LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Recent rains and cooler temperatures across the region have lowered the threat of wildfires, allowing Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit to transition out of another busy fire season.
Effective at 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1, fire season will end in Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Colusa, Yolo and Solano counties.
This year's fire season is ending a few weeks earlier than was the case in 2013. Last year, Cal Fire declared the end of the season on Dec. 16.
“The recent rainfall has been welcomed in the North Bay Area, yet the area still remains under serious drought conditions,” said Unit Chief Scott Upton.
Upton reminds homeowners that the winter months provide the best weather patterns for homeowners to create or maintain their defensible space around their homes.
One hundred feet of defensible space has proven to save homes during a wildland fire incident
and is a mandatory California State Law (Public Resource Code 4291).
With the transition out of fire season on Dec. 1, Cal Fire burn permits – for the State Responsibility Area – are not required until May 1, 2015.
However, burn permits are required throughout Lake County. Call Lake County Air Quality Management District at 707-263-7000 for more information.
As drought conditions continue to have a hold on California, Cal Fire is maintaining staffing that meets
the current threat, as well as strategically moving resources to areas that remain at a higher threat level.
Cal Fire reported that it also will continue to monitor weather conditions closely and still has the ability to increase staffing should the weather conditions change or if there is a need to support wildfires in other areas of the state.
The 2014 fire season has been an extremely active year. Statewide, Cal Fire and firefighters from many
local agencies battled more than 5,500 wildfires within the State Responsibility Area that burned nearly 91,000 acres. This number is more than 1,000 more wildfires this year than normal.
In the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, Cal Fire responded to 346 wildfires that charred 11,327 acres, compared to 902 fires and 536 fires during the peak of the 2013 and 2012 seasons, respectively, according to historical data.
Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit urges residents within its six-county area to still take precautions outdoors in order to prevent sparking a wildfire.
A leading cause of wildfires this time of year is from escaped landscape debris burning, officials said.
Before you burn, ensure it’s a permissive burn day by contacting your local air quality district and then make sure you have any and all required burn permits.
During burning, make sure that piles of landscape debris are no larger than four feet in diameter, provide a 10-foot clearance down to bare mineral soil around the burn pile and that a responsible adult is in attendance at all times with a water source and a shovel.
For more ways to prevent sparking a wildfire visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org .
For addition fire prevention tips visit http://www.preventwildfireca.org/ .
Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit declares end to 2014 fire season
- Lake County News reports
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