were also generally looking under control in much of the southwestern section of the blaze, near where it first ignited more than two weeks ago, he added, although crews were still working to connect containment lines there, after a fierce spot fire erupted Tuesday on a ridge above Sly Park Road — setting a bulldozer on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still have a lot of work to do in there,” Monday said. “This has been a real troublesome spot for us over the last 14 to 15 days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters, he said, were “trying to put the wet stuff on the hot stuff as much as we can,” hoping to “call this line contained” in the next few days and then begin repopulating much of the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11887278\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS51276_036_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A black bear cub hangs over a tree branch near a burned structure in Phillips on Tues., Aug. 31, 2021. The Caldor Fire spread through the area on Monday evening. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As containment lines grew, officials on Wednesday \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1433210214409408513\">downgraded an evacuation order to a warning\u003c/a> in the area near North Camino and Pollock Pines north of Highway 50 and west of Sly Park Road, allowing residents there to return to their homes for the first time in about two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some 53,000 residents in El Dorado County alone were still under evacuation orders Wednesday. Officials have not given a timeline for when those areas can be repopulated, noting the many steps necessary before lifting evacuation orders, including removing firefighting equipment, cutting down damaged trees, and getting critical infrastructure running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an expected positive turn in the weather in the coming days may help hasten those repopulation efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finally some good news on the weather side here on this fire,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley, emphasizing that the region’s red flag warning would finally be ending late Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While dry conditions will continue into tomorrow, with high ignition rates, he said the strong, erratic winds that have so effectively fueled the fire in recent days are likely to subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And getting into Friday, the winds get even lighter,” he said. “So the issues and conditions that weather was causing, especially for the last couple of days, are going to be mitigated by much lighter winds across the fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burning since Aug. 14, the Caldor Fire has charred nearly 208,000 acres and is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">23% contained\u003c/a>. The blaze has destroyed almost 600 residences and continues to threaten more than 32,000 homes and other structures. Amazingly, only five injuries — three firefighters and two civilians — have been reported so far, with no fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 9 a.m. Wednesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After another long night of working to protect structures in the southern Tahoe basin from the sprawling Caldor Fire, firefighters face a challenging day again Wednesday as gusty winds and extremely dry conditions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire crews dodged a bit of a bullet Tuesday as southwesterly winds didn’t blow as hard as forecast, instead pushing the fire northeast — further into the Carson Range toward Nevada — instead of north toward South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lucked out yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected,” said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst in a Wednesday morning briefing. “We’re fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ernst said a thick layer of smoke that came in around midnight “put a damper on things and slowed a lot of growth,” giving crews opportunities to make some progress, despite very low humidity and warm temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got some great dozer line to protect structures here,” Ernst said of efforts to keep the dangerous easternmost tongue of the fire from spreading into nearby communities, including South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now burning just a few miles southwest of the Heavenly Mountain Resort, which on Tuesday began activating snowmaking equipment in an effort to slow the fire should it reach the area.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Fire crews Wednesday will also continue on protecting the Kirkwood area south of the Tahoe basin along Highway 88.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our major concerns was the Kirkwood bowl area where the Kirkwood ski area is. The fire is currently hung up right on the ridge outside Kirkwood, so that’s something we’ll be looking at today as one of our priorities,” Ernst said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As to the active fire area further west of Kirkwood along Highway 88, Ernst said fire crews are continuing to work on buttoning it up and keeping it from spreading further south across the highway — but he said the area “won’t show containment for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overnight, the fire also moved quickly up Wrights Lake Road, above Highway 50, spreading north toward a group of nearby cabins and Desolation Wilderness beyond that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This continues to be probably one of the biggest challenges of this last shift,” said Ernst, adding that crews were putting in contingency lines and doing structure defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a positive note, Ernst said things were “looking real good” in most of the southern and southwestern sections of the fire, where firefighters had made steady containment gains, including the area along Sly Park Road, south of Pollock Pines. Crews, though, were still fighting hard to clean up and secure one small area near Grizzly Flats, close to where the fire began more than two weeks — and where a bulldozer went up in flames yesterday. “We expect to probably see another 36 to 48 hours before we show full containment here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The entire fire is still in a red flag warning,” warned Cal Fire incident meteorologist Jim Dudley Wednesday morning. “The wind regime you saw yesterday will continue today. The speeds may be a little bit less than [Tuesday] … but we’ll still have swirling gusty winds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The red flag warning is set to expire at 11 p.m. Wednesday — but fire behavior analyst Stephen Vollmer warned that extreme fire behavior is likely to continue for at least another week, and indicated that officials fully expect the fire to cross the California-Nevada state line. