California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters
How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time
California Needs a New Approach to Wildfire Planning, Experts Say. Cost Is an Issue
Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods?
Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week
A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day
Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke
The Summer That Changed California Forever
Firefighters Gain First Foothold on Pickett Fire in Napa County
Sponsored
Player sponsored by
window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"science_1929241": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1929241",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1929241",
"found": true
},
"title": "Firefighters monitor a back fire as they battle the Medocino Complex Fire on August 7, 2018 near Lodoga, California.",
"publishDate": 1533849684,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 1929240,
"modified": 1763418758,
"caption": "Firefighters monitor a back fire as they battle the Mendocino Complex Fire on Aug. 7, 2018, near Lodoga, California. A new bill sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla would explore landmark respiratory protections to shield wildland firefighters from dangerous wildfire smoke.\r\n",
"credit": "Justin Sullivan/Getty Images",
"altTag": null,
"description": "Firefighters monitor a back fire as they battle the Medocino Complex Fire on August 7, 2018 near Lodoga, California.",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-160x120.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 120,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-800x600.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 600,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-768x576.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1020x765.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 765,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"complete_open_graph": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1200x900.jpg",
"width": 1200,
"height": 900,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1920x1440.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1440,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1180x885.jpg",
"width": 1180,
"height": 885,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-960x720.jpg",
"width": 960,
"height": 720,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-240x180.jpg",
"width": 240,
"height": 180,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-375x281.jpg",
"width": 375,
"height": 281,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-520x390.jpg",
"width": 520,
"height": 390,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1180x885.jpg",
"width": 1180,
"height": 885,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-1920x1440.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1440,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-32x32.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-50x50.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-64x64.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-96x96.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-128x128.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-150x150.jpg",
"width": 150,
"height": 150,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/gettyimages-1013042968-d42cde49a52b185ef0c81fd477baa7c35b18946a-e1763418771171.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1500
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998827": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998827",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998827",
"found": true
},
"title": "251015-EMBER STOMP-04-KQED",
"publishDate": 1760555685,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1760731453,
"caption": "Attendees at Marin's Ember Stomp Festival mix with firefighters, non-profits, businesses and local and state organizations to learn about preparing for wildfires on Sept. 6, 2025.",
"credit": "Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-04-KQED.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998792": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998792",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998792",
"found": true
},
"title": "240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed",
"publishDate": 1760389914,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1760389925,
"caption": "Foreman Mihlhauser (right) works with Acton Conservation Camp Crew 11-1, an incarcerated fire team, to fell burned trees in Altadena, California, on Jan. 10, 2025, after the Eaton Fire destroyed much of the area. The Los Angeles County Fire Department and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation operate the camp to train incarcerated hand crews to fight fires around Los Angeles and California.",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998770": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998770",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998770",
"found": true
},
"title": "240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed",
"publishDate": 1760123731,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 1998746,
"modified": 1760123738,
"caption": "The remains of a house in Altadena, California, after the Eaton Fire swept through the area northeast of Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg",
"width": 1999,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998524": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998524",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998524",
"found": true
},
"title": "Lightning illuminates the sky over the eastern span of the Bay Bridge as a storm passed through the area on Sunday morning in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, August 16, 2020",
"publishDate": 1757967581,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 1998512,
"modified": 1757967611,
"caption": "Lightning illuminates the sky over the eastern span of the Bay Bridge as a storm passed through the area on August 16, 2020. ",
"credit": "Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED-160x105.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 105,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED-768x504.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 504,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED-1536x1008.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1008,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/GETTYIMAGES-1409142795-KQED.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1312
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998270": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998270",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998270",
"found": true
},
"title": "250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED",
"publishDate": 1756139768,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1757113506,
"caption": "Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. speaks to the cast during a rehearsal for the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. The new production reflects on the September 2020 day when wildfire smoke turned the Bay Area sky orange.",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-44-KQED.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998212": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998212",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998212",
"found": true
},
"title": "SFChronicleFireSkies",
"publishDate": 1755894969,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 1998209,
"modified": 1755895025,
"caption": "A man looks out at the Golden Gate Bridge, which was shrouded in dark orange smoke in San Francisco, California, on Sept. 9, 2020, due to multiple wildfires burning across California and Oregon. ",
"credit": "Gabrielle Lurie/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364.jpg",
"width": 1800,
"height": 1200
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998189": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998189",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998189",
"found": true
},
"title": "250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED",
"publishDate": 1755707662,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1755707745,
"caption": "Driving home to Sonoma County from camping in Humboldt County, Nate Ericson photographed the plume Mendocino Complex fire beginning to fill the sky.",
"credit": "Courtesy of Nate Ericson",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-03-KQED.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"science_1998204": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1998204",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998204",
"found": true
},
"title": "Pickett Fire Burns In California's Napa County",
"publishDate": 1755881843,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 1998202,
"modified": 1755881927,
"caption": "A firefighting helicopter drops water onto the Pickett Fire as it burns in the hills near a vineyard on Aug. 21, 2025, in Calistoga, California. The Pickett fire has burned over 1,200 acres in the Napa Valley and is zero percent contained.",
"credit": "Justin Sullivan/Getty Images",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-2000x1456.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1456,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-2000x1456.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1456,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-160x116.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 116,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-768x559.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 559,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-1536x1118.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1118,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-2048x1491.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"height": 1491,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-2000x1456.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1456,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/Pickett-Fire-in-Napa-County-AP-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1864
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false
},
"authorsReducer": {
"lklivans": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "8648",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "8648",
"found": true
},
"name": "Laura Klivans",
"firstName": "Laura",
"lastName": "Klivans",
"slug": "lklivans",
"email": "lklivans@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news",
"science"
],
"title": "Reporter",
"bio": "Laura Klivans is an award-winning science reporter for KQED News, where she covers climate change with an eye on both groundbreaking progress and gaps in action. She is the former host of KQED's blockbuster video series about tiny, amazing animals, \u003cem>Deep Look\u003c/em>. Her work reaches national audiences through NPR, \u003cem>Here & Now, \u003c/em>PRI, and other major outlets. \r\n\r\nLaura’s won five Northern California Area Emmy Awards for Deep Look and First Place in the Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards for a podcast exploring how one Oakland neighborhood teamed up to reduce planet-heating pollution.\r\n\r\nBeyond her reporting, she hosts and moderates events. In the past, she taught audio storytelling at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, led international education programs, worked with immigrants and refugees along the Thai-Burmese border, taught high schoolers sex ed, and was an actress. \r\n\r\nShe's a former UC Berkeley Human Rights Fellow, USC Center for Health Journalism's California Fellow and Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Laura has a master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley, a master’s in education from Harvard, and an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University.\r\n\r\nShe loves trying to riddle the meaning out of vanity license plates.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/af8e757bb8ce7b7fee6160ba66e37327?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "lauraklivans",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "stateofhealth",
"roles": [
"contributor",
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "forum",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Laura Klivans | KQED",
"description": "Reporter",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/af8e757bb8ce7b7fee6160ba66e37327?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/af8e757bb8ce7b7fee6160ba66e37327?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/lklivans"
},
"dventon": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11088",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11088",
"found": true
},
"name": "Danielle Venton",
"firstName": "Danielle",
"lastName": "Venton",
"slug": "dventon",
"email": "dventon@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"science"
],
"title": "Science reporter",
"bio": "Danielle Venton is a reporter for KQED Science. She covers wildfires, space and oceans (though she is prone to sea sickness).\r\n\r\nBefore joining KQED in 2015, Danielle was a staff reporter at KRCB in Sonoma County and a freelancer. She studied science communication at UC Santa Cruz and formerly worked at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland where she wrote about computing. She lives in Sonoma County and enjoys backpacking.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "DanielleVenton",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "futureofyou",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Danielle Venton | KQED",
"description": "Science reporter",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/dventon"
},
"lesleymcclurg": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11229",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11229",
"found": true
},
"name": "Lesley McClurg",
"firstName": "Lesley",
"lastName": "McClurg",
"slug": "lesleymcclurg",
"email": "lmcclurg@KQED.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news",
"science"
],
"title": "KQED Health Correspondent",
"bio": "Lesley McClurg is a health correspondent and fill-in host whose work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and PBS programs. She’s earned multiple regional Emmy awards, a national and a regional Edward R. Murrow award, and was named Best Beat Reporter by the Association of Health Care Journalists. The Society of Professional Journalists has recognized her work several times, and the Society of Environmental Journalists spotlighted her coverage of California’s historic drought.\r\n\r\nBefore joining KQED in 2016, Lesley covered food and sustainability for Capital Public Radio, environmental issues for Colorado Public Radio, and reported for KUOW and KCTS 9 in Seattle. Away from the newsroom, she loves skiing with her daughter, mountain biking with her partner, and playing with Ollie, the family’s goldendoodle. On deadline, she runs almost entirely on chocolate chips.\r\n\r\n ",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3fb78e873af3312f34d0bc1d60a07c7f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "lesleywmcclurg",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "futureofyou",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "stateofhealth",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "quest",
"roles": [
"subscriber"
]
},
{
"site": "forum",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Lesley McClurg | KQED",
"description": "KQED Health Correspondent",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3fb78e873af3312f34d0bc1d60a07c7f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3fb78e873af3312f34d0bc1d60a07c7f?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/lesleymcclurg"
},
"eromero": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11746",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11746",
"found": true
},
"name": "Ezra David Romero",
"firstName": "Ezra David",
"lastName": "Romero",
"slug": "eromero",
"email": "eromero@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news",
"science"
],
"title": "Climate Reporter",
"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. ",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "ezraromero",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Ezra David Romero | KQED",
"description": "Climate Reporter",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/eromero"
}
},
"breakingNewsReducer": {},
"pagesReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"science_1999312": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1999312",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1999312",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1763427653000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "california-senators-demand-ppe-greater-smoke-protections-for-wildland-firefighters",
"title": "California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters",
"publishDate": 1763427653,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "A new bill sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla would explore landmark respiratory protections to shield wildland firefighters from dangerous wildfire smoke.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1763431672,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 22,
"wordCount": 920
},
"headData": {
"title": "California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters | KQED",
"description": "A new bill sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla would explore landmark respiratory protections to shield wildland firefighters from dangerous wildfire smoke.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters",
"datePublished": "2025-11-17T17:00:53-08:00",
"dateModified": "2025-11-17T18:07:52-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 39,
"slug": "health",
"name": "Health"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1999312",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1999312/california-senators-demand-ppe-greater-smoke-protections-for-wildland-firefighters",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12056655",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1999312/california-senators-demand-ppe-greater-smoke-protections-for-wildland-firefighters",
"authors": [
"11746"
],
"categories": [
"science_39",
"science_40",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_194",
"science_4414",
"science_5181",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1929241",
"label": "source_science_1999312"
},
"science_1998808": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998808",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998808",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1760796043000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "how-ember-stomp-is-helping-marin-get-fire-ready-one-go-bag-at-a-time",
"title": "How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time",
"publishDate": 1760796043,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>Children climbed up fire engines, gripped hoses, and fired bursts of water to knock down wooden flames in the windows of small model houses. Local gardening experts offered tips on growing native plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I heard someone was lighting things on fire somewhere. And nearby goats lounged in the shade in a pen. Some looked around. Some serenely closed their eyes. I was hoping one of them might like to make a sound into my microphone for a radio story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not very personable,” said their human, Bianca Shapiro, project manager at Star Creek Land Stewards, a targeted grazing operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to Ember Stomp, a free festival hosted by the nonprofit Fire Safe Marin, focused on wildfire safety and preparedness. Held at the Marin Civic Center last month — home to the county fair — Ember Stomp felt like a small-town music festival, complete with food trucks and kid-friendly activities. There were no beer gardens or concert stages, but a lively marching band did parade through the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of agencies — including all of Marin’s fire departments — joined forces with nonprofits to showcase fire prevention programs and community resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vendors offered fire-resistant building materials, rooftop sprinklers, and landscape design for defensible space. Everyone was eager to share their piece of the wildfire protection puzzle. Organizers estimate about 6,000 people attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998826 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-160x134.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-768x642.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-1536x1284.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Quarles, a pioneering researcher in how to make buildings more resistant to fire, begins a burn demonstration to illustrate the difference between fire-resistant siding and normal siding at the Ember Stomp festival in Marin on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I came curious: What do you see at a fire-prep festival? What did people who were willing to devote part of a precious Saturday to learning about fire-resistant siding make of it? Should Marin’s model be an example?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin’s public outreach around wildfire resilience has grown in recent years, thanks in large part to something unique in California — and possibly the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years ago, Marin charged a county-wide group of officials with the task of preventing wildfire destruction, organized around a joint powers authority and funded by a voter-approved parcel tax.