WESTERN U.S. Signs point to a harsh fire season

Beetles and diseases have increased the number of dead trees.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
DENVER -- An ominous alignment of drought, high temperatures and millions of dead trees has sparked fears across the West that this year's fire season could be among the most devastating the region has seen.
Worried public-safety officials are pinning their hopes on a very wet April to prevent a repeat of 2002, when enormous blazes ripped through Colorado, Arizona and Utah, destroying hundreds of homes and causing millions in damage. So far, though, little rain has fallen, and much of the snow cover has already melted.
And in California, which last year had its biggest fires in modern history, all the elements are in place for another horrific fire season. Last fall's wildfires in Southern California consumed 738,000 acres, destroyed more than 3,600 homes and structures, and took 26 lives.
Dead trees
Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties are listed as severe fire dangers this year largely because of more than 1 million dead, dry trees spread over 400,000 acres. Last year's fires burned only 5 percent of those trees, officials said.
"We have a historically unprecedented infestation of Western bark beetles that have destroyed the trees," said Karen Terrill, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "Last year, we saw when the fire got into the bug kill, it became very aggressive."
While lifeless pines stand like unlit matches in Southern California, thousands of diseased oaks pose similar dangers in 12 counties around San Francisco. Sudden oak death syndrome has killed trees throughout the Bay Area, leaving them and surrounding grasslands they inhabit ripe for ignition, Terrill said.
In Colorado, firefighters fear another summer of 2002, when the worst fires in its history tore through the state, culminating in the giant Hayman Fire that consumed 137,000 acres and destroyed 132 homes and businesses.
Barring a last-minute blizzard or monsoonlike rains, it seems history could be on the verge of repeating itself.
Soaring temperatures, bone-dry conditions and some early wildfires have Colorado firefighters on statewide alert. March, traditionally the snowiest month of the year, was the driest March in nearly a century.
Meanwhile, the state has launched its most aggressive plan yet to thin forests and reduce fuel for fire -- aiming to eliminate 67,000 acres of vulnerable trees and brush.