The fact that there is a massive wildfire burning near Lockheed Martin’s facility northwest of Santa Cruz comes as no surprise to CalFire, since they pointed out in a 2004 report that the hazard from a wildfire in that area was extreme.
An excerpt from the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
SANTA CRUZ — In 2004, a Cal Fire report called land where the Lockheed Fire appears to have started the worst wildfire hazard in Santa Cruz County.
In February, North Coast residents at a community meeting circled the property, near Lockheed Martin’s Santa Cruz Mountains campus near the end of Empire Grade Road, on a map as one of their top wildfire concerns, said Ron Christy, president of the Rural Bonny Doon Association.
Now, instead of using that information to apply for brush-clearing grants and justify fire-prevention efforts, firefighters and nearby residents are responding to a dire prediction come true.
“That was pointed out as the worst in the county, because it’s so inaccessible and so steep and so heavily wooded.” said Christy on Thursday afternoon, before hanging up to evacuate as flames approached his home off Empire Grade.
But foresters and fire ecologists who have worked in the area say the current blaze may have been inevitable. Looming in the middle of groomed timberland and residential firebreaks are steep slopes of chaparral, manzanita and knobcone pine, extremely flammable native species that evolved with fire and, in fact, require the flames to help release and germinate their seeds.
The trees and brush also thrive in an area difficult to get to and manage, even as homes spring up nearby.
“It’s just walls of manzanita and knobcone pine — both of which are incredibly flammable,” said Eric Huff, assistant officerto the board of California Forestry and Fire Protection and a former forester with Big Creek Lumber in Davenport. “You look around and think, We’re so close to the coast, the weather’s so nice, we’ve got these redwoods and firs.’ You don’t think about the knobcone and manzanita. It is built to burn.”
Thanks Dick