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432853046065709058\">Mandatory evacuation orders have already been issued\u003c/a> for several communities just across the state line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In El Dorado County alone, more than 53,000 residents are currently under \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cal_OES/status/1433093655095496709\">mandatory evacuation orders\u003c/a>, with no timeline yet in place for repopulating those areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve talked about fire-weakened timber falling across roads, across escape routes. … We’ve talked about long-distance spotting and high probability of ignition with extremely dry fuels,” Vollmer said Wednesday morning. “All those things are still in play today. And they’re still going to be in play for the next week or so until we get a severe change in the weather.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sprawling army of firefighters worked furiously Tuesday to protect communities in and around the South Lake Tahoe area, as fierce alpine gusts continued fanning the flames of the fast-growing Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 4,000 personnel kept fighting the ferocious blaze from all directions in an all-out scramble not so much to extinguish the flames, but merely to keep them from destroying houses and other structures.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We’ve got to get through tonight and tomorrow. Things look better come Thursday.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We can’t control it. We don’t have any tools out there to stop the fire,” Erich Schwab, a Cal Fire operations section chief, told reporters during a Tuesday evening briefing, noting the exceptionally windy, dry conditions — expected to continue through Wednesday — that have stymied control efforts. “So we resort to herding the fire away from structures and away from people, so that’s what we’re actively doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That strategy has so far proved successful in protecting most buildings in the densely populated Tahoe basin and in many of the communities along the Highway 50 corridor heading up to Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the fire had already reached into Meyers Tuesday, the flames had yet to extend into neighboring South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said crews were also still actively fighting the blaze in pockets of “unburned islands” along Highway 50 near Twin Bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are literally fire engines from here all the way down into Tahoe,” he said. “I did see some damage to structures. The fire burned through there extremely fast, extremely hot. And we did the best that we could. And we’re still in there.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Since sparking more than two weeks ago, the blaze has charred nearly 200,000 acres and destroyed nearly 500 homes, along with some 100 other structures, while continuing to threaten more than 33,000 more, officials said. It is now 18% contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab also said crews had kept the head of the fire — which jumped Highway 89 Monday night — from reaching the Heavenly Mountain Resort area, and were now putting in bulldozer lines and waiting for fire activity to “settle down” before beginning their attack. That growth prompted a \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432853046065709058\">mandatory evacuation order\u003c/a> for several communities just across the state line in Nevada — adding to the many thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes in areas throughout the region, including the nearly 22,000 South Lake residents ordered to leave on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CALFIREAEU/status/1432862340060381189\">new evacuation order\u003c/a> was also issued late Tuesday for a small section of Alpine County along Highway 88, near Kirkwood, where the fire gained ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We’ll] go back in and get it when the fire behaves and calms down on us,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze, which on Monday jumped Highway 88, had not yet reached Kirkwood, he said, but a structure defense operation with 20 engines had been established there in preparation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire on Tuesday also jumped the control line on Wrights Lake Road, Schwab added, and was making a run east toward Wrights Lake and Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The undesirable trio of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures continues to make the probability of ignition incredibly high, explained Cal Fire’s Stephen Vollmer, a fire behavior analyst. Those conditions enable active crown runs, where the fire jumps from treetop to treetop, sometimes casting embers more than a mile away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So that’s what’s propagating the spread of the fire right now,” he said. “Those embers are landing in the very old, very dense fuels that are out there in the fire environment … in an area that has not seen fire history all the way back before 1940.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A red flag warning will remain in place for the region through Wednesday night, amid ongoing windy gusts and low humidity, incident meteorologist Jim Dudley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think today is the worst of the weather days,” he said. “Tomorrow’s going to be another bad weather day — I’ll be honest with you — but it’ll be the last one of those.