Emerald Fire showed how fuel reduction minimized forest damage
Submitted by paula on Sun, 11/20/2016 - 9:28pm
It doesn’t take a wildland fire professional to see how fuel reduction can protect forests and communities.
It just takes a field trip to the site of the Emerald fire near the southwestern shores of Lake Tahoe.
Despite burning at the same time and under similar conditions to the disastrous Little Valley fire, the Emerald fire was much less destructive.
The Little Valley fire destroyed 23 homes and charred 2,300 acres while doing tens of millions of dollars in damage in western Washoe County.
The Emerald Fire was limited to a burn area of 176 acres and was contained within three days.
Within hours of it starting authorities issued mandatory evacuations for the area and warned, “strong winds ahead of the incoming storm system are fanning the fire in different directions resulting in dangerous rates of spread.”
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