Park Fire becomes largest active wildfire in the US

AccuWeather

AccuWeather speaks with Adrienne Freeman of the USDA Forest Service, who shares how they manage the battles against wildfires. She also provides advice on how campers and visitors can prevent fires.

Transcript

00:00During wildfire emergencies, the Forest Service is part of the Unified Command,

00:06along with CAL FIRE and other agencies. So how does the cooperative efforts work?

00:11Yeah, so obviously wildfires don't stop at jurisdictional boundaries. So what we do is

00:16put leadership at the very top levels of managing a fire to make sure that the needs of each agency

00:21and each jurisdiction are met appropriately. And of course, we hear at AccuWeather it all

00:27is about the weather. So how is weather impacting Forest Service planning for the

00:31many fires you're fighting across California? Yeah, so this is a really interesting year.

00:37Oftentimes when we see big fire years, it's because we're seeing wind events. You know,

00:41you hear about them, those magic words, the Santa Anas, the Diablos, those things.

00:45That's not the case this year. What we're seeing are very, very hot, dry temperatures on top of

00:52abundant fuel loading. So that means we have a lot of vegetation on the ground and hot,

00:57dry temperatures to dry it out. Let's talk about Sequoia National Park. It's one of the areas

01:03Forest Service is battling wildfires. And what makes that specific fire unique?

01:09Yeah, so the Burrell Fire, which is in the Sequoia National Forest, is just like the one

01:13up above Chico. It's being driven by fuels and alignment. Fire loves to run uphill. And in

01:19California, we have huge drainages that are just full of vegetation, especially this year. And so

01:26fire is finding those drainages and roaring up them with that abundant vegetation and those dry

01:33temperatures exacerbating the problem. All right. We spoke about what really is fueling the fires

01:38this summer with some of the extreme heat and the drought conditions. So do you have any advice that

01:43you can give people who may be watching, who live in these areas or who may be visiting and doing

01:48some camping? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first of all, stay tuned for air quality. It's not good

01:54for any of us to be outside in the smoke, especially be careful of those kids and those

01:59more elderly people or those with compromised immune systems. But then also just be really

02:05aware and conscious of your behavior when you're out in the wildlands. You know, over 85 percent of

02:12fires are still human caused. And we really need to be careful and use common sense when we're

02:18recreating in the wildlands.

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