When 14 fires broke out in May of this year in San Diego County many of the fires were managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). A report about the firestorm identified some problems and areas for improvement. One of those was the failure of CAL FIRE to make maps of the fires available to some county officials and the public. The San Diego County Office of Emergency Services has now reached an agreement with CAL FIRE to make mapping a priority.
CAL FIRE is often criticized for their failure to provide maps of ongoing wildfires in the state. The U.S. Forest Service often post maps of the fires their agency is managing on InciWeb, either on the incident’s main page on the site, a.pdf file on the Maps page, or a link where the perimeter can be downloaded in a format compatible with Google Earth. It can take two to five days after a fire starts before maps from a USFS fire are available, but at least most of the time, eventually, the public can view or download maps of a large fire that they fear may be threatening their property. The USFS can do a better job consistently making maps available, especially early in an incident, but in comparison to CAL FIRE, they are far more responsive to the needs of the public.
In the video above, CAL FIRE Capt. Kendal Bortisser said one of the reasons fire maps are not released is because they may cause confusion and panic. It could be argued that keeping the location of fires secret adds more to confusion and panic than the release of a map ever could.
