Nearly 25,000 Without Power In North, East County Because Of Safety Shut Offs
Speaker 1: 00:01 We are now experiencing what could be the worst Santa Ana winds to blow through Southern California this season. The Oxnard office of the national weather service issued their first ever extreme red flag warning here in San Diego County. We're fortunate in that no major fires are burning, but for cautions are being taken. SDG and E has cut power to more than 22,000 customers, mainly in the East and North counties and the utility says another 20,000 could lose power before this is all over. The red flag warning continues through Thursday night at six of course, fighting fires is very expensive for a statewide perspective on how Cal fires dealing with this. We're joined by Scott McLean who is the state spokesperson for Cal fire. Scott, welcome. Thank you for having me. You know with all of that Cal fire is expected to do these days. Is the agency getting enough funding from the legislature? Speaker 2: 00:56 No, we are. I mean our counts are very low this year, believe it or not. Even with what we're seeing today in this last week as far as in our E fund, and that's for wild land fires, dramatic wild land fires of course. Uh, we have over $650 million in that account to address the wildfire issue. And we're probably today, and this is just a simple estimate of about 115 to 120 million spent so far to date. That's on a fiscal year, Speaker 1: 01:22 you know, from your perspective, is fire season expanding or is it now year-round and how does the agency respond to that? Speaker 2: 01:29 Well, last couple of years, due to what we saw of the drought drought starting in 2010 supposedly ending in 2017 early. Uh, of course then we saw the horrendous fires of 2017 and 18 pretty much what we've been stating as a wildfire season is year round. It's not really even a season anymore. Uh, there's been studies that have stated that it's, you know, now a days, 60 days plus longer than what we've seen several decades ago. So yes, it's pretty much year round. We're looking at right now, probably 170 to 200 wildfire starts a week. That folks don't realize. Speaker 1: 02:05 Wow. So does that change the way you got? You all prepare for this? Well, you can't call it a season anymore, but you have to stay ready year round now, right? Speaker 2: 02:14 Yeah. So yes. Staffing levels and all, I mean we're doing all these prevention projects, you know, fuel reduction projects up and down the state. So our firefighters are working on those, uh, in the, well, let's call it, it's sort of an off season as well as, you know, they're always prepared to respond to any, uh, need that arises in the state. So we're always kept busy. We've got monies allocated to us during the course of last summer of, uh, bringing, being able to bring 400 plus more firefighters on duty this, this year, which is just great. I mean, look at the equipment. We're starting to get 13 brand new fire engines for the state, and that's an addition to what we already have. And of course as he went thirties. And this of course, key helicopters. Speaker 1: 02:56 Wow. And you know, as I mentioned earlier and has already cut power to tens of thousands of people and thousands more could lose power before this is all over. Does calcify or agree with that approach by SDG and E and other big utilities in the state? Speaker 2: 03:11 We're not associated with that. We do not make any decisions on or get involved in that decision making. Uh, we're just like the public, we prepare for it. I made sure our stations are up and running and we will not have any lack of service whatsoever. Speaker 1: 03:24 Hmm. Do you think it pushes people to light their grills, to cook their food Speaker 2: 03:28 and there's a lot of safety messaging that we're doing, which brings up a great point. Thank you. You know, we have to be cognizant of what's taking place. You know, I hear people, you know, turning the oven on and opening the door, cooking, you know, putting a grill inside the house. I mean if you do briquettes you, the potential there is to lose your life. When you do things of like that you need to be cognisant and make sure you're using the appropriate measures to keep you warm, uh, you know, things of that nature. So definitely the oven door, make sure you please do not do that cause you can start a fire doing that. The per cat aspect, uh, the gas off gases will definitely cause fatalities on that type of thing. So again, you know, prepare for what's coming, uh, get extra blankets out if you will or just go to some area that, uh, to a friends or families that have the power. Speaker 1: 04:18 Okay. And how much help is Cal fire getting from fire agencies coming in from other States? Speaker 2: 04:23 Oh, it's great. Uh, right now we're looking at 12 States that have, you know, responded to our need up and down the state of California. We're dealing with, so probably about 350 various fire agencies within the state and including those that have come from out of state. So the reaction has been phenomenal. Uh, as far as assistance, Speaker 1: 04:43 a computer modeling system developed at UC San Diego called wifi fire helps those in charge of fighting fires, know where the fire will grow. Is Cal fire actively engaged in uh, promoting those kinds of high tech approaches to fighting wildfires? Speaker 2: 04:58 I know our San Diego unit is using uh, various cameras down there. Uh, we are definitely engaged in technology overall throughout the state. We are working with a, uh, a company that is working on that aspect as far as the to help promote which, you know, to us which direction those wildfires have the potential of going so we can, it helps us plan accordingly. Speaker 1: 05:22 And you know, you, you say that a fire counts are low given that we are in such extreme weather conditions, what do you credit the low fire count to? Speaker 2: 05:33 We're looking at the weather we've had this year. It's been very moderate, 80s, 90s, in an occasional a hundred degree here and there and minimal, minimal amount of wind, if any during the first part of the year. Of course, that all changed the first day of fall in North state, and we started seeing some significant wins and down in your neck of the woods in the Santa Ana's hood developing again as well. So that's what we're been dealing with is winds that have been promoting what fires we've been fighting right now with the low humidities, the vegetation is still very dry. It's gonna take several years of wet winters to bring that up to where we need to be in the state. Uh, so moderate weather, uh, 2017, 2018 you saw a hundred degree weather consistent for weeks with the North wind. So the vegetation was extremely dry. Campfire, that's, I live up in that area. That is the driest day I've ever seen on record in that area. And I used to work in that area. I've been speaking with Scott McLean, state spokesperson for Cal fire. Scott, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much.
