Public Safety

Fire Season In U.S. Already One For The Record Books

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published June 14, 2011 at 11:44 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Members of the media set up in front of smoke from the Wallow fire June 8, 2011 in Springerville, Arizona.

San Diego County Wildfire Risk Predicted To Be Higher in Late Summer

The National Interagency Fire Center predicts a normal wild-land fire season for Southern California from July through September.

But Mike Mohler with CalFire said fire season is year round in California.

He said rainy weather during the winter and late-spring mean more fuel for wildfires.

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"The series of rains has brought several different crops of grass," said Mohler. "The later rains brings another crop of grass that in turn dies and becomes what we call ladder fuel. You've got almost three different grass crops from each rain, then they cure, so it adds to that fuel bed."

Mohler said as warmer weather dries the vegetation fire risk increases.

He said the concern grows during Santa Ana wind conditions that come in late summer and in October and November.

Mohler said creating defensible space around homes and structures can help reduce property loss.

There are currently large fires burning in nine states, the biggest is the Wallow Fire in Arizona.

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The National Interagency Fire Center says more than 4.2 million acres have burned across the U.S. this year, making 2011 already one of the worst wildfire seasons in the last 10 years.

And it's not even officially summer.

Public Safety

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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