Historic year of wildfires forces California officials to reevaluate plans

The two wildfires that have been raging in California are nearly contained, officials with on scene fire departments announced on October 7, and they also revealed that they expect to have the King fire fully contained by the next day.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - About 100,000 acres of the Eldorado National Forest in Northern California was burned by the King fire-which was 98% contained by the evening of October 7. The website of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said that announced that they predicted that blaze would soon be contained.

Get a Catholic email address for yourself, or give one as a gift. Safe, secure, and encrypted.

The fire that has burned 130,000 acres of the Klamath National Forest-the Happy Camp fire-near the border with Oregon is now about 97% contained. Cal Fire reports that they expect it to be under control by the end of October.

Lightning was the cause of the Happy Camp fire, but the King fire was caused by arson on September 13. Officials revealed that the region's extreme terrain was the primary factor which cause the containment of the King fire to be so slow.

Wayne Huntsman, a 37-year-old man from Pollock Pines has been accused of setting the King fire, which caused the destruction of 12 homes and dozens of other structures. About 3,000 people were given evacuation orders.

The King fire actually caused Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency, as the King fire became the largest of 11 fires that the state battled in September-California's most destructive fire season on record.

The three years of heavy drought in California was one reason for the massive spread and destruction of the wildfire season. The drought forced many officials to abandon normal fire season calendars and tactics. Officials announced that the fire season may be year round.

There have been over 1,000 wildfires in California since the beginning of 2014, doubling the number that occurred in the same period in 2013.

"My captain would talk about that once-in-a-career fire," Janet Upton, deputy director of communications for Cal Fire, said. "But my generation and the generation behind have had dozens of once-in-a-career fires. That's alarming."

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'