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dudley said winds were expected to weaken considerably by Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s gonna make for a much better situation here on the fire footprint,” he said. “So keep that in mind. We’ve got to get through tonight and tomorrow. Things look better come Thursday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although most of the southern and southwestern edges of the fire are now contained, officials said there is no timeline to repopulate most of those areas still under mandatory evacuation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is making every effort to get you back in your homes,” said Sgt. Eric Palmberg with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. “When these people determine it is safe to get back into our homes, we will put that information out and we will get you back in there as soon as we can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 4 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An army of firefighters faced an increasingly challenging fight against the Caldor Fire overnight, as the blaze’s eastern flank continued to burn downslope from near Echo Summit into the Tahoe basin, with the fire establishing itself on both sides of Highway 89 south of Meyers — the third major roadway it has now jumped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pushed by strong winds, flames on the eastern side of Highway 89 have now begun burning into the mountains on the other side of the valley, south of South Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“We saw spotting distances of a half mile to a mile yesterday. The spots went all the way to the other side of the 89 and are working their way back up,” said Tim Ernst, Cal Fire section chief, in a morning briefing Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews in the Christmas Valley area, near Meyers, worked overnight to protect homes on the west side of 89, as the fire backed down the slope behind them. Amazingly, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BrandonRittiman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1432811274845376513%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fww2.kqed.org%2Fnews%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D11886590action%3Deditclassic-editor\">there did not appear to be any significant structure loss in the neighborhoods that the flames had reached into\u003c/a>, according to ABC10 reporter Brandon Rittiman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to show you how close the Caldor Fire came to getting some of these structures. You can see the blackened forest just right up into the backyards,” Rittiman said in a Twitter video posted on Tuesday afternoon, which he filmed near the intersection of Highway 89 and Santa Claus Drive. “I don’t see any structures lost down here, which is just incredible given the way-big flame lengths that we were seeing last night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “This took a lot of work from fire crews.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>And in similarly positive news, a Cal Fire firefighter told KQED’s Beth LaBerge that all structures at the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort — where the blaze had run through on Sunday night — were saved except for one vehicle maintenance building.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are likely to face even more challenging conditions and very dangerous rates of fire spread Tuesday, as winds are expected to pick up significantly and a red flag warning remains in effect until 11 p.m. Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have even more flow coming across the fire to cause more turbulent winds, [with] gusts to 45 mph, maybe 50 mph depending on where you are,” said incident meteorologist Jim Dudley on Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stronger winds will be more pronounced at higher elevations, he said, with the general wind direction pushing the fire toward South Lake Tahoe to the northeast and further into the mountains to the east. But crews will likely have to contend with more chaotic winds on the valley floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t emphasize [enough] the wind issues we’re going to have up top,” Dudley said. “That wind is going to channel through the canyons and drainages up there. The overall direction is going to want to take it off to the northeast and east, but when you’re down on the terrain it’s going to be all over the place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This fire is going to stand up and rip. Under no circumstances get in front of the head of this fire.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Those winds mean the Caldor Fire will likely continue to grow at dangerous rates of spread — with crown fires torching large trees and throwing embers for long distances, especially in drainages that align with the southwesterly wind direction, said Stephen Vollmer, Cal Fire fire behavior analyst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day when those trees torch out we’ve got that long distance spotting. Today is not going to be any different,” Vollmer said Tuesday morning. “We’re going to see rates of spread go up to about 200 feet per minute, and the spotting distances go over a mile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extremely dry conditions also mean extremely high rates of ignition for spot fires created by those embers. “Ignition is about 90%,” Vollmer said. “But it probably should be about 150%.” Vollmer said long-distance spotting would likely continue for the next two days due to forecast winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This fire is going to stand up and rip,” said Cal Fire incident commander Jeff Ike on Tuesday morning, emphasizing the danger for fire crews and advising them to stay out of the fire’s direct path. “Under no circumstances get in front of the head of this fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thick smoke prevented air firefighting operations periodically last week. But since then, nearly two dozen helicopters and three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of water and retardant on the fire, fire spokesperson Dominic Polito said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of South Lake Tahoe, usually bustling with summer tourists, was eerily empty Tuesday morning, the air thick with smoke from the approaching blaze. On Monday, thousands of residents jammed Highway 50 heading toward Nevada — one of the only exit routes — after being ordered by authorities to leave.