As California wildfires get bigger and scarier with climate change, residents are looking for ways to protect their neighborhoods. One method that’s becoming increasingly popular is prescribed burns - which reduce the amount of fuel ahead of time, so that wildfires won’t flare so intensely.
But it’s only recently that cities and suburbs are coming around to this tactic. Katherine Monahan, from California Newsroom partner KQED, reports from a prescribed fire near Calistoga, in Sonoma County.
SOUND OF A PERSON IGNITING A FIRE: You can light that fuel . . . Right now? . . . . on the ground . .. . LIGHTER FLICKING . .
KATHERINE MONAHAN: The knee-high grass and coyote brush is DRY. The hills above are still scarred black from wildfire.
SOUND OF FLAMES STARTING TO CRACKLE: ...and then you’ll grab fire here and then walk it through.
MONAHAN: There’s a county fire truck standing by, and a few CalFire personnel in case things get out of control. But most of the 70 or so people working this burn are volunteers.
BRIAN PETERSON: What the fire’s doing right now is backing. It’s going very slow. We’ll go down below that and drop some dots and let it burn into it.
MONAHAN: Brian Peterson is with Fire Forward - an organization that trains ordinary residents to do this work. And then once they get certified, they can participate in burns. These days, the waitlists for those trainings are full. And when a burn organizer posts a sign-up sheet, it fills up within a few hours.
PETERSON: Prescribed fire associations is what they're called are popping up all over California. It’s all grassroots.
MONAHAN: This wasn’t always the case. Many residents of Sonoma County, with its vineyards and expensive real estate, objected to the smoke and risk of prescribed burns. One of them was Thea Maria Carlson.
THEA MARIA CARLSON: I was reluctant. I was concerned that it might be damaging to the land. I didn't really, yeah, it just seemed kind of scary.
MONAHAN: But then came the 2017 Tubbs Fire - which killed 22 people and wiped out part of urban Santa Rosa. And the 2020 Glass Fire - which almost destroyed Carlson’s house - but stopped short at the control line of a prescribed burn. So she signed up for one of those trainings.
CARLSON: It was terrifying for me because I was still really afraid of fire but I kind of just forced myself to do it. And pretty soon fell in love with it.
MONAHAN: Carlson is leading today’s event. She watches as carefully coordinated fire from several points merges as planned.
SOUND OF RADIO: We’ve taken fire as low as we’re gonna take it into the drainage
MONAHAN: Government support for prescribed fire has increased. Some residents are still opposed, especially vintners concerned the smoke might damage their grapes. But Sonoma County voters passed measure H in the spring, providing funding for fire prevention. And the state also offers grants, and has set a goal of burning four hundred thousand acres per year.
SOUND OF FLAMES AND A PERSON'S VOICE IN SPANISH: Agarro la línea, me voy...
MONAHAN: The local prescribed fire association has grown to close to a thousand members, and this is its first bilingual burn. Maria Reyes of Santa Rosa says she’s used to the flames - which are now head high. She’s been participating in prescribed fires since her childhood in Oaxaca, Mexico.
MARIA REYES: desde toda la vida, mis padres han sido campesinos y ellos hacen quemas
MONAHAN: She talks about how on a recent burn, she cooked traditional foods over the embers.
REYES: Cocimos tortillas, carne. Y y plátanos
MONAHAN: As the fire grows all the way to the carefully prepared perimeter, and starts to die down . . . the mood is almost jubilant.
SOUND OF VOICES: Whoah . . . I see rainbows in the smoke . . . laughing . ..
MONAHAN: Carlson and the neighbors look about ready to get out the marshmallows...
CARLSON: ...there is no future without fire and without smoke. And so we need to choose if we want to put the fire and the smoke onto the land and into the air intentionally under good conditions or wait for it to happen under bad conditions.
MONAHAN: The prescribed fire association plans to get in as many more burns as it can before the heavy winter rains.
I’m Katherine Monahan, KQED News.