West again at risk for fire calamities

By David Kelly
Los Angeles Times

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DENVER — An ominous alignment of drought, high temperatures and millions of dead trees has sparked fears across the West that this year's fire season could be among the most devastating the region has ever seen.

Worried public-safety officials are pinning their hopes on a very wet April to prevent a repeat of 2002, when enormous blazes ripped through Colorado, Arizona and Utah, destroying hundreds of homes and causing millions in damage. Little rain has fallen, though, and much of the snow cover has melted.

Eastern Washington in peril Fire officials say an unusually warm March has led to rapid snow melt that has left many Western states with about 60 or 70 percent of their usual snowpack. The danger zones include much of Eastern Washington; the Four Corners region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah converge; and wide swaths of northern Idaho, western Montana, eastern Oregon and northern Wyoming. — Los Angeles Times

And in California, which last year had its biggest fires in modern history, all the elements are in place for another horrific fire season. Last fall's wildfires in Southern California consumed 738,000 acres, destroyed more than 3,600 homes and other structures, and took 26 lives.

Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties are listed as facing severe fire dangers this year, largely due to more than 1 million dead, dry trees spread over 400,000 acres. Last year's fires burned 5 percent of those trees, officials said.

"We have a historically unprecedented infestation of Western bark beetles that have destroyed the trees," said Karen Terrill, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "Last year we saw when the fire got into the bug kill, it became very aggressive."

Thousands of diseased oaks pose similar dangers in 12 counties near San Francisco. Sudden Oak Death syndrome has killed trees throughout the area, leaving them and surrounding grasslands ripe for ignition, Terrill said.

In Colorado, firefighters fear another summer of 2002, when the worst fires in its history tore through the state, culminating in the Hayman fire that consumed 137,000 acres and destroyed 132 homes and businesses. Barring a last-minute blizzard or monsoonlike rains, history could be on the verge of repeating itself.

Soaring temperatures, dry conditions and early wildfires have Colorado firefighters on statewide alert. Last month was the driest March in nearly a century.

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