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>City officials said only a handful defied the order. But nearly everyone worried Tuesday about what the fire would do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just kind of sucks waiting. I mean, I know it’s close down that way,” said Russ Crupi, gesturing south from his home in the Heavenly Valley Estates mobile home park, which he and his wife manage. He had arranged sprinklers and tractors around the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about what’ll be here when people come back. People want to come back to their houses and that’s what I’m going to try to do,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>José Mora, 37, a construction worker from South Lake Tahoe, waited until yesterday’s evacuation order to leave town, jumping in his car with just a bag of clothes. He moved here as a young child from his native Jalisco, Mexico, where many of South Lake’s Latino residents come from. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/southlaketahoecitycalifornia\">Latino community here, which has grown markedly in recent years\u003c/a>, now accounts for more than 30% of the city’s population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mora, who on Tuesday was sheltering at the Carson City Community Center, said if the area is hit hard by the fire, he’ll likely have to relocate in search of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it burns, it’s going to be hard, a lot of years to recover, and it’s not going to be the same,” he said. “It’s going to take years to be where we’re at right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Tuesday morning, the Caldor Fire had burned over 191,607 acres, destroyed at least 669 structures, and was 16% contained. Just five injuries have so far been reported since the start of the blaze more than two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 6 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire crews continued battling the Caldor Fire’s advancing eastern perimeter along the Highway 50 corridor near Echo Summit on Monday afternoon, after officials put the entirety of South Lake Tahoe under a mandatory evacuation order late Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a rough long day for the troops up there today. But they have been decently successful,” said Cody Bogan, a Cal Fire operations section chief, during an evening briefing. “Luckily the fuel’s kind of run out and it kind of slowed the fire progression down, up on that north piece.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The fire was casting embers up to half a mile earlier Monday, according to fire officials, causing spot fires to ignite downslope into the Tahoe basin. The blaze, which has now charred more than 186,500 acres and is only 15% contained, continues to pose a serious threat to the basin amid a red flag warning due to higher winds and exceptionally dry conditions. That \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1432410570955706376?s=20\">warning has been extended until 11 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearer air in the area allowed some aircraft to provide much-needed support from above on Monday, Bogan said, with firefighters on the ground continuing to chase spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further south, along the fire’s southeastern flank, crews were unable to keep the blaze from jumping Highway 88 for the first time, into Amador County. The fire jumped the highway approximately two miles west of Kirkwood, and was pushing eastward toward the resort area. Kirkwood was placed under mandatory evacuation orders on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Highway 88 corridor got hit pretty hard today,” Bogan said, noting that bulldozers were digging line to try to cut it off and “get it tamed back” onto the north side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among Monday’s positive developments: Firefighters have been successful in protecting the town of Strawberry, which just days earlier was under imminent threat, Bogan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything through Strawberry’s looking a lot better now. They’re continuing to mop up around structures and trying to secure things,” he said of the community that lies along Highway 50 on the western side of the pass, east of Twin Bridges. “As of right now, there’s been no structure loss in the Strawberry area that we are aware of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bogan also called it “a very successful day” in the southwestern sections of the fire, near where it first ignited two weeks ago, with crews making steady containment gains. That progress prompted officials late Monday to downgrade evacuation orders to warnings in several nearby areas close to Omo Ranch Road, near the Amador/El Dorado County line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions, he added, were also “looking real good” heading northeast toward the Pollock Pines area, with “no real issues at all to report,” although evacuation orders there remained in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 3 p.m. Monday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 22,000 South Lake Tahoe residents were ordered to evacuate late Monday morning as the Caldor Fire continued its rapid advance eastward, crossing Echo Summit and threatening to extend further into the Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that’s always in the back of your mind that you hope never happens,” said South Lake Mayor Pro Tem Devin Middlebrook, who evacuated late Sunday night. “But here we are today, with this threat to our community. And it’s something that we, as a city and as a community, have been preparing for, and hopefully that preparation pays off.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>By early Monday afternoon, vehicles packed to the brim with bikes, camping gear and other personal belongings — some even towing boats — were backed up for miles in the thick, brown air along eastbound Highway 50 heading toward Nevada, the main evacuation route, as residents anxiously waited to escape the smoke-choked basin. One man broke out his violin and played a mournful melody as he ambled along the vast line of motionless cars.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“This is a systematic evacuation, one neighborhood at a time,” South Lake Tahoe police Lt. Travis Cabral said on social media. “I am asking you as our community to please remain calm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An evacuation order is defined as an immediate threat to life. \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/14L8o2P-uvwSK_gyLCnhFRTon7nzLUNo2t98HjP30uAY/edit\">Evacuation shelters\u003c/a> are located at Truckee Veterans Hall and the Douglas County Community and Senior Center in Gardnerville, Nevada.