Governor Brown Declares State Of Emergency As Wildfires Consume California

thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/03/3467085/california-governor-state-of-emergency-wildfires/

by Ryan Koronowski Posted on August 3, 2014

Two weeks ago, the governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency as a result of the major fires burning across their states.

On Saturday, California followed suit, with Governor Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency because of the threats posed by dozens of wildfires to the northern and central parts of the state: — and the damage wildfires have caused to Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta and Siskiyou counties.

Wildfires have damaged infrastructure and residents’ homes in many of these rural counties, often triggered by dry lightning and fueled by heat, drought, and water-starved, kindling-like forests.

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Dennis Mathisen, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the LA Times that “we’re seeing fire behavior we wouldn’t normally see until September.”

“With warmer weather conditions, low humidity and some wind, and all you need is a spark, and a series of dry lightning strikes, and that’s a recipe for disaster.”

Mathisen said the fire situation was “exacerbated by the drought situation” that has been affecting the state so badly that it is now the most severe drought that has ever been recorded in the state. Fifty-eight percent of the state is under “exceptional drought.” The U.S. Drought Monitor said that the moisture of the state’s topsoil’s moisture is “nearly depleted,” a key factor in estimates that California’s nation-leading agricultural sector will lose $2.2 billion in 2014.

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Leading climatologists have said that climate change has played a significant role in worsening the epic drought. “The extra heat from the increase in heat trapping gases in the atmosphere over six months is equivalent to running a small microwave oven at full power for about half an hour over every square foot of the land under the drought,” climatologist Kevin Trenberth told Climate Progress’ Joe Romm in a January email. “No wonder wild fires have increased! So climate change undoubtedly affects the intensity and duration of drought, and it has consequences. California must be very vigilant with regard to wild fires as the spring arrives.”

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Oregon reported 30 fires in 24 hours, according to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center, and a new wildfire burned down up to eight homes in Washington State.

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As these fires spread across the West and governors call for federal help, the GOP-led House of Representatives refuse to move legislation that would make it easier for the federal government to fund wildfire fighting without dipping into fire prevention funding.