[aside postID=science_1998746 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg']This organization, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, supports Fire Safe Marin and helps drive local preparedness initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marin has found a great way to create a local funding stream that has been a critical innovation, especially in a landscape where we see fluctuations in the availability of state and federal funds,” said Jacy Hyde, executive director for the California Fire Safe Council, during a recent state wildfire task force meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She cited Marin’s group as a model for other counties looking to invest directly in their own wildfire resilience priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s fire risk is still substantial, the way to start chipping away at that danger is through spurring people to take action. Money invested for safety ahead of time generally pays off richly down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building go bags and prepping fire-ready homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jessamyn Hise, community outreach manager for Fire Safe Marin, greeted people at a table about assembling a “go bag.” What many don’t understand, she said, is that a go bag need not be expensive and likely will not require the purchase of a lot of new stuff. I came away with a printed checklist and renewed mental resolve to check and revamp my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed the sound of excited squeals to an activity on the edge of the festival. Kids and firefighters aimed water hoses at a small pretend house and knocked down wooden flames in the upper window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After whoops and cheers for each kid, firefighters then popped the flames back up, pulling a length of rope — the same sort of technology used in old carnival games where players might knock down a duck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998824 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Different types of bark mulch display varying resistance to carrying fire, as part of the live burn demonstrations at Marin’s Ember Stomp Festival on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Close to the human kids, the aloof goats from Star Creek Land Stewards gave project manager Shapiro a chance to talk about the case for using adorable grazers to prepare landscapes for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Star Creek manages about 8,000 goats and 3,000 sheep that work around the state to eat grass and brush, leaving the land safer in case a fire breaks out. Shapiro explained that grazing, like all vegetation management techniques, has advantages and drawbacks. Some of the pluses include avoiding chemical herbicides that are used by some land managers to knock back weeds, and avoiding smoke or the risk of a fire escape, as would be present during a prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shapiro said, crews that use tools to clear plants by hand work well in many places, but noted, “There are lots of zones where goats or sheep just have a much easier time climbing the hill and munching at the same time. The other asset is that sheep and goats, rather than just cutting things and leaving them on the ground, they digest it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, I scouted out a few vendors. Pacific Gas and Electric offered free manzanita and California laurel plant starters the size of small basketballs, along with advice on landscaping with other utility-friendly plants, whose roots won’t puncture watermains or whose branches won’t grow so tall as to interfere with powerlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998825\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees observe a live burn demonstration at Marin’s fire safety festival, Ember Stomp, on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>United Policyholders, a nonprofit helping consumers navigate fire insurance, shared advice, a listening ear and giveaway flashlights, powered by a hand crank instead of batteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the main attraction of the day was live burn demonstrations, showing the effectiveness of fire-resistant building materials and retrofitting techniques.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a penned-off area, at the end of the two charmingly named corridors “Home Hardening Way” and “Environmental Alley,” Steve Quarles was setting things on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quarles, an experienced researcher and expert in how to keep buildings safe from fires, showed how things like fire-resistant soffits perform when fires burn underneath them. A firefighter assisting him piled glowing embers on top of four different types of mesh vents. Depending on the size of the grain, the mesh let burning embers in or kept them out. The best performers are clearly the sixteenth-of-an-inch mesh.[aside postID=science_1998787 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed.jpg']“Embers that can pass through here typically don’t have enough energy to ignite things on the other side,” Quarles said. “Not the case for the quarter-inch and not the case of the half-inch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One type of sixteenth-inch mesh is ember-resistant but could let in flames. The state fire marshal approves the other to be flame-resistant, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of home ignitions during fires start from embers sneaking inside the house, not from flames. So, keeping them out was a main message for the day. Hence the name, “Ember Stomp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is a main focus of Fire Safe Marin’s public education efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the festival, people carried their giveaways from exhibitors, masks to shield from smoke, buckets to hold evacuation supplies and a couple of big smiles from Peter Kacherginsky and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live nearby in Lucas Valley and had a fire near them last year. They attended for tips on how to make their home safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was great, very informative,” he said. “We want to do some kind of sprinkler system on the roof – that seemed to have worked in L.A. fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re looking to design their backyard to be ready for fires. He looked down at his two kids with red plastic firefighter helmets on their heads, bouncing up and down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids loved it also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "At Marin’s Ember Stomp festival, thousands gathered for hands-on wildfire safety demos, go-bag tips, and live burn tests — part of a growing, community-powered effort to prepare for fire season.\r\n",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1761171496,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 33,
"wordCount": 1395
},
"headData": {
"title": "How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time | KQED",
"description": "At Marin’s Ember Stomp festival, thousands gathered for hands-on wildfire safety demos, go-bag tips, and live burn tests — part of a growing, community-powered effort to prepare for fire season.\r\n",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time",
"datePublished": "2025-10-18T07:00:43-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-10-22T15:18:16-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 3730,
"slug": "wildfires",
"name": "Wildfires"
},
"source": "News",
"audioUrl": "https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/1538c691-463f-40e1-86ad-b36e010f312f/audio.mp3",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998808",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998808/how-ember-stomp-is-helping-marin-get-fire-ready-one-go-bag-at-a-time",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Children climbed up fire engines, gripped hoses, and fired bursts of water to knock down wooden flames in the windows of small model houses. Local gardening experts offered tips on growing native plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I heard someone was lighting things on fire somewhere. And nearby goats lounged in the shade in a pen. Some looked around. Some serenely closed their eyes. I was hoping one of them might like to make a sound into my microphone for a radio story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not very personable,” said their human, Bianca Shapiro, project manager at Star Creek Land Stewards, a targeted grazing operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to Ember Stomp, a free festival hosted by the nonprofit Fire Safe Marin, focused on wildfire safety and preparedness. Held at the Marin Civic Center last month — home to the county fair — Ember Stomp felt like a small-town music festival, complete with food trucks and kid-friendly activities. There were no beer gardens or concert stages, but a lively marching band did parade through the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of agencies — including all of Marin’s fire departments — joined forces with nonprofits to showcase fire prevention programs and community resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vendors offered fire-resistant building materials, rooftop sprinklers, and landscape design for defensible space. Everyone was eager to share their piece of the wildfire protection puzzle. Organizers estimate about 6,000 people attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998826 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-160x134.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-768x642.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-1536x1284.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Quarles, a pioneering researcher in how to make buildings more resistant to fire, begins a burn demonstration to illustrate the difference between fire-resistant siding and normal siding at the Ember Stomp festival in Marin on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I came curious: What do you see at a fire-prep festival? What did people who were willing to devote part of a precious Saturday to learning about fire-resistant siding make of it? Should Marin’s model be an example?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin’s public outreach around wildfire resilience has grown in recent years, thanks in large part to something unique in California — and possibly the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years ago, Marin charged a county-wide group of officials with the task of preventing wildfire destruction, organized around a joint powers authority and funded by a voter-approved parcel tax.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998746",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This organization, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, supports Fire Safe Marin and helps drive local preparedness initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marin has found a great way to create a local funding stream that has been a critical innovation, especially in a landscape where we see fluctuations in the availability of state and federal funds,” said Jacy Hyde, executive director for the California Fire Safe Council, during a recent state wildfire task force meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She cited Marin’s group as a model for other counties looking to invest directly in their own wildfire resilience priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s fire risk is still substantial, the way to start chipping away at that danger is through spurring people to take action. Money invested for safety ahead of time generally pays off richly down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building go bags and prepping fire-ready homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jessamyn Hise, community outreach manager for Fire Safe Marin, greeted people at a table about assembling a “go bag.” What many don’t understand, she said, is that a go bag need not be expensive and likely will not require the purchase of a lot of new stuff. I came away with a printed checklist and renewed mental resolve to check and revamp my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed the sound of excited squeals to an activity on the edge of the festival. Kids and firefighters aimed water hoses at a small pretend house and knocked down wooden flames in the upper window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After whoops and cheers for each kid, firefighters then popped the flames back up, pulling a length of rope — the same sort of technology used in old carnival games where players might knock down a duck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998824 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Different types of bark mulch display varying resistance to carrying fire, as part of the live burn demonstrations at Marin’s Ember Stomp Festival on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Close to the human kids, the aloof goats from Star Creek Land Stewards gave project manager Shapiro a chance to talk about the case for using adorable grazers to prepare landscapes for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Star Creek manages about 8,000 goats and 3,000 sheep that work around the state to eat grass and brush, leaving the land safer in case a fire breaks out. Shapiro explained that grazing, like all vegetation management techniques, has advantages and drawbacks. Some of the pluses include avoiding chemical herbicides that are used by some land managers to knock back weeds, and avoiding smoke or the risk of a fire escape, as would be present during a prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shapiro said, crews that use tools to clear plants by hand work well in many places, but noted, “There are lots of zones where goats or sheep just have a much easier time climbing the hill and munching at the same time. The other asset is that sheep and goats, rather than just cutting things and leaving them on the ground, they digest it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, I scouted out a few vendors. Pacific Gas and Electric offered free manzanita and California laurel plant starters the size of small basketballs, along with advice on landscaping with other utility-friendly plants, whose roots won’t puncture watermains or whose branches won’t grow so tall as to interfere with powerlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998825\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees observe a live burn demonstration at Marin’s fire safety festival, Ember Stomp, on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>United Policyholders, a nonprofit helping consumers navigate fire insurance, shared advice, a listening ear and giveaway flashlights, powered by a hand crank instead of batteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the main attraction of the day was live burn demonstrations, showing the effectiveness of fire-resistant building materials and retrofitting techniques.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a penned-off area, at the end of the two charmingly named corridors “Home Hardening Way” and “Environmental Alley,” Steve Quarles was setting things on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quarles, an experienced researcher and expert in how to keep buildings safe from fires, showed how things like fire-resistant soffits perform when fires burn underneath them. A firefighter assisting him piled glowing embers on top of four different types of mesh vents. Depending on the size of the grain, the mesh let burning embers in or kept them out. The best performers are clearly the sixteenth-of-an-inch mesh.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998787",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Embers that can pass through here typically don’t have enough energy to ignite things on the other side,” Quarles said. “Not the case for the quarter-inch and not the case of the half-inch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One type of sixteenth-inch mesh is ember-resistant but could let in flames. The state fire marshal approves the other to be flame-resistant, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of home ignitions during fires start from embers sneaking inside the house, not from flames. So, keeping them out was a main message for the day. Hence the name, “Ember Stomp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is a main focus of Fire Safe Marin’s public education efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the festival, people carried their giveaways from exhibitors, masks to shield from smoke, buckets to hold evacuation supplies and a couple of big smiles from Peter Kacherginsky and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live nearby in Lucas Valley and had a fire near them last year. They attended for tips on how to make their home safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was great, very informative,” he said. “We want to do some kind of sprinkler system on the roof – that seemed to have worked in L.A. fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re looking to design their backyard to be ready for fires. He looked down at his two kids with red plastic firefighter helmets on their heads, bouncing up and down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids loved it also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998808/how-ember-stomp-is-helping-marin-get-fire-ready-one-go-bag-at-a-time",
"authors": [
"11088"
],
"categories": [
"science_32",
"science_4550",
"science_40",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_856",
"science_5178",
"science_1888",
"science_4417",
"science_4414",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998827",
"label": "source_science_1998808"
},
"science_1998787": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998787",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998787",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1760566234000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "california-needs-a-new-approach-to-wildfire-planning-experts-say-cost-is-an-issue",
"title": "California Needs a New Approach to Wildfire Planning, Experts Say. Cost Is an Issue",
"publishDate": 1760566234,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "California Needs a New Approach to Wildfire Planning, Experts Say. Cost Is an Issue | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>While fire safety advocates want California to take a new approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfires\u003c/a>, with more emphasis on anticipating and preventing the worst damage, legislation to do just that has failed to win over Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said it would have cost too much unbudgeted money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year was the third in a row that state lawmakers tried to mandate broadscale strategic planning for avoiding catastrophic fires, and the first such a measure made it to the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, SB 326, on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sponsoring lawmaker, Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), hasn’t committed to bringing it forward again in the next legislative session. In the meantime, the ideas it contained will be pursued in a patchwork way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326 would have accelerated the timelines for implementing Zone 0 mandates, which require clearing landscaping within five feet of homes in fire-prone areas. On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sent a \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DhWqCzpn0ysnrGKKSKsAu9yD9N?domain=ooagbytab.cc.rs6.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter\u003c/a> (PDF) to the state’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, urging a speedy finalization of those regulations anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a related bill also sponsored by Becker, SB 254, will have the state’s wildfire fund administrator model utility risk and make suggestions about how to prevent fires and manage utility costs after Newsom signed it last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s budget has doubled to around $4 billion in recent years, but the agency is not required to do strategic planning for how to best prepare for and avoid the worst wildfires. SB 326 would have called on Cal Fire to model fire risks and estimate how they change as safety projects like defensible space or fire breaks are completed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other states do long-term strategic planning for hazards such as hurricanes, California does not for wildfires. Fire experts and policy advocates have pushed for this sort of planning for years, as some have criticized California’s current fire prevention efforts as looking like “random acts of conservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was disappointed,” Becker said of Newsom’s veto. “I did notice, however, that the governor didn’t criticize the content of the bill at all in his vetoed message. He said that it was vetoed solely on the basis of cost.”[aside postID=science_1998746 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg']In a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">letter\u003c/a> from the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cal Fire estimated it would cost more than $100 million a year to build its own model to assess and forecast risk. SB 326 would have allowed the agency to use an off-the-shelf model for around $20 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates of what it would take to accomplish strategic planning, meanwhile, have varied significantly. In the 2024 version of the bill, Cal Fire estimated the cost around $12 million. But in the version proposed just a year earlier, which would have tasked the Office of Emergency Services with forecasting and planning, OES estimated the cost of complying to be under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$3 million per year\u003c/a> (PDF). The 2023 bill died in committee and faced opposition from the Cal Fire employees union, which objected to fire-related jobs being given to a different department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [SB 326] would have saved money, not cost money for the state of California,” said Michael Wara, climate and energy expert at Stanford and an advocate for the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 2017 North Bay fires, he said, utility companies have made a lot of progress on safety, and after the 2018 Camp Fire, they were required to create comprehensive mitigation plans. But without the need to holistically look at risk and plan for safety in fire-prone neighborhoods, Wara said, California has made comparatively little progress on making communities more resilient to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just as important as the utility safety side,” he said. “Where we are is not OK. It should not be acceptable to any Californian. And we need to make progress — measurable progress — at a much faster rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326, which passed through committees and both houses without a single no vote, was supported by the insurance industry and insurance regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker has not committed to reintroducing a new version next year, he acknowledges the issue is only growing more urgent — especially as the costs of wildfires become stratospheric. Damage from this year’s Los Angeles fires, for example, is estimated to be over $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have pushed California toward more strategic planning to prevent the worst wildfire damage, saying it would cost too much unbudgeted money.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1760640484,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 17,
"wordCount": 786
},
"headData": {
"title": "California Needs a New Approach to Wildfire Planning, Experts Say. Cost Is an Issue | KQED",
