Top Firefighter Warns of Dry, Dangerous Season
California's top firefighting official says it's going to be a rough fire season. Ruben Grijalva is in charge of the California Department of Forestry . He told state lawmakers this week that Southern California firefighters are in the midst of a drought, and they're seeing dangerous fuel conditions many haven't seen before. The CDF's Mike Jarvis says state officials have been lucky so far, but there's still concern.
Jarvis: We've been catching the fires. We've had a lot of people working long hours with our federal partners, local partners and we're at a good point right now. But we really need to keep an eye on it and keep vigilant against it and we're asking the public to do what they can.
Jarvis says there have already been more than 4,100 fires on state and local land this year. He says that's below the five year average. That doesn't included wildfires that started or burned on federal land in California.
