Fire season is year-round in California, but the time we have the most Santa Ana wind events is coming. This article features some tips to prepare your home.
If you search online for fire hazard severity zones you will be able to enter your address and see where the most severe areas near your address are. In the last 20 years, most wildfires in California have burned in non-conifer ecosystems (64% of the acreage) such as shrublands in Southern California. Over five million hectares have burned in the last 20 years, which is double the area burned in the previous two decades.
In 2017, the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County had a huge concentration of embers that were pushed by heavy winds (40-60 mph) across four-lane Highway 101, igniting more than 1,000 structures and causing $1 billion in property damage in 90 minutes. This was a wake-up call for insurance companies and fire prevention officials because the area was considered low risk and was outside Cal Fire’s high-risk zones.
In 2018, the Woolsey and Hill fires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties began during Santa Ana winds. The Woolsey fire burned 8,000 acres in 90 minutes. The embers in the recent fire in Lahaina, Maui were said to travel 1 mile per minute.