"description": "Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have pushed California toward more strategic planning to prevent the worst wildfire damage, saying it would cost too much unbudgeted money.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "California Needs a New Approach to Wildfire Planning, Experts Say. Cost Is an Issue",
"datePublished": "2025-10-15T15:10:34-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-10-16T11:48:04-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 3730,
"slug": "wildfires",
"name": "Wildfires"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998787",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998787/california-needs-a-new-approach-to-wildfire-planning-experts-say-cost-is-an-issue",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While fire safety advocates want California to take a new approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfires\u003c/a>, with more emphasis on anticipating and preventing the worst damage, legislation to do just that has failed to win over Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said it would have cost too much unbudgeted money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year was the third in a row that state lawmakers tried to mandate broadscale strategic planning for avoiding catastrophic fires, and the first such a measure made it to the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, SB 326, on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sponsoring lawmaker, Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), hasn’t committed to bringing it forward again in the next legislative session. In the meantime, the ideas it contained will be pursued in a patchwork way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326 would have accelerated the timelines for implementing Zone 0 mandates, which require clearing landscaping within five feet of homes in fire-prone areas. On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sent a \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DhWqCzpn0ysnrGKKSKsAu9yD9N?domain=ooagbytab.cc.rs6.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter\u003c/a> (PDF) to the state’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, urging a speedy finalization of those regulations anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a related bill also sponsored by Becker, SB 254, will have the state’s wildfire fund administrator model utility risk and make suggestions about how to prevent fires and manage utility costs after Newsom signed it last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s budget has doubled to around $4 billion in recent years, but the agency is not required to do strategic planning for how to best prepare for and avoid the worst wildfires. SB 326 would have called on Cal Fire to model fire risks and estimate how they change as safety projects like defensible space or fire breaks are completed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other states do long-term strategic planning for hazards such as hurricanes, California does not for wildfires. Fire experts and policy advocates have pushed for this sort of planning for years, as some have criticized California’s current fire prevention efforts as looking like “random acts of conservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was disappointed,” Becker said of Newsom’s veto. “I did notice, however, that the governor didn’t criticize the content of the bill at all in his vetoed message. He said that it was vetoed solely on the basis of cost.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998746",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">letter\u003c/a> from the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cal Fire estimated it would cost more than $100 million a year to build its own model to assess and forecast risk. SB 326 would have allowed the agency to use an off-the-shelf model for around $20 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates of what it would take to accomplish strategic planning, meanwhile, have varied significantly. In the 2024 version of the bill, Cal Fire estimated the cost around $12 million. But in the version proposed just a year earlier, which would have tasked the Office of Emergency Services with forecasting and planning, OES estimated the cost of complying to be under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$3 million per year\u003c/a> (PDF). The 2023 bill died in committee and faced opposition from the Cal Fire employees union, which objected to fire-related jobs being given to a different department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [SB 326] would have saved money, not cost money for the state of California,” said Michael Wara, climate and energy expert at Stanford and an advocate for the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 2017 North Bay fires, he said, utility companies have made a lot of progress on safety, and after the 2018 Camp Fire, they were required to create comprehensive mitigation plans. But without the need to holistically look at risk and plan for safety in fire-prone neighborhoods, Wara said, California has made comparatively little progress on making communities more resilient to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just as important as the utility safety side,” he said. “Where we are is not OK. It should not be acceptable to any Californian. And we need to make progress — measurable progress — at a much faster rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326, which passed through committees and both houses without a single no vote, was supported by the insurance industry and insurance regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker has not committed to reintroducing a new version next year, he acknowledges the issue is only growing more urgent — especially as the costs of wildfires become stratospheric. Damage from this year’s Los Angeles fires, for example, is estimated to be over $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998787/california-needs-a-new-approach-to-wildfire-planning-experts-say-cost-is-an-issue",
"authors": [
"11088"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_856",
"science_5178",
"science_5371",
"science_3779",
"science_5375",
"science_4277",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998792",
"label": "source_science_1998787"
},
"science_1998746": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998746",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998746",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1760123834000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "will-newsom-sign-californias-biggest-step-toward-saving-fire-prone-neighborhoods",
"title": "Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods?",
"publishDate": 1760123834,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods? | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>In a year marked by the costliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> fires on record, state lawmakers sent a large package of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfire\u003c/a> bills to the governor’s desk. One measure in particular promises outsized impacts for protecting neighborhoods — and it’s largely flown under the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326&cversion=20250SB32698AMD\">Senate Bill 326\u003c/a>, sponsored by State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), would accelerate fire mitigation efforts, particularly in these older, at-risk neighborhoods, by mandating the removal of flammable trees and bushes for certain homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing more extreme weather conditions and we’re seeing wildfires spread at a speed that we’ve never seen before,” Becker said. “That’s why we need this bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “not a panacea,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, “it’s the biggest step we can take this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thorniest problem in the state’s effort to guard against wildfire devastation is how to protect the millions of homes that already exist in fire-prone areas, Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg\" alt=\"A before and after picture of a small, one-story, nicely kept home, and the remains of it after it was burned down.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-768x380.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1536x760.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1920x950.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family home in Altadena, California, before and after the Eaton Fire ravaged the community in January. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Moreno family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What we need to do is change how flammable people’s gardens are in places where there’s high risk,” he said. “That’s important if we want to have affordable insurance, affordable electricity. It’s important if we don’t want to lose communities like we did in Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While newer homes are built to relatively high fire safety standards, the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/california/housing-statistics\">majority\u003c/a> of California’s housing stock — built before the 1990s — was not designed with fire resilience in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new regulations mandate a Zone 0 space, or an ember-resistant zone extending five feet around a house, where there is non-burnable material like river rocks instead of plants or mulch. It’s controversial, in part because it would dramatically alter the appearance of many neighborhoods. Homeowners are understandably reluctant to tear out beloved, beautiful plants.[aside postID=news_12059123 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/GettyImages-2194137909-1020x696.jpg']However, fire prevention advocates see this as the simplest, most affordable way to quickly improve fire resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods. Tearing out a bush, for instance, costs far less — and is much quicker — than retrofits like replacing a roof. And the \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/bof-website/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-2/previous-public-workshops-and-materials/2025/sept-22/august-zone-0-rule-plead.pdf?rev=86f548de3486423c995bb2394aaaa4c1&hash=F8723E42A201545B808CBC0B68FF937B\">current draft regulations\u003c/a> do not call for removing permanent features like a wooden deck or fence within 5 feet of the home. Supporters argue that the absence of coordinated fire-resilience planning wastes state resources. While California develops long-term plans for resources like water, it lacks a comparable approach for wildfire prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill moves up the timeline for Zone 0 requirements in high-risk areas, implementing some of the requirements as early as Jan. 1, 2026. If enacted, the legislation would also require Cal Fire to create a strategic, regularly updated plan for better assessing fire danger in the state and planning how to prevent destruction before a disaster hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vetoed, Zone 0 requirements — the details of which are still being \u003ca href=\"https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-and-2\">hammered out\u003c/a> by the state Board of Forestry — would apply to new construction after Jan.1. Three years from now, at the end of 2028, it would apply to all homes in high-risk zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If SB 326 is signed, it would also apply to rental properties and houses for sale as of Jan.1. Wara said the rationale is to take a measured approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home destroyed by the Boyles Fire in Clearlake on Sept. 9, 2024, after the wildfire swept through the area on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t say everybody has to do this right away, because that would be too much,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the bill authors believe, people who have rentals and are making money from their house in a high-risk area should contribute to reducing risk in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Also, if you’re selling your house, you’ve got to do this,” Wara said, “because it’s a time when there’s cash available and where you might be more open to making changes in your backyard that will create safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has 1.3 million homes in high or very high severity areas, and retrofitting those homes would cost tens of billions of dollars, said Matt Weiner, CEO of Megafire Action, a nonprofit advancing policy to avoid catastrophic wildfire.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']For right now, Zone 0 is “the most important tool that we can move quickly on to guard against ember-driven fires like we saw in Palisades and Altadena,” Weiner said. The bill also provides funding to counties working to implement Zone 0.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of homes destroyed in a wildfire burn down from embers finding their way inside the structure and burning it down from the inside. Relatively few homes burn down from coming into contact with a flaming front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/28/california-communities-can-reduce-wildfire-damage-by-half-heres-how/\">Researchers from UC Berkeley estimate\u003c/a> that 50% fewer homes would burn down in the extreme kind of conditions seen in the L.A. fires if neighborhoods hardened homes and had defensible space. Just complying with Zone 0 alone would reduce structure loss by an estimated 17%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With California spending billions on firefighting and homeowners bearing soaring insurance costs, advocates have argued that it’s time to move beyond the traditional “business as usual” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, we knew we needed to do this back in 2017 and 2018,” Wara said. Those years saw terrible losses in Wine Country fires and the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. “There was legislation [passed in 2020] that would have required it; it was supposed to take effect in 2023,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a podium in a cloud of wildfire smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses California’s wildfires, before signing a $15 billion climate package, during a ceremony at Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers, on Sept. 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Board of Forestry missed the deadline, struggling to balance the concerns of homeowners with the desires of the insurance industry. In February, following the Los Angeles firestorm, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/02/06/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-further-prepare-for-future-urban-firestorms-stepping-up-already-nation-leading-strategies/\">ordered the rules\u003c/a> to be completed by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will also require Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal to develop and use models to assess where risk is highest and how risk changes as safety projects are completed. The key, Weiner said, is to have cohesion between wildfire prevention work being done on the landscape level, the neighborhood level and the parcel level, by communities, utilities and homeowners. Currently, there is little to no coordination, which advocates have said risks wasting money and effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposals to require comprehensive fire planning have been introduced before, but have never made it to the governor’s desk. The heart- and record-breaking devastation from January’s fires in Los Angeles helped give it added urgency this year, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You want “somebody looking at the entire picture and helping inform the highest impact work to be done,” Weiner said. The state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for fires. “You want somebody to assess that holistically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s technical nature may have hidden it from public attention — despite its potential to save homes and lives, Weiner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Nolan Graham sprays water around a scorched garage as the Boyles fire burns in Clearlake on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons [this proposal] doesn’t get enough attention is because whenever you start talking ‘tech,’ people think about it as a sideshow, nice to have but not a fundamental need,” Weiner said. “And nobody gets excited about creating the enabling conditions for future work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If signed, the bill would increase the responsibility and work demands placed on Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal. It would also impose some accountability in the form of requiring annual reports that would give a comprehensive overview of how they could strategically lessen wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reports would aid lawmakers in overseeing their work. When it passed its \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">final vote\u003c/a> in September, no representatives voted against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Cal Fire to discuss SB 326. An agency spokesperson said they do not comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics have claimed that the state’s fire agency has been more motivated by responding to and fighting fires than working to prevent them, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">and has fumbled key \u003c/a>responsibilities for management and mitigation, despite a historic budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler has, however, spoken extensively about the need for the agency to be able to both prevent and fight fires, and is making progress in their preparedness goals. Becker aided Cal Fire in getting their budget doubled to 4 billion dollars this year as chair of the state’s budget subcommittee for natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better, more targeted prevention action to reduce the risk of losing entire communities like what happened in January,” the lawmaker said. “This is about getting every dollar we spend on wildfire prevention exactly where it needs to be as fast as possible … and making sure every dollar truly reduces wildfire risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For homeowners, wildfires costs have exploded. Recent analysis by Wara and colleagues indicates that the average state homeowner is paying $266 more per month in insurance and electricity costs than they were in 2020, largely because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-releases-updated-wildfire-prepared-home-standard/\">insurance industry\u003c/a> has also openly supported the bill. Industry scientists said in a report this summer that Zone 0 was critical in preventing home ignitions. In a September letter to Newsom urging his signature on SB 326, the state’s top insurance regulator, Ricardo Lara, said: “With millions of homes in the Wildland Urban Interface, the early adoption of mitigation is critical to wildfire safety and insurability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "A little-known bill will accelerate fire mitigation efforts by clearing space around housing across the state.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1760388431,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 35,
"wordCount": 1750
},
"headData": {
"title": "Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods? | KQED",
"description": "A little-known bill will accelerate fire mitigation efforts by clearing space around housing across the state.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods?",
"datePublished": "2025-10-10T12:17:14-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-10-13T13:47:11-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 3730,
"slug": "wildfires",
