June 17, 2009 Current Southern California Wildfires are just a fraction of the national wildfire map

If shows like the Weather Channel’s “It Could Happen Tomorrow” teach us one thing, it is to be prepared

Facing a Southern California wildfire in late May, firefighters in a small community just outside of San Diego battled a 60-acre blaze that forced dozens of people from about 80 homes. No damage was reported – other than the 60-acres of wildfire-scorched earth – and no one was injured.

As far as current California wildfire stories go, that’s considered a happy ending 

In 2006 on the Weather Channel’s series “It Could Happen Tomorrow,” a show that explores the possibility of natural disasters vs. city focused on a California wildfire threatening San Diego.

That show was based on the Cedar Fire that burned more than 280,278 acres with wildfire in Southern California in 2003. The human-caused blaze claimed nearly 3,000 structures and 15 lives. That massive wildfire was just one of more than a dozen huge California wildfires blazes that swept through Southern California in the month of October. 

Current wildfire rates are high across the map

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2009 has been the worst year of the past decade for wildfires in the U.S. with 41,328 fires burning nearly 1.4 million acres of land – the third highest year ever for acreage lost to fire. In May of this year, the NOAA  reported 9,265 new wildfires affecting some 312,000 acres.

Those numbers are stunning, to say the least. And while the loss of human life is always a heavy number to consider, the amount of agricultural loss is staggering, too. As a guide, take a look at timber losses in Florida in 1998 – some $390 million according to the National Fire Protection Association.

The Southern California wildfires destroy agriculture, but so do wildfires everywhere

The U.S. Fire Administration released a study in 2002 that found 20,000 agricultural fires each year result in $102 million in loss and about two-thirds of those fires happened in orchards or crops.

Data on what types of insurance the owners of these crops and agricultural lands had was unavailable, but the losses were huge, nonetheless.

Great resources for current Southern California wildfires, wildfire maps and wildfire prevention

A great resource for up-to-date information on wildfires currently burning in the U.S. is the Center for Fire Research and Outreach – a product of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Center for Fire Research and Outreach also produces what they’ve titled the California Active Fire Mapper – showing a current California wildfire map with active and recently burned areas in California. The center also has a valuable collection of tools and tips for homeowners, researchers and community leaders.

One of the smoothest tools on the site is a series of questions about your home and surroundings that can give you an idea of how susceptible your property is to wildfires. The tool asks questions about areas like:

• Roofing
• Windows
• Decking
• Garage
• Siding, and
• suppression

Prevention is key against wildfires not only in Southern California, but everywhere

The lesson to be learned here is that wildfires burns constantly across the country and they burn all the time. The stats on acreage burned by wildfire in Southern California and elsewhere, along with the lives lost are staggering, indeed. But, what the Center for Fire Research and Outreach teaches us, we can be prepared.