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The orders come as the eastern edge of the Caldor Fire continues its rapid advance. On Sunday night, the blaze extended 8 1/2 miles up to the border of the Tahoe basin, incinerating cabins and other structures in the forest along Highway 50 between Twin Bridges and Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By Monday morning, the blaze had grown to more than 177,000 acres — a run of more than 20,000 acres over just one day — leaping over hard-fought containment lines cut with bulldozers, as crews battled the flames on multiple sides. The fire remained only 14% contained, down from 19% containment earlier this weekend, after rapid growth on the northeast and southern edges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By midday Monday, the fire had breached several points along the ridge and begun its descent into the basin, reaching spots around Lower Echo Lake and parts of Desolation Wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So there’s fire in the basin,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter reported solemnly at a Monday afternoon briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Caldor is a real tough one for us,” he said, noting the steep challenges firefighters face controlling the northeastern edge’s side of the massive blaze, which continues to churn through rugged, difficult-to-reach terrain. “It’s been burning in heavy timber, just very, very difficult conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter said last week’s inversion layer in the atmosphere, which helped keep a lid on the fire, disappeared yesterday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the air clears, it’s like taking the lid off of your pot of boiling water — all of a sudden there’s that plume of heat and steam that comes out. Same thing happens on a fire,” he said. “Also sucks in oxygen from all directions, puts fire and spot fires in all directions. That’s what happened yesterday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials are still assessing last night’s damage in the El Dorado County communities the fire swept through, including the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort, where snowmaking equipment had been activated in the hopes of gaining some protection from the blaze. More than 600 structures have already been destroyed, and at least 20,000 more were threatened.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Weather conditions were expected to worsen throughout the day, with strong wind gusts and low humidity raising concerns of erratic fire behavior and prompting the National Weather Service to issue a \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/sto/\">red flag warning\u003c/a> extending through Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter underscored the unprecedented ferocity of California fires this season , which is still just in its early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t had fires burn from one side of the Sierras to the other. [But] we did with the Dixie, now we have with the Caldor. Two times in our history, and they’re both happening this month,” he said, urging residents to be prepared and evacuate as early as possible. “We need to be really cognizant that there is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 10 p.m. Sunday\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEvacuation orders and warnings hit South Lake Tahoe and additional areas in the Tahoe basin on Sunday night after a challenging weekend for crews battling the massive Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evacuation orders in El Dorado County were extended to include the community of Meyers and communities south of Meyers along Highway 89 to the Alpine County line. An evacuation warning is now in effect for the remainder of El Dorado County in the Tahoe basin, including all of South Lake Tahoe and communities along the southern shores of the lake north to the Placer County line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional evacuation orders in Alpine County included the Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Caples Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Lake Tahoe’s main medical facility, Barton Memorial Hospital, proactively evacuated 36 patients needing skilled nursing and 16 in acute care beds Sunday, sending them to regional facilities far from the fire, public information officer Mindi Befu said. The rest of the hospital was evacuating following Monday’s expanded orders.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Fire officials sounded resigned in a community meeting Sunday evening, as new evacuation orders were issued across El Dorado and Alpine counties in the wake of “extreme rates” of fire spread, said Eric Schwab, Cal Fire’s operation section chief.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Today’s been the hottest, driest day so far on the fire.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">evacuation orders\u003c/a> include Meyers, just 7 miles south of South Lake Tahoe, which itself was issued an evacuation warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A couple days ago I really felt we were turning the corner with it,” Schwab told the community. But without adequate staffing and with changing weather conditions, firefighters found themselves playing defense over the weekend, fire officials said — not so much stopping the spread, as working to save structures from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said that in the last two weeks, the Caldor Fire’s perimeter had advanced less than a half mile, but on Sunday the perimeter “moved about 2 1/2 miles on us with no sign it’s slowing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In those conditions, Schwab said, fire crews moved to their No. 1 priority: evacuating people and preserving life. Much of their defense of structures was around Highway 50 and the Kirkwood Mountain Resort, with 25 strike teams of engines, 25 bulldozers and 25 hand crews set to defend nearby structures Sunday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the wind blows like this, our primary modes are one — hold onto what we have,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A favorable turn in weather Saturday afternoon allowed firefighters to make progress and increase containment of the fire to 19%, up from 12% the day before, said Capt. Stephen Horner, a Cal Fire spokesperson for the Caldor Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sunday’s effort was far more of a struggle, with crews having to carry hoses by hand through rough terrain. Triple-digit weather also lies ahead through Tuesday, leaving little optimism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s been a rough day and there’s no bones about it,” said Jeff Marsolais, forest supervisor for Eldorado National Forest. A few days ago, he thought crews could halt the Caldor Fire’s eastern progress, but “today it let loose.