"name": "Wildfires"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998746",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998746/will-newsom-sign-californias-biggest-step-toward-saving-fire-prone-neighborhoods",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a year marked by the costliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> fires on record, state lawmakers sent a large package of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfire\u003c/a> bills to the governor’s desk. One measure in particular promises outsized impacts for protecting neighborhoods — and it’s largely flown under the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326&cversion=20250SB32698AMD\">Senate Bill 326\u003c/a>, sponsored by State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), would accelerate fire mitigation efforts, particularly in these older, at-risk neighborhoods, by mandating the removal of flammable trees and bushes for certain homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing more extreme weather conditions and we’re seeing wildfires spread at a speed that we’ve never seen before,” Becker said. “That’s why we need this bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “not a panacea,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, “it’s the biggest step we can take this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thorniest problem in the state’s effort to guard against wildfire devastation is how to protect the millions of homes that already exist in fire-prone areas, Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg\" alt=\"A before and after picture of a small, one-story, nicely kept home, and the remains of it after it was burned down.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-768x380.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1536x760.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1920x950.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family home in Altadena, California, before and after the Eaton Fire ravaged the community in January. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Moreno family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What we need to do is change how flammable people’s gardens are in places where there’s high risk,” he said. “That’s important if we want to have affordable insurance, affordable electricity. It’s important if we don’t want to lose communities like we did in Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While newer homes are built to relatively high fire safety standards, the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/california/housing-statistics\">majority\u003c/a> of California’s housing stock — built before the 1990s — was not designed with fire resilience in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new regulations mandate a Zone 0 space, or an ember-resistant zone extending five feet around a house, where there is non-burnable material like river rocks instead of plants or mulch. It’s controversial, in part because it would dramatically alter the appearance of many neighborhoods. Homeowners are understandably reluctant to tear out beloved, beautiful plants.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12059123",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/GettyImages-2194137909-1020x696.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>However, fire prevention advocates see this as the simplest, most affordable way to quickly improve fire resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods. Tearing out a bush, for instance, costs far less — and is much quicker — than retrofits like replacing a roof. And the \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/bof-website/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-2/previous-public-workshops-and-materials/2025/sept-22/august-zone-0-rule-plead.pdf?rev=86f548de3486423c995bb2394aaaa4c1&hash=F8723E42A201545B808CBC0B68FF937B\">current draft regulations\u003c/a> do not call for removing permanent features like a wooden deck or fence within 5 feet of the home. Supporters argue that the absence of coordinated fire-resilience planning wastes state resources. While California develops long-term plans for resources like water, it lacks a comparable approach for wildfire prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill moves up the timeline for Zone 0 requirements in high-risk areas, implementing some of the requirements as early as Jan. 1, 2026. If enacted, the legislation would also require Cal Fire to create a strategic, regularly updated plan for better assessing fire danger in the state and planning how to prevent destruction before a disaster hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vetoed, Zone 0 requirements — the details of which are still being \u003ca href=\"https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-and-2\">hammered out\u003c/a> by the state Board of Forestry — would apply to new construction after Jan.1. Three years from now, at the end of 2028, it would apply to all homes in high-risk zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If SB 326 is signed, it would also apply to rental properties and houses for sale as of Jan.1. Wara said the rationale is to take a measured approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home destroyed by the Boyles Fire in Clearlake on Sept. 9, 2024, after the wildfire swept through the area on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t say everybody has to do this right away, because that would be too much,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the bill authors believe, people who have rentals and are making money from their house in a high-risk area should contribute to reducing risk in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Also, if you’re selling your house, you’ve got to do this,” Wara said, “because it’s a time when there’s cash available and where you might be more open to making changes in your backyard that will create safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has 1.3 million homes in high or very high severity areas, and retrofitting those homes would cost tens of billions of dollars, said Matt Weiner, CEO of Megafire Action, a nonprofit advancing policy to avoid catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12056655",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For right now, Zone 0 is “the most important tool that we can move quickly on to guard against ember-driven fires like we saw in Palisades and Altadena,” Weiner said. The bill also provides funding to counties working to implement Zone 0.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of homes destroyed in a wildfire burn down from embers finding their way inside the structure and burning it down from the inside. Relatively few homes burn down from coming into contact with a flaming front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/28/california-communities-can-reduce-wildfire-damage-by-half-heres-how/\">Researchers from UC Berkeley estimate\u003c/a> that 50% fewer homes would burn down in the extreme kind of conditions seen in the L.A. fires if neighborhoods hardened homes and had defensible space. Just complying with Zone 0 alone would reduce structure loss by an estimated 17%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With California spending billions on firefighting and homeowners bearing soaring insurance costs, advocates have argued that it’s time to move beyond the traditional “business as usual” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, we knew we needed to do this back in 2017 and 2018,” Wara said. Those years saw terrible losses in Wine Country fires and the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. “There was legislation [passed in 2020] that would have required it; it was supposed to take effect in 2023,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a podium in a cloud of wildfire smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses California’s wildfires, before signing a $15 billion climate package, during a ceremony at Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers, on Sept. 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Board of Forestry missed the deadline, struggling to balance the concerns of homeowners with the desires of the insurance industry. In February, following the Los Angeles firestorm, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/02/06/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-further-prepare-for-future-urban-firestorms-stepping-up-already-nation-leading-strategies/\">ordered the rules\u003c/a> to be completed by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will also require Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal to develop and use models to assess where risk is highest and how risk changes as safety projects are completed. The key, Weiner said, is to have cohesion between wildfire prevention work being done on the landscape level, the neighborhood level and the parcel level, by communities, utilities and homeowners. Currently, there is little to no coordination, which advocates have said risks wasting money and effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposals to require comprehensive fire planning have been introduced before, but have never made it to the governor’s desk. The heart- and record-breaking devastation from January’s fires in Los Angeles helped give it added urgency this year, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You want “somebody looking at the entire picture and helping inform the highest impact work to be done,” Weiner said. The state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for fires. “You want somebody to assess that holistically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s technical nature may have hidden it from public attention — despite its potential to save homes and lives, Weiner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Nolan Graham sprays water around a scorched garage as the Boyles fire burns in Clearlake on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons [this proposal] doesn’t get enough attention is because whenever you start talking ‘tech,’ people think about it as a sideshow, nice to have but not a fundamental need,” Weiner said. “And nobody gets excited about creating the enabling conditions for future work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If signed, the bill would increase the responsibility and work demands placed on Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal. It would also impose some accountability in the form of requiring annual reports that would give a comprehensive overview of how they could strategically lessen wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reports would aid lawmakers in overseeing their work. When it passed its \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">final vote\u003c/a> in September, no representatives voted against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Cal Fire to discuss SB 326. An agency spokesperson said they do not comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics have claimed that the state’s fire agency has been more motivated by responding to and fighting fires than working to prevent them, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">and has fumbled key \u003c/a>responsibilities for management and mitigation, despite a historic budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler has, however, spoken extensively about the need for the agency to be able to both prevent and fight fires, and is making progress in their preparedness goals. Becker aided Cal Fire in getting their budget doubled to 4 billion dollars this year as chair of the state’s budget subcommittee for natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better, more targeted prevention action to reduce the risk of losing entire communities like what happened in January,” the lawmaker said. “This is about getting every dollar we spend on wildfire prevention exactly where it needs to be as fast as possible … and making sure every dollar truly reduces wildfire risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For homeowners, wildfires costs have exploded. Recent analysis by Wara and colleagues indicates that the average state homeowner is paying $266 more per month in insurance and electricity costs than they were in 2020, largely because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-releases-updated-wildfire-prepared-home-standard/\">insurance industry\u003c/a> has also openly supported the bill. Industry scientists said in a report this summer that Zone 0 was critical in preventing home ignitions. In a September letter to Newsom urging his signature on SB 326, the state’s top insurance regulator, Ricardo Lara, said: “With millions of homes in the Wildland Urban Interface, the early adoption of mitigation is critical to wildfire safety and insurability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998746/will-newsom-sign-californias-biggest-step-toward-saving-fire-prone-neighborhoods",
"authors": [
"11088"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_182",
"science_4414",
"science_5371",
"science_3779",
"science_5375",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998770",
"label": "source_science_1998746"
},
"science_1998512": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998512",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998512",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1757960821000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "bay-area-turns-up-the-heat-as-dry-lightning-looms-later-this-week",
"title": "Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week",
"publishDate": 1757960821,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>Above average heat. A baby \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11682057/how-the-bay-areas-fog-came-to-be-named-karl\">Karl the fog\u003c/a>. Dry lightning. That’s the story meteorologists are forecasting through Friday for the entire Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high-pressure system moving into the region is causing the three-day warmup on Monday through Wednesday, with offshore winds keeping the marine layer at bay and allowing incoming tropical moisture to gradually enter the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, the fire risk increases after days of heat due to the chance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054466/lightning-sparked-fires-tear-through-historic-california-gold-rush-town\">thunderstorms and dry lightning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures about 5 degrees above average along the coast and 15 degrees above average inland. The National Weather Service issued a moderate heat risk warning through Wednesday, which means the general public should be able to handle the warmth. Still, sensitive groups, such as older adults and children, should exercise caution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had hotter temperatures so far this summer, so we’re really not considering a heat advisory at this time unless it were to be significantly warmer,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strength of offshore winds will help determine how hot coastal areas will become through Wednesday. Forecasters said San Francisco could reach into the low 80s, while places like Santa Rosa, Livermore, Concord and San José could all get into the 90s.[aside postID=science_1998472 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/BayAreaHeatWaveGetty.jpg']Higher elevations may not cool below 70 degrees overnight inland, and forecasters expect relative humidity to be low, which would aid in drying out grasses that could easily burn if ignited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not expecting really strong offshore winds at this time, which should keep the conditions cooler near the coast, but it’ll still be warm,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the weather service anticipates conditions to shift on Thursday as tropical moisture moves into the region, increasing instability and potentially bringing thunderstorms. The primary concern is that the storms could bring dry lightning and erratic, gusty winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These conditions could lead to new fire starts, especially given the increasingly dry fuels across the region,” meteorologists wrote in the weather service’s daily forecast email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Gass said the dry lightning is not a certainty, and he expects Thursday and Friday to “generally trend wetter” due to the amount of moisture entering the region later in the week. Gass also expects the weather to cool down this weekend and early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the Bay Area’s hottest day of the week, with a chance of thunderstorms and dry lightning stirring trouble by Thursday.\r\n",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1757967688,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 12,
"wordCount": 433
},
"headData": {
"title": "Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week | KQED",
"description": "Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the Bay Area’s hottest day of the week, with a chance of thunderstorms and dry lightning stirring trouble by Thursday.\r\n",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week",
"datePublished": "2025-09-15T11:27:01-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-09-15T13:21:28-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 31,
"slug": "climate",
"name": "Climate"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998512",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998512/bay-area-turns-up-the-heat-as-dry-lightning-looms-later-this-week",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Above average heat. A baby \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11682057/how-the-bay-areas-fog-came-to-be-named-karl\">Karl the fog\u003c/a>. Dry lightning. That’s the story meteorologists are forecasting through Friday for the entire Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high-pressure system moving into the region is causing the three-day warmup on Monday through Wednesday, with offshore winds keeping the marine layer at bay and allowing incoming tropical moisture to gradually enter the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, the fire risk increases after days of heat due to the chance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054466/lightning-sparked-fires-tear-through-historic-california-gold-rush-town\">thunderstorms and dry lightning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures about 5 degrees above average along the coast and 15 degrees above average inland. The National Weather Service issued a moderate heat risk warning through Wednesday, which means the general public should be able to handle the warmth. Still, sensitive groups, such as older adults and children, should exercise caution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had hotter temperatures so far this summer, so we’re really not considering a heat advisory at this time unless it were to be significantly warmer,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strength of offshore winds will help determine how hot coastal areas will become through Wednesday. Forecasters said San Francisco could reach into the low 80s, while places like Santa Rosa, Livermore, Concord and San José could all get into the 90s.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998472",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/BayAreaHeatWaveGetty.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Higher elevations may not cool below 70 degrees overnight inland, and forecasters expect relative humidity to be low, which would aid in drying out grasses that could easily burn if ignited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not expecting really strong offshore winds at this time, which should keep the conditions cooler near the coast, but it’ll still be warm,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the weather service anticipates conditions to shift on Thursday as tropical moisture moves into the region, increasing instability and potentially bringing thunderstorms. The primary concern is that the storms could bring dry lightning and erratic, gusty winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These conditions could lead to new fire starts, especially given the increasingly dry fuels across the region,” meteorologists wrote in the weather service’s daily forecast email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Gass said the dry lightning is not a certainty, and he expects Thursday and Friday to “generally trend wetter” due to the amount of moisture entering the region later in the week. Gass also expects the weather to cool down this weekend and early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998512/bay-area-turns-up-the-heat-as-dry-lightning-looms-later-this-week",
"authors": [
"11746"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_4550",
"science_40",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_182",
"science_4414",
"science_2184",
"science_1746",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998524",
"label": "source_science_1998512"
},
"science_1998386": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998386",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998386",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1757426454000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "a-new-musical-revisits-the-bay-areas-apocalyptic-orange-sky-day",
"title": "A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day",
"publishDate": 1757426454,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>On the morning of Sept. 9, 2020, Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr. woke up to the buzz of his cell phone. It was his mother, telling him to open his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> apartment window and peer outside. It was late enough for the morning light to shine down on his Duboce Park neighborhood, but instead the streets were cloaked in darkness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where was the sun?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Immediately I shut the window, and I said, ‘I’m not dealing with this right now,’” Jackson recalled. His mother, based a few blocks away in the Fillmore, asked if he knew what was happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had no idea, he said, and tried to go back to sleep. “Because I thought I was in a dream. It felt like I hadn’t really woken up yet,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a hundred miles north of the Bay Area,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever\"> wildfires\u003c/a> tore through towns, homes and forests. Winds carried massive amounts of smoke into the skies over the Bay Area. The pollution scattered blue-light wavelengths, leaving only reds and oranges to shine through. Not only was it dark, the sky was an eerie orange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson is an actor who’s appeared on Broadway, with deep roots in the Bay Area. He was born and raised in San Francisco before attending college on the East Coast, and returned home more than a decade ago to co-found the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfbatco.org/\">San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998329\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998329\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is familiar and exciting to Jackson, but on that dark day, it was frightening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wanted to know how others felt: did it all seem like a dream to them, too? And what meaning were they making from it? So he started interviewing people. The product of those conversations is a musical called “The Day the Sky Turned Orange,” premiering this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play invites the audience back to that apocalyptic day, which crashed like a roaring wave on top of pandemic isolation and a national racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Jackson and his co-creators hope that revisiting a day marked by often-repressed emotions will help us process them and move forward.[aside postID=science_1998209 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364.jpg']“I don’t think that we’ve actually fully recovered from that moment. I know I haven’t,” playwright Julius Ernesto Rea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rea said coming together in a physical space and going back in time gives the actors and the audience the opportunity to release some of their bottled-up emotions, especially those surrounding the changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the play is trying to figure out how we grieve the future that we thought we had, so that we can invite new visions of the future,” Rea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One memorable song is “\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/7ExTYE1QYCZMXjWtH5YEe3?si=ZlmDzrXQREyeGupFBM-Wtg\">How Far Gone\u003c/a>,” written by musicians Olivia Kuper Harris and David Michael Ott. It acknowledges the damage people have done to the planet and climate, and asks how long it will take to act on climate change:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What’s crazy is how I exploit you\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>When you give and you give I ignore you\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If I could take it back, I would take it all back, I would turn the clock back\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show is an example of the belief held by Jamie Beck Alexander of Project Drawdown that “\u003ca href=\"https://www.edf.org/degrees/how-green-any-job-project-drawdown-s-jamie-beck-alexander\">every job is a climate job\u003c/a>,” and anyone can use their passions and skills to talk about climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998327\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. The new production reflects on the September 2020 day when wildfire smoke turned the Bay Area sky orange. