Wildfire season is fast approaching - what's the outlook?

State Senator Mike McGuire and Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler gave an updated look at where the state stands in the effort to protect against wildfires at a virtual town hall this week.

photo credit: CA National Guard/flickr
The aftermath of 2017's Tubbs Fire, which claimed 22 lives, left Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood burned, destroying close to 1,400 structures.

Summer sun, dry grass, and the time for wildfires is fast approaching; and North Bay State Senator Mike McGuire has something to say about it.

The wet winter has been welcome for many, erasing drought throughout the state

That's some good news, said McGuire.

"The vast majority of California's reservoirs, our lakes, They are at or very near capacity," McGuire said.

But the winter rains yield some consequences, he said.

"What we also know is big rain means big growth in vegetation, and despite this wet winter and despite the snow pack that we may see in the year now, wildfire season is here to stay," McGuire said. "It's knocking on our door, and that is why we need you to get prepared tonight."

California has made a serious effort to beef up firefighting capacity in recent years though.

McGuire noted the replacement of Vietnam-era helicopters with newer nighttime capable Blackhawk helicopters

And the addition of seven, C130 cargo planes for air attack on wildfires, and the expansion of Cal Fire's ranks to near 12,000 firefighters.

The latest challenge, McGuire said, is California's home insurance crisis.

"Simply raising homeowners insurance rates by 20 to 40% isn't going to make a community, and it's not going to make a home more fire safe," McGuire said. "There's much more that we have to do."

McGuire said there's already some plans in place.

"Number one, we need to get about 85% of folks off of the FAIR plan insurance, or last resort, and back into a traditional homeowner's insurance policy," McGuire said. "You're gonna see that happening over the next 24 to 36 months. Number two, we need to be able to advance community and home hardening initiatives, greatly expand that, and when a community hardens homes within their neighborhoods, we truly need insurance companies to write if they're reducing risk, which we will, if we have community hardening plans."

So what exactly is this year's wildfire outlook? CalFire Chief Joe Tyler explained the landscape for Northern California.

"We're looking at a potential for what we would consider a normal fire season in May with very little activity that's going to occur in the June period," Tyler said. "Maybe some small uptick in July where it starts becoming more of a normal fire season. We're going to be into August where it's typically going to end up into a peak season."