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“Eleven days ago we had 240 people, and that was it to try to work and contain this fire,” said Keith Wade, a Cal Fire captain and public information officer. “Now we’re upwards of 3,500 personnel. … That means more help. And that means more containment lines getting down on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 7 p.m. Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Cal Fire has ordered evacuations across portions of El Dorado County, including near Echo Summit. Cal Fire also asked other communities near Echo Summit — like Christmas Valley near Highway 89 — to prepare for that possibility. Check Cal Fire’s incident page for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/\">a full list of evacuation orders\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massive blaze has raged across a vast expanse of steep, mountainous terrain southwest of Lake Tahoe and \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/21/map-caldor-fire-structure-damage/\">destroyed more than 470 structures\u003c/a> since igniting on Aug. 14, even as the fire continued to advance northeast toward the much more populated Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some low humidity on Saturday afternoon increased fire activity, according to Cal Fire, with erratic winds casting embers up to half a mile from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s been the hottest, driest day so far on the fire,” said Jim Dudley, Cal Fire incident meteorologist, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CALFIREAEU/videos/1202995556829423\">a Saturday evening community meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday night and Monday, wind will increase, Dudley said, prompting officials to call a red flag warning for the northern Sierra and the southern Cascades, which takes effect 11 a.m. Monday through Tuesday evening. Those conditions may mean more “rapid spread of fire,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1431739221140668419\">National Weather Service\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire officials said they’ll expect to see increased fire activity Sunday and Monday morning, since an inversion layer of air is expected to bottle up smoky air in the area and release it those mornings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visibility improved enough near Saturday evening to allow Cal Fire to bring in more air support, said Cal Fire Section Chief Cody Bogan.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post: Updated 8 p.m. Friday\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAs of Friday morning, much of the southwestern and western flanks of the sprawling Caldor Fire, along with its southern perimeter, had been largely contained, with no major growth reported, fire officials said. Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Erich Schwab echoed that sentiment about the southwestern portion of the blaze in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CALFIREAEU/videos/143879924593222/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVbYUAtW09muDQHgYMvpoOyg-iiNyt8bTlt0XzI13BuilkJLhDjyrQKPKO04xSFaV9sVB2nIG0ag7n0AsAhJdWIZBQFHGjeqPyTJ_4jZYn68ZoyESqivZv3xdf_JqBckwAkIz7rnQRLgZPxjwiGgIjZV8UilVZdXIEd9md-x3R9Bw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\">evening briefing\u003c/a>, saying fire officials were “finally comfortable and confident that that’s not going to move any further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwab said technical burning operations on the northwestern edge of the fire — the portion closest to Placerville — resulted in some minor spot fires, which were difficult to fight in extremely limited visibility due to smoke. “We hope to get it boxed in,” Schwab said, as a daylong smoke inversion had lifted and allowed an air attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most active and dangerous portions of the Caldor Fire remain the eastern and northeastern sections currently burning toward the Lake Tahoe basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most problematic flank of the blaze — the northeastern section, which has jumped Highway 50 between Kyburz and Strawberry — “got very active [Thursday] and jumped over our proposed control line and ran about 800 acres … burning up to the 7,500 elevation line,” Schwab said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fuels are extremely critical up there,” he added. “Fuels that normally wouldn’t be available to burn actively are burning with extreme conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That portion of the fire has also “completely torched” much of the area along Highway 50 between Kyburz and Strawberry, hurling fallen trees and other debris onto the roadway, said Cal Fire Section Chief Tim Ernst earlier on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This road is extremely treacherous right now,” Ernst added, while noting that firefighters have so far been able to protect all the structures in the area.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Schwab sounded a note of optimism Friday evening regarding the blaze’s eastern section south of Highway 50, calling it a “success story for today.” Crews were able to establish multiple bulldozer containment lines east of where the fire is burning — that is, between the fire and the Tahoe basin — and Schwab was hopeful that planned overnight backfire operations would succeed in halting the blaze’s eastern progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Answering a question about the likelihood of the blaze reaching the Tahoe basin, Schwab said, “We’re doing everything that we can to ensure that it doesn’t. … That’s why [the eastern branch of the fire south of Highway 50] is such a critical priority for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for winds that could significantly drive the fire, Cal Fire incident meteorologist Jim Dudley said Friday evening that relatively light winds are forecast for the weekend, but that the situation could change Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll probably be hearing terms like ‘possibly a red flag might be coming out this weekend for strong winds for Monday,'” said Cal Fire incident met\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Monica Lam contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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}
},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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