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The creative team behind the production is furthering public conversation on climate, not just through the show but through a series of post-show “talkbacks,” short conversations, which will cover topics such as how to take action on climate change and eco-anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furthering conversations about climate change is what scientist and communicator Katharine Hayhoe \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it\">argues\u003c/a> is the most important thing an individual can do about the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research shows the majority of people care about climate change, but don’t talk about it, skewing public perception of how important the issue is. A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-01925-3\">global survey\u003c/a> of 130,000 people showed that nearly 9 out of 10 want stronger action to combat climate change, but mistakenly think they are in the minority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What can we do to break this vicious cycle?” Hayhoe asks in a TED Talk with more than four million views. “The number one thing we can do is the exact thing that we’re not doing: talk about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998330\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sharing support for climate action could unlock a “social tipping point” and push leaders to act, the research suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson knows many people don’t want to read the science surrounding climate change. “But maybe I can give them another lens so they can feel it’s accessible,” Jackson said about the musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show’s music is inspired by pop, R&B and hip hop, with the goal of reaching a broad audience. It’s deeply rooted in the Bay Area, with clear celebrations of its diversity and even homegrown dance moves like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/947949/\">Smeeze\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play itself follows the arc of four main characters: a student, a teacher, a therapist and someone who has long COVID but doesn’t know it yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. holds a rendering of the set before a rehearsal for the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Day the Sky Turned Orange” not only tackles climate, but brings the audience back to the overlapping crises of 2020. A powerful scene comes at the end of the production, as a high school student builds a time capsule to capture the moment. One by one, actors place items in a box: a COVID test, a knitting project, an oxygen mask. It’s a cathartic moment for the characters and begs the question– what do you still need to let go of so you can move forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the medicine that you don’t think you need,” Rea said. The audience “walks out not realizing that they needed to talk about their feelings from the pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the show’s more catchy tunes is an ode to San Francisco, invoking the city’s energy and joy. It’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZKZPXtqiyM\">Good Day\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I see the Golden Gate, this is our home.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wake up, new day in San Francisco,\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sun’s up, see my people in the Castro. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Get up, we gotta change the world.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>It’s a good day, good day. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Day the Sky Turned Orange” is co-produced by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company and Z Space, and runs at Z Space in San Francisco from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "A new musical, running this month at Z Space in San Francisco, uses hip hop, R&B and soul to ease us back to a day we’d like to forget.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1757454854,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 35,
"wordCount": 1291
},
"headData": {
"title": "A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day | KQED",
"description": "A new musical, running this month at Z Space in San Francisco, uses hip hop, R&B and soul to ease us back to a day we’d like to forget.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day",
"datePublished": "2025-09-09T07:00:54-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-09-09T14:54:14-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 31,
"slug": "climate",
"name": "Climate"
},
"source": "News",
"audioUrl": "https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/5a3b794f-8c91-4667-92a6-b353011a4bb2/audio.mp3",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998386",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998386/a-new-musical-revisits-the-bay-areas-apocalyptic-orange-sky-day",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the morning of Sept. 9, 2020, Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr. woke up to the buzz of his cell phone. It was his mother, telling him to open his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> apartment window and peer outside. It was late enough for the morning light to shine down on his Duboce Park neighborhood, but instead the streets were cloaked in darkness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where was the sun?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Immediately I shut the window, and I said, ‘I’m not dealing with this right now,’” Jackson recalled. His mother, based a few blocks away in the Fillmore, asked if he knew what was happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had no idea, he said, and tried to go back to sleep. “Because I thought I was in a dream. It felt like I hadn’t really woken up yet,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a hundred miles north of the Bay Area,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever\"> wildfires\u003c/a> tore through towns, homes and forests. Winds carried massive amounts of smoke into the skies over the Bay Area. The pollution scattered blue-light wavelengths, leaving only reds and oranges to shine through. Not only was it dark, the sky was an eerie orange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson is an actor who’s appeared on Broadway, with deep roots in the Bay Area. He was born and raised in San Francisco before attending college on the East Coast, and returned home more than a decade ago to co-found the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfbatco.org/\">San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998329\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998329\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-24-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is familiar and exciting to Jackson, but on that dark day, it was frightening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wanted to know how others felt: did it all seem like a dream to them, too? And what meaning were they making from it? So he started interviewing people. The product of those conversations is a musical called “The Day the Sky Turned Orange,” premiering this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play invites the audience back to that apocalyptic day, which crashed like a roaring wave on top of pandemic isolation and a national racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Jackson and his co-creators hope that revisiting a day marked by often-repressed emotions will help us process them and move forward.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998209",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/GettyImages-1271601364.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I don’t think that we’ve actually fully recovered from that moment. I know I haven’t,” playwright Julius Ernesto Rea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rea said coming together in a physical space and going back in time gives the actors and the audience the opportunity to release some of their bottled-up emotions, especially those surrounding the changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the play is trying to figure out how we grieve the future that we thought we had, so that we can invite new visions of the future,” Rea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One memorable song is “\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/7ExTYE1QYCZMXjWtH5YEe3?si=ZlmDzrXQREyeGupFBM-Wtg\">How Far Gone\u003c/a>,” written by musicians Olivia Kuper Harris and David Michael Ott. It acknowledges the damage people have done to the planet and climate, and asks how long it will take to act on climate change:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What’s crazy is how I exploit you\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>When you give and you give I ignore you\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If I could take it back, I would take it all back, I would turn the clock back\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show is an example of the belief held by Jamie Beck Alexander of Project Drawdown that “\u003ca href=\"https://www.edf.org/degrees/how-green-any-job-project-drawdown-s-jamie-beck-alexander\">every job is a climate job\u003c/a>,” and anyone can use their passions and skills to talk about climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998327\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. The new production reflects on the September 2020 day when wildfire smoke turned the Bay Area sky orange. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The creative team behind the production is furthering public conversation on climate, not just through the show but through a series of post-show “talkbacks,” short conversations, which will cover topics such as how to take action on climate change and eco-anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furthering conversations about climate change is what scientist and communicator Katharine Hayhoe \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it\">argues\u003c/a> is the most important thing an individual can do about the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research shows the majority of people care about climate change, but don’t talk about it, skewing public perception of how important the issue is. A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-01925-3\">global survey\u003c/a> of 130,000 people showed that nearly 9 out of 10 want stronger action to combat climate change, but mistakenly think they are in the minority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What can we do to break this vicious cycle?” Hayhoe asks in a TED Talk with more than four million views. “The number one thing we can do is the exact thing that we’re not doing: talk about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998330\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-38-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange rehearses at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sharing support for climate action could unlock a “social tipping point” and push leaders to act, the research suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson knows many people don’t want to read the science surrounding climate change. “But maybe I can give them another lens so they can feel it’s accessible,” Jackson said about the musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show’s music is inspired by pop, R&B and hip hop, with the goal of reaching a broad audience. It’s deeply rooted in the Bay Area, with clear celebrations of its diversity and even homegrown dance moves like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/947949/\">Smeeze\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play itself follows the arc of four main characters: a student, a teacher, a therapist and someone who has long COVID but doesn’t know it yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-ORANGESKYDAYART-15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. holds a rendering of the set before a rehearsal for the musical The Day the Sky Turned Orange at the American Conservatory Theater studio space in San Francisco on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Day the Sky Turned Orange” not only tackles climate, but brings the audience back to the overlapping crises of 2020. A powerful scene comes at the end of the production, as a high school student builds a time capsule to capture the moment. One by one, actors place items in a box: a COVID test, a knitting project, an oxygen mask. It’s a cathartic moment for the characters and begs the question– what do you still need to let go of so you can move forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the medicine that you don’t think you need,” Rea said. The audience “walks out not realizing that they needed to talk about their feelings from the pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the show’s more catchy tunes is an ode to San Francisco, invoking the city’s energy and joy. It’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZKZPXtqiyM\">Good Day\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I see the Golden Gate, this is our home.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wake up, new day in San Francisco,\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sun’s up, see my people in the Castro. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Get up, we gotta change the world.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>It’s a good day, good day. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Day the Sky Turned Orange” is co-produced by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company and Z Space, and runs at Z Space in San Francisco from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998386/a-new-musical-revisits-the-bay-areas-apocalyptic-orange-sky-day",
"authors": [
"8648"
],
"categories": [
"science_5422",
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_39",
"science_4550",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_505",
"science_5197",
"science_5178",
"science_182",
"science_194",
"science_4417",
"science_4414",
"science_5183",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998270",
"label": "source_science_1998386"
},
"science_1998209": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998209",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998209",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1756130403000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke",
"title": "Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke",
"publishDate": 1756130403,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>On Sept. 6, 2020,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\"> San Francisco\u003c/a> hit 100 degrees — a rare event in the city’s recorded history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight months pregnant, Alana Semuels baked in her west-facing apartment. The air outside smelled like a campfire. The haze swallowed the sun and blurred the outlines of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like an oven,” she recalled. “One night, I got so desperate that I went outside to sleep on our deck chairs. It felt like the only place I could go to really breathe. I remember waking up with a fine layer of grit on the chairs and on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks earlier, a barrage of dry lightning sparked hundreds of wildfires across the Bay Area. For 30 straight days, officials urged locals to stay inside because the air was so unhealthy. Tiny specks of soot and ash exceeded the safety guidelines set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. It was even worse in the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, and parts of Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The month-long haze has become a grim preview of California’s new reality. Wildfire smoke is now \u003ca href=\"https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/8187/\">three to six times worse\u003c/a> than it was a decade ago. Scientists have linked exposure to higher risks of heart disease, cognitive decline, and pregnancy complications. The evidence for these health effects is now stronger and more wide-ranging than many experts anticipated back in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998201\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998201\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alana Semuels wears a half-face respirator in September of 2020 she bought from a hardware store in the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco in an effort to protect herself and unborn child from the ash-filled air, \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alana Semuels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before long, Semuels began coughing. Concerned for her baby’s developing lungs, she called her doctor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just worry, is this gonna hurt my baby somehow?” she said. “That’s just really unnerving because there’s really nothing you could do about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A nurse told Semuels to find an air-conditioned space. But it was the pandemic, so restaurants and theaters were closed. She tightened her mask and wandered through a Target, buying nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like, this is the new paradise,” she said. “The inside of a box store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a smart move. Pregnant people are more likely to suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke because their bodies have to work harder to cool themselves. And, there’s growing evidence that wildfire smoke can increase the risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001393512101166X?via%3Dihub\">preterm births\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c10194\">lower birth weights\u003c/a>, and even hinder healthy development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The placenta doesn’t fully protect the fetus from these kinds of stressors,” said Carlos Gould, environmental health scientist at UC San Diego. “There’s quite strong evidence that a bad wildfire smoke day can increase these risks by five to 10%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children are also vulnerable to smoke exposure because they breathe faster than adults and their lungs are still developing. It can worsen asthma, trigger respiratory infections and limit lung growth.[aside postID=news_12051854 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-075_qed-1020x680.jpg']The most at risk, Gould said, are older adults. In 2020 alone, he estimated, wildfire smoke killed tens of thousands of people across the country, most of them seniors. And because smoke can travel thousands of miles, the danger isn’t limited to those near the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the wind blows, so too goes smoke,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are learning that wildfire plumes can trigger surprising medical issues like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1974108/doctors-find-wildfire-smoke-may-damage-the-skin\">rashes\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36778437/\">stomach aches\u003c/a>, and raise a person’s \u003ca href=\"https://aaic.alz.org/downloads2024/AAIC-2024-Wildfire-smoke.pdf\">risk of developing dementia\u003c/a>. Even \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10515164/\">suicide rates\u003c/a> rise when it’s smoky. \u003ca href=\"https://lafirehealth.org/nature-medicine-immune-impacts-of-fire-smoke-exposure/\">Emerging research\u003c/a> suggests that tiny particles in wildfire pollutants may weaken the immune system, even just weeks after a fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This chronic short burst exposure can have some lasting effects on the immune cells,” said Sharon Chinthrajah, an asthma specialist at Stanford. “These are your first lines of defense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today wildfire smoke accounts for roughly half of the state’s air pollution, yet it’s classified as an “exceptional event” under the Clean Air Act — meaning much of the toxic air people breathe goes unrecorded by local air districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To protect yourself, Dr. Chinthrajah advised checking local air quality regularly and avoiding outdoor activity on hazy days. She also recommended investing in air filters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985846\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02.jpeg\" alt=\"The San Francisco skyline is illuminated in a burnt, orange smog during wildfire season.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco skyline in the distance behind Crissy Field is barely visible due to smoke from wildfires burning across California on Sept. 9, 2020. Researchers say smoke from wildfires accounted for up to half of all small particle air pollution in parts of the western U.S. in recent years. \u003ccite>(Eric Risberg/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Semuels the stress of the 2020 smoke event — pregnant, overheated, and surrounded by toxic air — was too much – even though she says, ‘San Francisco is her favorite place on the planet.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just a place that kind of makes my chest relax and I just love it,” she said. But I just felt like we couldn’t do that summer after summer after summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family moved to New York’s Hudson Valley after her child was born, a healthy baby boy. But a few years later, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted into the region, turning skies an eerie orange and sending air quality readings into the hazardous territory. And the wildfire smoke was back again this summer, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Five years ago, Alana Semuels fled California for New York, hoping to avoid another toxic wildfire season, but then haze from Canadian fires followed her there. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1756222018,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 22,
"wordCount": 943
},
"headData": {
"title": "Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke | KQED",
"description": "Five years ago, Alana Semuels fled California for New York, hoping to avoid another toxic wildfire season, but then haze from Canadian fires followed her there. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke",
"datePublished": "2025-08-25T07:00:03-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-08-26T08:26:58-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 40,
"slug": "news",
"name": "News"
},
"source": "News",
