KGET reports the Wolf Fire at Wind Wolves Preserves has been completely contained after it started on January 19th. The Desert Sun reports on their database information illustrating that the fire began after a lightning strike in August of 2020 and its fuel source in the time since then had been naturally-occurring litterfall. Kern County Fire Department Public Information Officer Andrew Freeborn provided information on the fire’s damage on the Mountain Enterprise’s online page. He wrote that the Wolf fire burned approximately seven hundred acres of the nature conservatory before it was completely put out.
As concerns rise in the golden state over wildfires, power companies are becoming more comfortable with doing their part to decrease the chances of sparking fires by shutting off power in areas affected by high winds according to a risk designation. The LA Times reports the city of Los Angeles held a red flag designation for the majority of January 19th.
After windstorms, The Guardian’s reported on the year’s first wildfires is an early sign for future trouble. Quoted by the news organization, battalion chief of communications for Cal Fire Sacramento Issac Sanchez believes this is something to watch out for. He explained that California is doing away with the concept of ‘fire season’, instead the state is likely to see “just one big fire year, where we can be prepared for and expect a large destructive fire at any point”, Sanchez said.
The new presidential administration has given some officials close to the subject of wildfires cause to hope. Secretary of California’s Natural Resources Agencies Wade Crowfoot spoke recently with a journalist from KQED about how he believes that the Biden administration will lead to more focus on climate change and more resources for California’s federal agencies. In the article, the interviewer describes how already President Biden has ordered to increase the amount of protected land and waterways in the U.S. by three times, as well as increasing the amount of money given to the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Crowfoot hopes the new commander-in-chief will “use the money to rapidly increase prescribed burns and other ecologically driven fire-mitigation measures across the nearly 19 million acres of federal forest land in California,” the reporter from KQED writes.
But a new presidential administration will not fix everything wildfires affect overnight. EarthSky points out that wildfires do not become irrelevant once they are put out, citing what some realized in the previous year, the article calls for people to “start paying more attention to not only the devastating local impacts on homes and wildlife habitat but also to the wider adverse impacts on air quality”, as it did in California last year.
KGET’s coverage of Kern County Fire’s management of the wildfire includes reference to Kern County Fire’s statement of appreciation to “Cal Fire, Wind Wolves Preserve, PG&E, and Fish & Wildlife agencies for assisting with the fire”. KGET’s website also notes that the Wind Wolves Preserve has returned to open status as the area is deemed safe again.