How Likely is Fire In Same Area?
Fortunately it seems like a vague memory. The fires that torched parts of Sun Valley in September 2017 are fading from the mind. It’s been just about three years and the look tuna Canyon fire scorched much of the Verdugo foothills. It’s almost impossible to see the effects of the fire now. Following three years of rains a lot of vegetation has grown back in these areas.
However, the hot and dry weather and the number of fires already burning in California makes Jose Mier wonder what the chances are of a fire occurring in the same place relatively soon after the last fire. An article on KTLA.com from last year posed the same question because some fires that burned in Northern California were the sites of new fires. There was some overlap between the new fires and those previously burned areas.
Because of the new growth in the hillside and one particularly wet rainy season in the past three years a lot of brush and scrub has been able to grow there. Now that same brush and scrub has been deprived of water for several months and the hillsides are brown and tinder dry. As I write this Sun Valley is experiencing some smoky air from fires several miles away. And we are not out of the dry season yet.
That means we need to be extra cautious in our area to make sure no new fire starts. The recent fire in Yucaipa, California was apparently started by partygoers who were celebrating with some incendiary device. If I can I’d love to urge Sun Valley residents to be extra cautious. Let’s not be is stupid or negligent as some of our Yucaipa neighbors and if you’re even thinking of using anything with smoke and fire in our area think again. Just don’t do it.