"audioUrl": "https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/5dfb937b-9e07-469f-b10e-b344010fe3d9/audio.mp3",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998209",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Sept. 6, 2020,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\"> San Francisco\u003c/a> hit 100 degrees — a rare event in the city’s recorded history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight months pregnant, Alana Semuels baked in her west-facing apartment. The air outside smelled like a campfire. The haze swallowed the sun and blurred the outlines of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like an oven,” she recalled. “One night, I got so desperate that I went outside to sleep on our deck chairs. It felt like the only place I could go to really breathe. I remember waking up with a fine layer of grit on the chairs and on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks earlier, a barrage of dry lightning sparked hundreds of wildfires across the Bay Area. For 30 straight days, officials urged locals to stay inside because the air was so unhealthy. Tiny specks of soot and ash exceeded the safety guidelines set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. It was even worse in the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, and parts of Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The month-long haze has become a grim preview of California’s new reality. Wildfire smoke is now \u003ca href=\"https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/8187/\">three to six times worse\u003c/a> than it was a decade ago. Scientists have linked exposure to higher risks of heart disease, cognitive decline, and pregnancy complications. The evidence for these health effects is now stronger and more wide-ranging than many experts anticipated back in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998201\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998201\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250822-SMOKE-STORM-RETRO-MD-05-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alana Semuels wears a half-face respirator in September of 2020 she bought from a hardware store in the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco in an effort to protect herself and unborn child from the ash-filled air, \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alana Semuels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before long, Semuels began coughing. Concerned for her baby’s developing lungs, she called her doctor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just worry, is this gonna hurt my baby somehow?” she said. “That’s just really unnerving because there’s really nothing you could do about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A nurse told Semuels to find an air-conditioned space. But it was the pandemic, so restaurants and theaters were closed. She tightened her mask and wandered through a Target, buying nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like, this is the new paradise,” she said. “The inside of a box store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a smart move. Pregnant people are more likely to suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke because their bodies have to work harder to cool themselves. And, there’s growing evidence that wildfire smoke can increase the risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001393512101166X?via%3Dihub\">preterm births\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c10194\">lower birth weights\u003c/a>, and even hinder healthy development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The placenta doesn’t fully protect the fetus from these kinds of stressors,” said Carlos Gould, environmental health scientist at UC San Diego. “There’s quite strong evidence that a bad wildfire smoke day can increase these risks by five to 10%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children are also vulnerable to smoke exposure because they breathe faster than adults and their lungs are still developing. It can worsen asthma, trigger respiratory infections and limit lung growth.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12051854",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-075_qed-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The most at risk, Gould said, are older adults. In 2020 alone, he estimated, wildfire smoke killed tens of thousands of people across the country, most of them seniors. And because smoke can travel thousands of miles, the danger isn’t limited to those near the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the wind blows, so too goes smoke,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are learning that wildfire plumes can trigger surprising medical issues like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1974108/doctors-find-wildfire-smoke-may-damage-the-skin\">rashes\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36778437/\">stomach aches\u003c/a>, and raise a person’s \u003ca href=\"https://aaic.alz.org/downloads2024/AAIC-2024-Wildfire-smoke.pdf\">risk of developing dementia\u003c/a>. Even \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10515164/\">suicide rates\u003c/a> rise when it’s smoky. \u003ca href=\"https://lafirehealth.org/nature-medicine-immune-impacts-of-fire-smoke-exposure/\">Emerging research\u003c/a> suggests that tiny particles in wildfire pollutants may weaken the immune system, even just weeks after a fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This chronic short burst exposure can have some lasting effects on the immune cells,” said Sharon Chinthrajah, an asthma specialist at Stanford. “These are your first lines of defense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today wildfire smoke accounts for roughly half of the state’s air pollution, yet it’s classified as an “exceptional event” under the Clean Air Act — meaning much of the toxic air people breathe goes unrecorded by local air districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To protect yourself, Dr. Chinthrajah advised checking local air quality regularly and avoiding outdoor activity on hazy days. She also recommended investing in air filters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985846\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02.jpeg\" alt=\"The San Francisco skyline is illuminated in a burnt, orange smog during wildfire season.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/CMWildfire02-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco skyline in the distance behind Crissy Field is barely visible due to smoke from wildfires burning across California on Sept. 9, 2020. Researchers say smoke from wildfires accounted for up to half of all small particle air pollution in parts of the western U.S. in recent years. \u003ccite>(Eric Risberg/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Semuels the stress of the 2020 smoke event — pregnant, overheated, and surrounded by toxic air — was too much – even though she says, ‘San Francisco is her favorite place on the planet.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just a place that kind of makes my chest relax and I just love it,” she said. But I just felt like we couldn’t do that summer after summer after summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family moved to New York’s Hudson Valley after her child was born, a healthy baby boy. But a few years later, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted into the region, turning skies an eerie orange and sending air quality readings into the hazardous territory. And the wildfire smoke was back again this summer, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke",
"authors": [
"11229"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_39",
"science_4550",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_182",
"science_4414",
"science_5181",
"science_5183",
"science_3693",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998212",
"label": "source_science_1998209"
},
"science_1998245": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998245",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998245",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1755957641000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "the-summer-that-changed-california-forever",
"title": "The Summer That Changed California Forever",
"publishDate": 1755957641,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "The Summer That Changed California Forever | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>Californians who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873396/i-cant-abandon-this-community-months-after-czu-fires-survivors-struggle-to-rebuild\">lived through the 2020 fire siege\u003c/a> — the state’s worst fire year on record by some measures — vividly remember the dry lightning storm of Aug. 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blistering summer had pushed temperatures into the triple digits for weeks, priming grass, brush and trees to burn. In mid-August, the remnants of Tropical Storm Fausto swept over Northern California. It brought little rain but pelted the state with 15,000 dry lightning strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That storm set off a siege of wildfires unlike anything California had ever seen — a season that upended lives and rewrote the playbook for fighting fire. Five years later, the fires sparked by that lightning storm remain a turning point for California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2020 fire season burned more land than any in recorded state history, reshaped firefighting strategy and left thousands of people — from mountain residents to state officials — permanently changed. As climate change fuels hotter summers and more explosive blazes, the lessons of 2020 matter more than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We woke up in the middle of the night to lightning strikes all over the place. It was beautiful, but also terrifying,” said Leigh-Anne Lehrman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was staying in Woodside, recovering from cancer surgery, away from her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873396/i-cant-abandon-this-community-months-after-czu-fires-survivors-struggle-to-rebuild\">home in the Santa Cruz Mountains\u003c/a>. Her daughters, one in college and one in high school, stayed behind to hold down the fort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998154\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Dean’s home burned in Bonny Doon before (top) and after the fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brian Dean)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She knew enough about the wildfire risk in her neighborhood to be “instantly very concerned because both the girls were there alone,” Lehrman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far away, Brian Dean, also a resident of the mountains, remembers the wind. His wife woke him up and said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Look at how windy it is out there. Lightning is everywhere,’” Dean recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stepped outside onto their deck, which was covered in sticks. “She turns around to come back in to get her shoes and right then, like half of a redwood [tree] landed right on the deck,” Dean said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farther north, Sonoma County resident Nate Ericson was camping in Humboldt County for his birthday when he saw a post on Facebook that family members were evacuating their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m freaking out,” Ericson recalled. “I start driving home. And I see the Mendocino Complex Fire. Just this massive, massive plume going up into the sky, like everything in me was, ‘Turn around, you’re going the wrong way, but I had to get home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A season like no other\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires fueled by extreme heat, supercharged by climate change, roared across an area of California larger than the combined land mass of Delaware and Rhode Island. The firestorms lasted for months, destroyed 9,000 structures and killed 31 people, forever altering the lives of countless more — some fled, others were imprinted by fear and distrust — and the operations of CalFire, the state’s firefighting agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the mid-August lightning strikes, several hundred fires sprang up, some merging into massive “complexes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1968917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1968917 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-800x527.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-1020x672.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-768x506.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People watch the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire, from a vineyard in Healdsburg, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2020. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We ended up in a situation where we had multiple megafires going on at the same time,” said George Morris III, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/about/executive-staff/profile-list/george-morris-iii\"> CalFire region chief\u003c/a> responsible for the units from Monterey County up to the Oregon border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land burned in and to the north of wine country in the LNU Lightning Complex, in the East Bay not far from San José in the SCU Lightning Complex, and to the south in Santa Cruz County, where a series of fires ignited outside of Big Basin State Park that smoldered for days where firefighters could not access them, Morris said. “That was a ticking time bomb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winds that kicked up around Aug. 18 caused a turning point. Separate fires coalesced into the CZU Lightning Complex Fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1974648/last-years-santa-cruz-lightning-fires-still-causing-trouble\">ripped through 85,000 acres\u003c/a>, burning some redwood forests not typically home to megafire and the communities of Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974779\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Redwood trees after the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires burned much of the area at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sept. 10, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The sound of the CZU Fire approaching Dean’s home in Bonny Doon reminded him of the movie \u003cem>Backdraft\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sounded like a jet airplane,” he said. “And at the same time, you hear propane tanks exploding in the background as the fire was coming down the mountain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power and cell service were out. Many of Lehrman’s friends evacuated, and she worried about her daughters. “I started really panicking, and then I couldn’t reach them at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Firefight overwhelmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As Lehrman panicked about her daughters, fire officials across the state faced a grim reality as the scale of the disaster overwhelmed firefighters. Wildfires continued to flare up — in Plumas, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Modoc — practically everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The August Complex, which started as 37 separate fires, merged into the state’s first recorded “giga-fire,” topping a million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1968871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1705px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1968871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1705\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe.jpg 1705w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1705px) 100vw, 1705px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A forest burns as the CZU August Lightning Complex fire advances, Aug. 20, 2020, in Bonny Doon, California. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every time you thought you were going to get ahead of the original lightning-caused fire, it gave way to other mega fires,” Morris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Figuring out how to position fire crews was somewhat like playing the game Risk. If you spread out on the board too far, Morris said, “Now you’re not prepared to deal with a threat here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morris said 2020 was a watershed moment in his 29-year career. He blames the severity of the fires on climate change drying out vegetation, the increasing encroachment of housing into the wildland urban interface and human activity starting fires, mostly by accident.[aside postID=news_12010708 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/004_BoulderCreek_BigBasinRedwoods_08172021_qed-1020x680.jpg']“Our largest and most damaging fires really have occurred in the last 20 years. That’s the reality,” Morris said. “There were damaging fires in the past, but they weren’t happening at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, with its Mediterranean climate, has always had a recipe for fire and it’s always been part of the landscape. But now, with 40 million people on that land, it’s a problem like it has never been before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the 2020 fires, said Zeke Lunder, “ran like crazy for a few days and [then had] a lot of beneficial effects after that initial wind-driven run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunder is a fire mapper and analyst. He runs well-informed but unofficial video briefings about fires through his YouTube channel and media company, “\u003ca href=\"https://the-lookout.org/\">The Lookout\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the start of September, he said things took a turn for the worse. Winds shifted and moved from land to the ocean, ripping across forests hot, dry and fast — winds like the Santa Anas — and they tend to be associated with the most damaging fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sept. 8 was an “Armageddon” wind event that blew up fires across the West Coast, including the Bear Fire in Butte County that ran 30 miles and killed 16 people in a single day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1687px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec.jpg\" alt=\"Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020.\" width=\"1687\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec.jpg 1687w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1687px) 100vw, 1687px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on Sept. 9, 2020. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Intense winds blew flames up a canyon, blocking evacuation routes. The Bear Fire was part of the North Complex Fire, an amalgamation of several fires along the middle fork of the Feather River. It was one of the many areas around the state that did not and could not get all the help they wanted as officials coordinating the response made hard decisions with fires threatening Livermore, Susanville, Quincy and other big cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then we have this fire out here in the middle fork in a roadless area that’s like 20 miles from the nearest cabin,” Lunder said. “It’s like, OK, well, those guys aren’t getting any air tankers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the firestorms of 2020 burned 4.2 million acres across California — the largest number since records have been kept. It’s believed to be\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010708/how-often-should-wild-lands-burn-to-stay-healthy\"> on par with the average number of acres\u003c/a> burned in the state prior to western settlement, when fires started by lightning were allowed to burn freely and when native Indigenous people intentionally set fires for many purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 2020, CalFire said it increased its ranks and boosted year-round positions, invested in aircraft that can fight fires at night and adopted technology that helps firefighters know better when a fire has sparked, how it is burning and what it might do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To capture memories from the 2020 fire siege, Morris wrote a\u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/2020-fire-siege.pdf?rev=80330d3b3d2e4216bf66e684c7784ad3&hash=ADFD85D92AA9DDBCAC1826F67F8DFFAB\"> 122-page report\u003c/a> of the event from CalFire’s perspective, which includes a timeline and narrative accounts, printed in large format and placed in each station around the state. It’s bigger than most other items on the shelf, Morris said, “so that people always remember the weight of 2020.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Moving on, with scars\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, Lehrman, Dean and Ericson did their best to make it through. Ericson did arrive safely back at his home in Sonoma County. But the stress of season after season of fires — on top of housing costs — made him decide, California just wasn’t worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I needed to go,” Ericson said. “That almost broke me, and I had to move to save my mental health, so that’s why I’m in Wisconsin now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dean and his wife lost their house in Bonny Doon. It’s been rebuilt and just finished. He’s waiting for the final inspections. He credits the county with trying to make it easier for people rebuilding to get permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998153\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Dean’s home burned in Bonny Doon after it was rebuilt. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brian Dean)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, construction was a pain and expensive — he hadn’t known he was underinsured. And now his insurance costs have soared. Before the fires, he paid about $2,400 a year. Now it’s $9,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he said the experience has helped him better cope with stress, or maybe just worry less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When something that bad happens and something else bad happens, you’re just numb,” Dean said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lehrman’s daughters and the pets did get out safely and stayed with friends while the fires raged. Their home burned. Finding a new house to rent in the area, so her youngest daughter could remain at the same high school, felt near impossible. Lehrman contacted 40 landlords before one said yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now recovered from cancer and lives in Woodside with her husband, though she would rather not live in the mountains anymore. She said she leaves for her dad’s home in Santa Rosa whenever the weather feels ripe for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever there’s high wind or it smells like smoke, anything like that, I’m gone,” Lehrman said. “I have a very, very low threshold for evacuation.”[aside postID=science_1998021 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/240109-CAWindStorm-069_qed.jpg']The experience helped her realize how little she needs to be happy, that family doesn’t depend on a certain house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not sure I would have believed that before,” Lehrman said. “I always associated family with our home, but now we can reconstitute our family dynamic in any room that we are in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her advice to other Californians facing fire risk: prepare, get good insurance — even if you’re a renter — and know there’s life to live after you get through it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preparation is good advice. As apocalyptic as the fires may have felt for Californians living through it — and they did feel bad, especially in the midst of a pandemic when many people were forced to stay inside due to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous-air-as-california-burns-america-breathes-toxic-smoke\">weeks of toxic smoke\u003c/a> — dry lightning bursts down onto California roughly every decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can look at 1999, 2008 and then 2020,” Morris said. “But in the era of the megafire, the propagation of large and damaging fire has been really pronounced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means another lightning-driven wildfire is highly likely in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As another fire season looms, the lessons from five years ago remain clear: California’s survival depends on how quickly it adapts to a world where megafires are the norm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "The 2020 California wildfires, fueled by climate change and dry lightning, scorched over 4 million acres and reshaped how the state prepares for a future of extreme fire risk.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1756242079,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 52,
