BOISE — Federal officials have elevated the wildfire preparedness level as several large fires continue to grow and more people and equipment are needed.
The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group increased the wildfire preparedness level from 3 to 4, on a scale of 1-5.
Carrie Bilbao, a public affairs specialist at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, said wind, high temperatures and low humidity led to increased action including “a few emerging large fires exhibiting extreme fire activity.”
Several Northwest fires grew because of low humidity, she said.
“Relative humidity usually goes up at night and fire activity decreases,” Bilbao said. “We haven’t really been seeing that.”
Fire Center meteorologist Nick Nauslar said the northern U.S. recently had several cycles of hot, dry weather followed by wind and lightning.
Nauslar said the potential for large fires is above normal in much of Northern California, parts of the Northwest, most of Idaho and a portion of northwest Nevada. Risk is expected to drop closer to normal in most of these areas by October, though above-normal potential likely will persist in Northern California areas with offshore winds that blow from land to the ocean.
Above-normal risk of large fires is forecast from October into December in Southern California areas prone to Santa Ana offshore winds, he said.
Bilbao said the Sept. 6 move to a higher national preparedness level also reflects that additional personnel and equipment are needed — more full-sale incident management teams have been deployed as initial attack and other work continues — and that activity is spreading to new geographic areas.
The 15,132 wildfire personnel were at work in the U.S. Sept. 8, a daily situation report said.
Eight new large fires were reported the previous day: two each in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and one each in Montana and Wyoming.
Preparedness level 4 means three or more geographic areas are dealing with large, complex wildfires that require incident management teams, the Fire Center said. Geographic areas compete for resources. About 60% of incident teams and firefighting personnel are committed.
Level 5 means several geographic areas deal with major fires that collectively could exhaust resources. At least 80% of incident teams and personnel are committed, and all qualified federal employees become available.
Last year, preparedness level 5 stretched from July 15 to Sept. 21.
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