California Neighborhoods Endangered As Wildfires Approach

The Kincade Fire and the Tick Fire are bearing down on high-value homes in the Los Angeles area, CNN reports.

“This is a very dynamic fire and all residents west of the 405 Freeway and south of Sunset need to be vigilant and stay informed following LAFD,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

According to Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County has scorched more than 74,000 acres and destroyed more than 100 structures. It has been 15% contained on Monday as of Monday.

Meanwhile, the Tick Fire, near Santa Clarita in the southern portion of the state, had destroyed 24 residences and damaged another 40, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. That blaze was 82% contained on Monday. In response to the winds, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) shut off power to about 965,000 customers in northern portions of the state.

According to CoreLogic, California and Texas lead the United States in the number of residences and RCV in the high- and extreme-risk categories, but California cannot be topped when it comes to wildfire devastation over the past two years. In 2017, California’s wildfires, including the Tubbs Fire and the Thomas Fire dwarfed previous records for both the size of the fires and the amount of destruction. In 2018, new records were set again for both categories, along with the number of deaths for a single wildfire event, the Camp Fire.

“When considering the future of wildfire risk in the Western United States, it will likely expand to more homes and result in the greater property losses than we have seen in the past,” said CoreLogic. “As unfortunate as it sounds, there are other communities similar to Paradise where fuels are present and homes are at risk. It only requires the right weather conditions and an errant spark to create the next unwanted record.”