Gov. Jerry Brown calls fast-moving wildfires ‘scary’
Gov. Jerry Brown studies a map showing the Valley fire while getting an update on the state’s fire situation at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services in Rancho Cordova, Calif., on Monday.
Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that the wildfires sweeping through large portions of the state are “scary” because unusually dry conditions are causing them to spread at extraordinary rates.
Brown made his comments after touring the state Office of Emergency Services’ Operations Center near Sacramento to get a briefing on the fires.
“These are serious fires,” Brown told reporters. “People have been killed. Hundreds of structures have been destroyed. There is more to come.”
The governor added that the fires have exceeded what computer models predicted on the speed of spread.
Live blog: 1 dead as Valley fire burns 61,000 acres and counting >>
“The fires, once they get going, become very difficult to deal with, very expensive,” Brown said. The governor said he talked to two injured firefighters who had been on the front lines and they said they have never seen such explosive fires.
“These fires are acting more aggressively, more unpredictably,” Brown said. “It’s scary stuff and it takes a lot of courage” for firefighters.
He repeated that climate change will mean more such fires.
“We are really in a battle with nature and nature is more powerful than we are,” Brown said.
Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said this year California has already experienced 1,500 more fires than the 4,500 fires that occurred last year.
“Since mid-July the fires all over Northern California have grown at really exponential rates as some have covered 1,000 acres in about an hour,” Pimlott said.
The Valley fire in Lake and Napa counties has burned 61,000 acres and is 5% contained, he said. One fatality has been confirmed in that fire and other people are unaccounted for.
The Butte fire in Amador and Calveras counties has burned 71,000 acres and is 30% contained. Firefighters also have their hands full with the Rough fire in Fresno County.
Emergency Services Office Director Mark Ghilarducci said 13,000 people have been displaced by the Valley fire and 10,000 by the Butte fire.
Brown also warned that if global warming continues, the United States will see mass migration of people from south of the border.
“What we’re seeing in Europe now with mass migrations, that will happen in California, as Central America and Mexico, as they warm people, are going to get on the move,” Brown said.
Brown toured an operations center where some 80 state and federal employees coordinated the response to eight large fires currently being fought. Some workers wore military camouflage and others wore colored vests designating different functions as they worked at computer terminals in the large command center.
MORE ON CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES:
1 killed and 13,000 displaced by raging Valley fire in Northern California
Harrowing videos show man escaping flames of Valley fire
In candid online forum, firefighters chronicle Valley fire’s wrath
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