State wildfires make local fire officials nervous

As wildfires burn across the state, Sierra fire officials are praying the millions of dead trees in Merced’s backyard don’t catch on fire.

“Frightened is a kind word for the way I feel,” said Nancy Koerperich, Merced County fire chief and unit chief for Cal Fire’s Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit.

Koerperich said Mariposa and Madera counties would be lucky to make it through the fire season without a major incident.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency declaration for the number of trees that had died as a result of California’s historic drought and a bark beetle infestation. The number has risen to 66 million statewide, according to calforests.org.

In Mariposa County, U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data estimate about 54 percent of the trees are dead. That number is expected to rise to nearly 75 percent next year, meaning about 465,000 acres, or half of the county, will be affected.

After five years of drought, California’s wildlands have seen a continuous streak of destructive and sometimes deadly fires this year.

This week in San Bernardino County, 82,000 residents in 34,000 homes received evacuation orders as the Blue Cut Fire burned more than 49 square miles and was just 4 percent contained Thursday.

In the mountains north of San Francisco, fire crews gained more ground on the Clayton Fire as inspectors surveyed the area to determine how many structures were destroyed or damaged.

The 6-square-mile blaze was 55 percent contained after destroying at least 268 structures, including 175 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class community of Lower Lake.

And in the Kern County mountains, where Merced-area and Madera firefighters are helping to battle the Cedar Fire, more than 1,600 acres have burned.

Sending local resources to fires across the state typically doesn’t faze Koerperich, but this year is different, she said.

“We’re especially diligent this year if we send out units to the rest of the state that we get resources to our county immediately,” she said. “I usually feel comfortable, but now it makes me very nervous. We’ve been vigilant in keeping resources available.”

And if the millions of dead trees in the Sierra Nevada forests were to catch fire, conditions for firefighters would be extreme and critical, Koerperich said.

“We pray every day,” she said. “We want to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

Local agencies have done as much fire prevention as possible in Mariposa as they work to fell dead trees, particularly ones near buildings and roads. PG&E also helps local agencies bring down dead trees near roadways, Koerperich said. Dozens of agencies statewide are working to remove dead and fallen trees, she said.

“No one agency can combat this devastating tragedy alone,” she said. “If we had 100 people out there every day, we couldn’t get rid of all the trees.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "State wildfires make local fire officials nervous."