"wordCount": 2195
},
"headData": {
"title": "The Summer That Changed California Forever | KQED",
"description": "The 2020 California wildfires, fueled by climate change and dry lightning, scorched over 4 million acres and reshaped how the state prepares for a future of extreme fire risk.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "The Summer That Changed California Forever",
"datePublished": "2025-08-23T07:00:41-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-08-26T14:01:19-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 40,
"slug": "news",
"name": "News"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998245",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Californians who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873396/i-cant-abandon-this-community-months-after-czu-fires-survivors-struggle-to-rebuild\">lived through the 2020 fire siege\u003c/a> — the state’s worst fire year on record by some measures — vividly remember the dry lightning storm of Aug. 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blistering summer had pushed temperatures into the triple digits for weeks, priming grass, brush and trees to burn. In mid-August, the remnants of Tropical Storm Fausto swept over Northern California. It brought little rain but pelted the state with 15,000 dry lightning strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That storm set off a siege of wildfires unlike anything California had ever seen — a season that upended lives and rewrote the playbook for fighting fire. Five years later, the fires sparked by that lightning storm remain a turning point for California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2020 fire season burned more land than any in recorded state history, reshaped firefighting strategy and left thousands of people — from mountain residents to state officials — permanently changed. As climate change fuels hotter summers and more explosive blazes, the lessons of 2020 matter more than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We woke up in the middle of the night to lightning strikes all over the place. It was beautiful, but also terrifying,” said Leigh-Anne Lehrman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was staying in Woodside, recovering from cancer surgery, away from her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873396/i-cant-abandon-this-community-months-after-czu-fires-survivors-struggle-to-rebuild\">home in the Santa Cruz Mountains\u003c/a>. Her daughters, one in college and one in high school, stayed behind to hold down the fort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998154\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Dean’s home burned in Bonny Doon before (top) and after the fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brian Dean)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She knew enough about the wildfire risk in her neighborhood to be “instantly very concerned because both the girls were there alone,” Lehrman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far away, Brian Dean, also a resident of the mountains, remembers the wind. His wife woke him up and said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Look at how windy it is out there. Lightning is everywhere,’” Dean recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stepped outside onto their deck, which was covered in sticks. “She turns around to come back in to get her shoes and right then, like half of a redwood [tree] landed right on the deck,” Dean said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farther north, Sonoma County resident Nate Ericson was camping in Humboldt County for his birthday when he saw a post on Facebook that family members were evacuating their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m freaking out,” Ericson recalled. “I start driving home. And I see the Mendocino Complex Fire. Just this massive, massive plume going up into the sky, like everything in me was, ‘Turn around, you’re going the wrong way, but I had to get home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A season like no other\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires fueled by extreme heat, supercharged by climate change, roared across an area of California larger than the combined land mass of Delaware and Rhode Island. The firestorms lasted for months, destroyed 9,000 structures and killed 31 people, forever altering the lives of countless more — some fled, others were imprinted by fear and distrust — and the operations of CalFire, the state’s firefighting agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the mid-August lightning strikes, several hundred fires sprang up, some merging into massive “complexes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1968917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1968917 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-800x527.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-1020x672.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-768x506.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/RS44588_GettyImages-1228132420-1-qut-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People watch the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire, from a vineyard in Healdsburg, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2020. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We ended up in a situation where we had multiple megafires going on at the same time,” said George Morris III, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/about/executive-staff/profile-list/george-morris-iii\"> CalFire region chief\u003c/a> responsible for the units from Monterey County up to the Oregon border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land burned in and to the north of wine country in the LNU Lightning Complex, in the East Bay not far from San José in the SCU Lightning Complex, and to the south in Santa Cruz County, where a series of fires ignited outside of Big Basin State Park that smoldered for days where firefighters could not access them, Morris said. “That was a ticking time bomb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winds that kicked up around Aug. 18 caused a turning point. Separate fires coalesced into the CZU Lightning Complex Fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1974648/last-years-santa-cruz-lightning-fires-still-causing-trouble\">ripped through 85,000 acres\u003c/a>, burning some redwood forests not typically home to megafire and the communities of Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974779\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQED_BigBasin_Fire_09102020-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Redwood trees after the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires burned much of the area at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sept. 10, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The sound of the CZU Fire approaching Dean’s home in Bonny Doon reminded him of the movie \u003cem>Backdraft\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sounded like a jet airplane,” he said. “And at the same time, you hear propane tanks exploding in the background as the fire was coming down the mountain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power and cell service were out. Many of Lehrman’s friends evacuated, and she worried about her daughters. “I started really panicking, and then I couldn’t reach them at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Firefight overwhelmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As Lehrman panicked about her daughters, fire officials across the state faced a grim reality as the scale of the disaster overwhelmed firefighters. Wildfires continued to flare up — in Plumas, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Modoc — practically everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The August Complex, which started as 37 separate fires, merged into the state’s first recorded “giga-fire,” topping a million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1968871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1705px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1968871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1705\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe.jpg 1705w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/08/ap_20234112251700-web-c98ebb85f512e1267d60886e6cb6c12967731dfe-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1705px) 100vw, 1705px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A forest burns as the CZU August Lightning Complex fire advances, Aug. 20, 2020, in Bonny Doon, California. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every time you thought you were going to get ahead of the original lightning-caused fire, it gave way to other mega fires,” Morris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Figuring out how to position fire crews was somewhat like playing the game Risk. If you spread out on the board too far, Morris said, “Now you’re not prepared to deal with a threat here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morris said 2020 was a watershed moment in his 29-year career. He blames the severity of the fires on climate change drying out vegetation, the increasing encroachment of housing into the wildland urban interface and human activity starting fires, mostly by accident.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12010708",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/004_BoulderCreek_BigBasinRedwoods_08172021_qed-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our largest and most damaging fires really have occurred in the last 20 years. That’s the reality,” Morris said. “There were damaging fires in the past, but they weren’t happening at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, with its Mediterranean climate, has always had a recipe for fire and it’s always been part of the landscape. But now, with 40 million people on that land, it’s a problem like it has never been before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the 2020 fires, said Zeke Lunder, “ran like crazy for a few days and [then had] a lot of beneficial effects after that initial wind-driven run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunder is a fire mapper and analyst. He runs well-informed but unofficial video briefings about fires through his YouTube channel and media company, “\u003ca href=\"https://the-lookout.org/\">The Lookout\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the start of September, he said things took a turn for the worse. Winds shifted and moved from land to the ocean, ripping across forests hot, dry and fast — winds like the Santa Anas — and they tend to be associated with the most damaging fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sept. 8 was an “Armageddon” wind event that blew up fires across the West Coast, including the Bear Fire in Butte County that ran 30 miles and killed 16 people in a single day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1687px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec.jpg\" alt=\"Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020.\" width=\"1687\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec.jpg 1687w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/gettyimages-1228423923-b86494382decf6f35ebe09faefee6c7b23e3e9ec-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1687px) 100vw, 1687px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on Sept. 9, 2020. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Intense winds blew flames up a canyon, blocking evacuation routes. The Bear Fire was part of the North Complex Fire, an amalgamation of several fires along the middle fork of the Feather River. It was one of the many areas around the state that did not and could not get all the help they wanted as officials coordinating the response made hard decisions with fires threatening Livermore, Susanville, Quincy and other big cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then we have this fire out here in the middle fork in a roadless area that’s like 20 miles from the nearest cabin,” Lunder said. “It’s like, OK, well, those guys aren’t getting any air tankers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the firestorms of 2020 burned 4.2 million acres across California — the largest number since records have been kept. It’s believed to be\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010708/how-often-should-wild-lands-burn-to-stay-healthy\"> on par with the average number of acres\u003c/a> burned in the state prior to western settlement, when fires started by lightning were allowed to burn freely and when native Indigenous people intentionally set fires for many purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 2020, CalFire said it increased its ranks and boosted year-round positions, invested in aircraft that can fight fires at night and adopted technology that helps firefighters know better when a fire has sparked, how it is burning and what it might do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To capture memories from the 2020 fire siege, Morris wrote a\u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/2020-fire-siege.pdf?rev=80330d3b3d2e4216bf66e684c7784ad3&hash=ADFD85D92AA9DDBCAC1826F67F8DFFAB\"> 122-page report\u003c/a> of the event from CalFire’s perspective, which includes a timeline and narrative accounts, printed in large format and placed in each station around the state. It’s bigger than most other items on the shelf, Morris said, “so that people always remember the weight of 2020.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Moving on, with scars\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, Lehrman, Dean and Ericson did their best to make it through. Ericson did arrive safely back at his home in Sonoma County. But the stress of season after season of fires — on top of housing costs — made him decide, California just wasn’t worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I needed to go,” Ericson said. “That almost broke me, and I had to move to save my mental health, so that’s why I’m in Wisconsin now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dean and his wife lost their house in Bonny Doon. It’s been rebuilt and just finished. He’s waiting for the final inspections. He credits the county with trying to make it easier for people rebuilding to get permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998153\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250819-2020-FIRESTORM-ANNIVERSARY-KQED_1-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Dean’s home burned in Bonny Doon after it was rebuilt. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brian Dean)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, construction was a pain and expensive — he hadn’t known he was underinsured. And now his insurance costs have soared. Before the fires, he paid about $2,400 a year. Now it’s $9,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he said the experience has helped him better cope with stress, or maybe just worry less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When something that bad happens and something else bad happens, you’re just numb,” Dean said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lehrman’s daughters and the pets did get out safely and stayed with friends while the fires raged. Their home burned. Finding a new house to rent in the area, so her youngest daughter could remain at the same high school, felt near impossible. Lehrman contacted 40 landlords before one said yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now recovered from cancer and lives in Woodside with her husband, though she would rather not live in the mountains anymore. She said she leaves for her dad’s home in Santa Rosa whenever the weather feels ripe for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever there’s high wind or it smells like smoke, anything like that, I’m gone,” Lehrman said. “I have a very, very low threshold for evacuation.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998021",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/240109-CAWindStorm-069_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The experience helped her realize how little she needs to be happy, that family doesn’t depend on a certain house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not sure I would have believed that before,” Lehrman said. “I always associated family with our home, but now we can reconstitute our family dynamic in any room that we are in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her advice to other Californians facing fire risk: prepare, get good insurance — even if you’re a renter — and know there’s life to live after you get through it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preparation is good advice. As apocalyptic as the fires may have felt for Californians living through it — and they did feel bad, especially in the midst of a pandemic when many people were forced to stay inside due to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous-air-as-california-burns-america-breathes-toxic-smoke\">weeks of toxic smoke\u003c/a> — dry lightning bursts down onto California roughly every decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can look at 1999, 2008 and then 2020,” Morris said. “But in the era of the megafire, the propagation of large and damaging fire has been really pronounced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means another lightning-driven wildfire is highly likely in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As another fire season looms, the lessons from five years ago remain clear: California’s survival depends on how quickly it adapts to a world where megafires are the norm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever",
"authors": [
"11088"
],
"categories": [
"science_4550",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_2455",
"science_182",
"science_194",
"science_4417",
"science_4414",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998189",
"label": "source_science_1998245"
},
"science_1998202": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1998202",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1998202",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1755899355000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "firefighters-gain-first-foothold-on-pickett-fire-in-napa-county",
"title": "Firefighters Gain First Foothold on Pickett Fire in Napa County",
"publishDate": 1755899355,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Firefighters Gain First Foothold on Pickett Fire in Napa County | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>Firefighters have started to make progress on the Pickett Fire burning in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/napa-county\">Napa County\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now 5% contained, Cal Fire said in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CALFIRELNU/status/1958988486331310221\">mid-day update\u003c/a> Friday. About 2,000 acres are estimated to have burned. That number is likely to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today and tomorrow will be pretty darn critical” for building more lines of containment around the fire, said Mike Wilson of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation. Wilson assisted with the fire response Thursday night after the fire broke out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, firefighters used bulldozers to reinforce firebreaks and access roads, some of which were previously laid down during the Glass Fire, which burned in the same area five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been able to utilize some of the fire history in the region, reestablishing old fire access roads,” said Jason Clay, Cal Fire public information officer with the Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews have also used lines constructed by Napa Firewise to build contingency lines for backup in case the fire makes unexpected runs, Clay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozer crews are being supported by aircraft, engines, water tenders and hand crews to connect fuel breaks and control lines in this remote, rugged area to protect communities to the east of the fire, including Pope Valley, Angwin, Deer Park and Larkmead. More than 400 people are assigned to work on the fire.[aside postID=science_1998156 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/MontereyBayGetty.jpg']Crews will work overnight on the fire, said Clay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Friday afternoon, Cal Fire reported no loss of life, injuries or structures damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay estimated fewer than 40 people were under evacuation orders. Many more, however, are under evacuation warnings and are advised to prepare to leave quickly, if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is responding to vegetation and the landscape primarily, not behaving as a wind-driven fire, said Wilson. That’s good because wind-driven fires are generally more destructive and harder to suppress than fuel- and terrain-driven fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winds could pick up late Friday, however, Wilson added. The fire is burning in an area of mostly grass and brush, with some trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Cal Fire investigators visited the scene on Thursday, off Pickett Road in Calistoga, to try to determine the cause of ignition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality District issued an \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/en/news-and-events/page-resources/2025-news/082225-aq-advisory\">air quality advisory\u003c/a> due to smoke from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The smoke may be affecting grapes on the vine, ripening before harvest. Wine makers contacted by KQED said they would be testing this year’s grapes for smoke taint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Crews are working bulldozers, aircraft and hand lines to hold back flames near Calistoga, as evacuation orders remain in place for dozens of residents.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1756222042,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 16,
