Column: Fall can bring sense of false comfort with wildfires
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 12:29pm
Autumn has arrived. With it comes the promise of cooler temperatures and, hopefully, some moisture.
But don't let Summer's exit fool you into thinking we are leaving wildfire season behind, too. Across the Great Basin, wildfire has no season.
The arid landscape here leaves it vulnerable to fire all year-round. Sage, rabbit brush, bunch and cheat grasses are still just as dry now as they were at Summer's peak.
Dry is dry, regardless of air temperature. Brittle, dried out brush covering most of our topography makes the region a veritable tinder box for wildfire.
Nevada is not only well-known for a dry climate, but it's also famous for drawing high winds. These two conditions together produce an environment ideal for fire to thrive in.
Two years ago next month, a Nevada Division of Forestry controlled burn in the Little Valley, just northwest of Carson City, turned into a raging wildfire that consumed more than 2,000 acres and destroyed 23 homes in Washoe Valley.
Dozens of people lost their homes and/or their properties — their livelihoods — because, for some reason, someone thought it was safe to leave a controlled burn unattended. Even more perplexing, the burn was left unsupervised with winds picking up and a front moving into the region.
Ironically, a torrential downpour of steady rainfall followed within about a day or two of the fire starting. Had that happened just a couple of days earlier, I wouldn't be citing the Little Valley Fire as an example of human negligence.
In January 2012, the Washoe Drive Fire burned through almost 4,000 acres from Old Washoe City through Pleasant Valley to the southwestern tip of Galena, displacing thousands of evacuees and animals.
Caused by hot ashes left outside unattended — and with winds picking up — the fire consumed 29 homes, killed a person, pets, and several livestock.
Just two months earlier, in November 2011, the Caughlin Fire ripped through West Reno after high winds caused power lines to arc, resulting in sparks that touched off dry brush.
While that fire — having burned nearly 2,000 acres, destroyed 29 homes and damaged seven others — was not caused by human negligence, it still burned despite cold temperatures and an approaching storm that even began spitting snow as firefighters fought the blaze.
All of those fires should serve as a solemn reminder that wildfire in the Great Basin knows no season.
Two of them, Little Valley and Caughlin, occurred in the Fall, when temperatures drop to chilly or cold at night and cool during the day.
The Washoe Drive Fire burned in the middle of winter, when daytime temperatures are cold and overnight lows are frigid.
But they all burned in spite of the change of seasons.
This year, the area's landscape is especially at risk, because there is still a lot of thick, dry brush from last Winter and Spring precipitation.
There has also been precious little moisture over the summer. I could count the number of thunderstorms this year passing overhead in Carson City with just a few fingers.
Tempting though it is to cast away our cares along with scorching summer heat this Fall, we must remain vigilant of dry conditions and how very susceptible we still are to wildfire.
I know I am preaching to the choir, in general, but a reminder to us all never hurts.
Please recreate or work outside responsibly and with care. Use some good, old-fashioned common sense.
A little conscientiousness on our part can help prevent the sort of tragic loss that we have seen wildfire cause time and again, year after year.
American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin is credited with having said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Most wildfires in our region are human-caused, so stopping them from starting in the first place begins with us.
No doubt, warnings will fail to reach some ears. Just don't let them be yours.
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