8 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2017
Dave Sapsis, Research Program Specialist with the state's Fire and
Resource Assessment Program, recently provided an assessment on
the rapid spread of the wildfires in Sonoma "was not a giant front of
flames sweeping out of the nearby hills and fields. Most likely, the
fire was touched off by embers blown from a distance. Firebrands
capable of igniting a house can travel more than a mile. When you've
got firebrands going into every crook and cranny, they're going
to find somewhere to start. Fire experts surmise that most of the
damage was caused by fire spreading from house to house, leaving
some parkway trees and things like trash cans oddly unscathed."
"Those houses are like highly concentrated energy packages
just waiting to ignite," said Donald Falk, a wildland fire researcher
in the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the
Environment. "In that wind-driven situation, I think the predictions
of what's fire-safe and what's not kind of go out the window."
Similar urban conflagrations have been seen before. In 1982, an
exposed electrical wire touched off a fire that was driven by Santa
Ana winds through a four-block area of Anaheim, destroying 40
apartment buildings.
"We are seeing it happen more often," Moritz, the UC researcher,
said. ~ Len Tavernetti
Urban Wildfires
