California Has Barely Burned So Far

California Has Barely Burned So Far
Wall Street Journal (NY) (06/28/10) P. A3; Carlton,Jim

With the wildfire season under way in California, experts have suggested the season could be quiet as a wet winter and cool spring have kept much of the forest and brush from drying out. The unusually wet conditions have eased the burden on the state's dwindling financial resources, which took heavy hits between 2006 and 2009. As of June 22, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported 642 wildfires on 3,236 acres of public land, which is 30 percent less than the number of fires recorded over the same period in 2009. In each of the last three fiscal years, Cal Fire has exceeded its fire fighting budget of $1 billion by between $100 million and $432 million. These fires have burned about 1.6 million acres of land per year, compared with the 279,000 acres burned during the last wet year in 2005. Even though it has been a moist year, Cal Fire is still expected to incur a budget overrun of $16 million by June 29. However, experts caution that even in wet years catastrophic fires are still possible.
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