"wordCount": 440
},
"headData": {
"title": "Firefighters Gain First Foothold on Pickett Fire in Napa County | KQED",
"description": "Crews are working bulldozers, aircraft and hand lines to hold back flames near Calistoga, as evacuation orders remain in place for dozens of residents.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Firefighters Gain First Foothold on Pickett Fire in Napa County",
"datePublished": "2025-08-22T14:49:15-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-08-26T08:27:22-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 40,
"slug": "news",
"name": "News"
},
"source": "News",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-1998202",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1998202/firefighters-gain-first-foothold-on-pickett-fire-in-napa-county",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Firefighters have started to make progress on the Pickett Fire burning in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/napa-county\">Napa County\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now 5% contained, Cal Fire said in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CALFIRELNU/status/1958988486331310221\">mid-day update\u003c/a> Friday. About 2,000 acres are estimated to have burned. That number is likely to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today and tomorrow will be pretty darn critical” for building more lines of containment around the fire, said Mike Wilson of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation. Wilson assisted with the fire response Thursday night after the fire broke out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, firefighters used bulldozers to reinforce firebreaks and access roads, some of which were previously laid down during the Glass Fire, which burned in the same area five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been able to utilize some of the fire history in the region, reestablishing old fire access roads,” said Jason Clay, Cal Fire public information officer with the Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews have also used lines constructed by Napa Firewise to build contingency lines for backup in case the fire makes unexpected runs, Clay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozer crews are being supported by aircraft, engines, water tenders and hand crews to connect fuel breaks and control lines in this remote, rugged area to protect communities to the east of the fire, including Pope Valley, Angwin, Deer Park and Larkmead. More than 400 people are assigned to work on the fire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1998156",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/MontereyBayGetty.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Crews will work overnight on the fire, said Clay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Friday afternoon, Cal Fire reported no loss of life, injuries or structures damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay estimated fewer than 40 people were under evacuation orders. Many more, however, are under evacuation warnings and are advised to prepare to leave quickly, if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is responding to vegetation and the landscape primarily, not behaving as a wind-driven fire, said Wilson. That’s good because wind-driven fires are generally more destructive and harder to suppress than fuel- and terrain-driven fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winds could pick up late Friday, however, Wilson added. The fire is burning in an area of mostly grass and brush, with some trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Cal Fire investigators visited the scene on Thursday, off Pickett Road in Calistoga, to try to determine the cause of ignition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality District issued an \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/en/news-and-events/page-resources/2025-news/082225-aq-advisory\">air quality advisory\u003c/a> due to smoke from the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The smoke may be affecting grapes on the vine, ripening before harvest. Wine makers contacted by KQED said they would be testing this year’s grapes for smoke taint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1998202/firefighters-gain-first-foothold-on-pickett-fire-in-napa-county",
"authors": [
"11088"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450",
"science_3730"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_4417",
"science_4414",
"science_1231",
"science_3464",
"science_5347"
],
"featImg": "science_1998204",
"label": "source_science_1998202"
}
},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "\"KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1MDAyODE4NTgz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"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",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"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",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "\"KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"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 />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"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",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9zZXJpZXMvamVycnlicm93bi9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"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",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"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)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"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",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"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/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"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",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vc29sZG91dA"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM4MjU5Nzg2MzI3",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM0NTcwODQ2MjY2",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/science?category=wildfires": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 0,
"postsToRender": 9
},
"tag": null,
"vitalsOnly": true,
"totalRequested": 9,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 216,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"science_1999312",
"science_1998808",
"science_1998787",
"science_1998746",
"science_1998512",
"science_1998386",
"science_1998209",
"science_1998245",
"science_1998202"
]
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"subscriptionsReducer": {},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science_3730": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3730",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3730",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Wildfires",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Wildfires Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null,
"imageData": {
"ogImageSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"width": 1200,
"height": 630
},
"twImageSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
},
"twitterCard": "summary_large_image"
}
},
"ttid": 3730,
"slug": "wildfires",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/wildfires"
},
"source_science_1999312": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1999312",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998808": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998808",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998787": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998787",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998746": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998746",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998512": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998512",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998386": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998386",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998209": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998209",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998245": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998245",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1998202": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1998202",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "News",
"isLoading": false
},
"science_39": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_39",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "39",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 41,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/health"
},
"science_40": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_40",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "40",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 42,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/news"
},
"science_5178": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5178",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5178",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5178,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/california"
},
"science_194": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_194",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "194",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "climate change",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "climate change Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 198,
"slug": "climate-change",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/climate-change"
},
"science_4414": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4414",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4414",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "featured-science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "featured-science Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4414,
"slug": "featured-science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/featured-science"
},
"science_5181": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5181",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5181",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "health Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5181,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/health"
},
"science_5347": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5347",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5347",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "wildfires",
"slug": "wildfires",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "wildfires Archives | KQED Science",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 5347,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/wildfires"
},
"science_5217": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5217",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5217",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5217,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/california"
},
"science_5226": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5226",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5226",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5226,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/health"
},
"science_5212": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5212",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5212",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5212,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/news"
},
"science_32": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_32",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "32",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Education",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Education Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 34,
"slug": "education",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/education"
},
"science_4550": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4550",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4550",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Local",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Local Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4550,
"slug": "local",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/local"
},
"science_856": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_856",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "856",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "bay area",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "bay area Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 862,
"slug": "bay-area",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/bay-area"
},
"science_1888": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1888",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1888",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "disaster preparedness",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "disaster preparedness Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1899,
"slug": "disaster-preparedness",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/disaster-preparedness"
},
"science_4417": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4417",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4417",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "featured-news",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "featured-news Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4417,
"slug": "featured-news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/featured-news"
},
"science_5219": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5219",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5219",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Events",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Events Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5219,
"slug": "events",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/events"
},
"science_31": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_31",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "31",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/climate"
},
"science_4450": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4450",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4450",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Science Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4450,
"slug": "science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/science"
},
"science_5371": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5371",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5371",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Gavin Newsom",
"slug": "gavin-newsom",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Gavin Newsom | KQED Science",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 5371,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/gavin-newsom"
},
"science_3779": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3779",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3779",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "housing Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3779,
"slug": "housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/housing"
},
"science_5375": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5375",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5375",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "politics",
"slug": "politics",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "politics | KQED Science",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 5375,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/politics"
},
"science_4277": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4277",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4277",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Public health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Public health Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4277,
"slug": "public-health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/public-health"
},
"science_5213": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5213",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5213",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Local Politics",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Local Politics Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5213,
"slug": "local-politics",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/local-politics"
},
"science_35": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_35",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "35",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Environment Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 37,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/environment"
},
"science_182": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_182",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "182",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 186,
"slug": "climate-2",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/climate-2"
},
"science_5229": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5229",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5229",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5229,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/climate"
},
"science_2184": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_2184",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "2184",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "heat",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "heat Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2196,
"slug": "heat",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/heat"
},
"science_1746": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1746",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1746",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "lightning",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "lightning Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1756,
"slug": "lightning",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/lightning"
},
"science_5422": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5422",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5422",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Arts",
"slug": "arts",
"taxonomy": "category",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Arts | KQED Science",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 5422,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/arts"
},
"science_505": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_505",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "505",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "air pollution",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "air pollution Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 511,
"slug": "air-pollution",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/air-pollution"
},
"science_5197": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5197",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5197",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "arts",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "arts Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5197,
"slug": "arts",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/arts"
},
"science_5183": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5183",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5183",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "San Francisco",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "San Francisco Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5183,
"slug": "san-francisco",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/san-francisco"
},
"science_5215": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5215",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5215",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Arts and Culture",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Arts and Culture Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5215,
"slug": "arts-and-culture",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/interest/arts-and-culture"
},
"science_3693": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3693",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3693",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "wildfire smoke",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "wildfire smoke Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3693,
"slug": "wildfire-smoke",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/wildfire-smoke"
},
"science_2455": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_2455",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "2455",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2467,
"slug": "california-climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/california-climate"
},
"science_1231": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1231",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1231",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "napa valley",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "napa valley Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1240,
"slug": "napa-valley",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/napa-valley"
},
"science_3464": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3464",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3464",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "northern california wildfires",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "northern california wildfires Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3464,
"slug": "northern-california-wildfires",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/northern-california-wildfires"
}
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"localStorageReducer": {},
"browserHistoryReducer": [],
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {},
"restaurantData": []
},
"location": {
"pathname": "/science/category/wildfires",
"previousPathname": "/"
}
}
