![]() With such fires becoming the new normal, Cal Fire is planning to cut a 1,802 acre fire break in southwest Nevada County in terrain that hasn't burned in a century, helping protect both Nevada City and the adjacent community of Grass Valley, home to more than 12,000. "At the time it was considered an anomalous event," said Billy Spearing of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County. In 1988, heavy winds pushed the 49er Fire through 52 square miles of western Nevada County, burning 312 buildings and dozens of cars. In recent decades, the city also has had some near misses with fire, including one major close call. "Nevada City's single largest risk for human life and financial loss is fire," Nevada City's hazard mitigation plan reads. "It's very scary, especially since it's such a cute little town I've been living in my whole life," Guyette said recently as she walked down the city's historic Broad Street, which looks like it fell out of a photo from a museum exhibit.Ĭity officials agree that the wooded draws, steep hillsides, narrow residential streets, ancient homes and thick urban tree canopy that define the character of the city also make it particularly at risk if a fire burns through. The same anxiety also applies to the cedars, pines and brush covering the hills around this foothill city of about 3,100 people, many of whom live or work in wooden buildings dating back to the the Gold Rush era. Now, the brush is ominous - an ignition source that could torch the home built in 1859 that her family has lived in for five generations. ![]() Since the Camp Fire, Vicky Guyette has looked at the one-acre patch of untrimmed brush behind her mother's Victorian-era home in Nevada City as more than just an unattractive nuisance. ![]() Population (2010) - 3,068 ' In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone - 3,064 "We're intimately aware of the dangers up here," Twist said. The fire burned 27,676 acres - 43 square miles - and torched 52 homes in the vicinity. The community had to evacuate when the Ponderosa Fire, started by a lightning strike, hit in 2012. Locals say they're glad the state is paying attention to a problem they know too well. Gavin Newsom ordered Cal Fire to develop a list of urgent fire-safety projects, a plan to trim 1,124 acres of vegetation along Highway 44 came up as the top priority out of 35 projects around the state. And, like in Paradise, the presence of an older population would make evacuation more difficult Shingletown's median age is 61, according to census figures. Just like Paradise, escaping the ridge in a fast-moving fire wouldn't be easy Shingletown's main drag is winding, narrow Highway 44. When I walk back, there's another 20 or 30." "It's almost like when I walk over there, there's 20 or 30. "I'll pull 20 or 30 seedlings a day out of the ground," he said. ![]() Twist, who's lived in the community off and on since the 1970s, said that when the weather is warm he'll walk his property, pulling up seedlings in an almost futile effort to eliminate potential fuels. "We grow trees like nobody's business up here," said Tom Twist, a member of the Shingletown Fire Safe Council, a volunteer organization. Shingletown was originally named Shingle Camp, for the workers who cut roofing slats from timber to supply miners during the Gold Rush era. Like Paradise, the unincorporated community sits atop a ridge, and is covered in tall trees and thick brush - ingredients for a major wildfire. Shingletown is less than one-tenth the size of Paradise but probably carries just as much risk. ![]() Population (2010) - 2,283 ' In Very High fire Hazard Severity Zone - 2,283 Here are snapshots of 10, and the unique challenges they face: McClatchy identified more than 75 towns and cities with populations over 1,000 where, like Paradise, at least 90 percent of residents live within the Cal Fire "very high fire hazard severity zones." ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |