Local News in Brief : County : Brush Fires Increased Tenfold in Acreage
Brush fires scorched 10 times as many acres in the county this year as last, the county Fire department said as it closed its books on the 1987 fire season.
From May to November of this year, 2,116 acres burned, contrasted with 220 acres during the same period in 1986, Fire Department spokesman Kevin Turner said Tuesday.
“We had some exceptionally dry brush and grass--the driest it’s been in some time--because of the dry winter and spring we had,” Turner said. “If the summer had not been so cool--thanks to the marine cover and moisture--we would have had fires like they had in Northern California.”
As it was, Turner said, county firefighters ended up battling nearly three times as many wildfires this year as last, with the number jumping from 92 in 1986 to 257 in 1987, Turner said. The damage to property more than doubled from $8,502 in 1986 to $18,593 in 1987, he said.
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