Fire officials warn Sandoval of difficult summer

The ongoing drought, warmer-than-usual weather conditions and the fuel for fire those conditions produce could lead to a “perfect storm” this summer where multiple states in the West could be having large, simultaneous fires, state and federal fire officials told Gov. Brian Sandoval Monday.

“The system is going to be heavily taxed this year,” said Kit Bailey of the U.S. Forest Service. “We have preparedness levels of one through five and I’m a little concerned that we may get to an unprecedented level, a level six, and that is kind of a worst-case scenario.

“We have been preparing for and have had dialogue on what is going to look like when Southern California, Northern California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington all have simultaneous large fire events,” Bailey said.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sandoval left the 2015 Governor’s Wildlife Fire Briefing knowing that the various state and federal agencies are prepared for the worst.

“My takeaway from all this is that we can’t predict the weather, we can’t predict where these fires start are but what we can do is make sure we are equipped, we are organized and we’re ready to go,” Sandoval said after the hour-long briefing. “And I think on all fronts, we have that.”

Sandoval praised the planning and cooperation between the state and federal fire agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, National Weather Service, Nevada State Fire Chiefs, the Nevada National Guard and Bureau of Land Management.

“I don’t know if this happens in other states in terms of the collaboration and we don’t have a lot of resources,” Sandoval said. “But there is a force multiplier here because we do work together, we are very strategic and we have learned from the past.”

The potential for wild land fires in June is above normal throughout Western Nevada and Northern California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Oregon and Washington are also showing increased fire danger in June.

In Nevada, the trouble starts after cheat grass dries out across the range-land, becoming an excellent fuel for starting large fires.

When fires start, drought conditions may impact the availability of “dipping sites,” where fire-fighting helicopters with large buckets can find water to help douse the flames. The years of drought also hurts the trees in the forests because the lack of water can lead to infestations of pests.

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