Confronting Wildfire
Fighting fire in San Mateo County before it starts
Daly City holds many distinctions. It's the location of a famous 1859 duel and the opening night for the Beatles first U.S. tour . It's a cultural hub known for its ethnic diversity (often called the Pinoy Capital ) and a paradise for those who crave fog.
It's that persistent fog that makes Daly City the seemingly unlikely spot for a project to reduce the threat of wildfire. Yet a spark along brush-lined Guadalupe Canyon Parkway could trigger a wind-fueled blaze near an elementary school, an assisted living center and hundreds of homes.
As a dry winter turns to spring 2022 (and coming off of some of the worst wildfire years in California history), public agencies across San Mateo County are stepping up projects to reduce the threat of wildfire from Daly City to Pescadero.
Scroll down to learn more about recent and planned projects, from prescribed (planned) burns to vegetation removal.
“There is a significant amount of fire fuel in the county park system which includes trees impacted by sudden oak death and drought, and invasive species that can create overly dense forests.” -- Nicholas Calderon, San Mateo County Parks director.
Prescribed burns like this one in Edgewood Park help reduce the risk of wildfire later in the year.
“Reducing hazardous fuel along evacuation routes is key, not only in helping reduce the potential rate of spread and flame lengths but also in allowing evacuation routes to remain passable during a wildfire event in densely populated wildland urban interface areas.” -- Denise Enea, Fire Safe San Mateo County
Crews remove underbrush, small eucalyptus trees along Guadalupe Canyon Parkway, just east of two Daly City elementary schools.
Looking southwest on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway, with a cleared hillside on the left and homes to the right.
"If we want to prevent large, explosive wildfires, we have to do prescribed burning. It's the most effective method of fuel reduction. It's the most natural method of fuel reduction." -- Sarah Collamer, Cal Fire Forester and Burn Boss
Cal Fire officials describe the TomKat Ranch prescribed burn.
Firefighters launch an incendiary device on TomKat Ranch near Pescadero.
"Creating a fuel break: San Mateo County Firefighters clear dead non-native vegetation between Junipero Serra southside trail & line of homes. This helps reduce risk of wildfires spreading in this eucalyptus-filled park." -- Cal Fire CZU Twitter feed.
Crews remove stands of eucalyptus trees in Junipero Serra Park in San Bruno.
"These breaks are essential for controlling the spread of wildfire and preventing ground fire entering the canopy, as well as providing emergency access to first responders." -- San Mateo County Parks on reducing fire risks in Quarry Park.
Slide the arrows to compare scenes from Quarry Park before and after forest thinning.
“ Forest management at Wunderlich and Huddart county parks will improve the health of these forest ecosystems, enhance their resistance to catastrophic fire, and help our communities be safer.” -- Kellyx Nelson, executive director of the San Mateo RCD.
Slide the arrows to compare scenes from before and after forest thinning.
"It's a break between (San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) property and the town of Woodside.... It really is a demarcation line between just open forested ground and homes, yards, barns with animals in them." -- Sarah Collamer, Cal Fire Forester and Burn Boss
Fire crews burn a pile of vegetation to improve a fuel break near Woodside on March 12, 2022.
Runnymede Fuel Break in San Mateo County
What's At Stake
An image of Pillar Point Harbor shared on Twitter by the Weather Channel in September 2020.
In September 2020 San Mateo County residents woke to glowing red and orange skies. Smoke and ash from multiple, massive wildfires mixed with fog blanketed the Bay Area, allowing only certain wavelengths of light to penetrate.
The eerie scene came just weeks after lightning sparked the largest wildfire in San Mateo County's recorded history. The CZU Lightning Complex fires burned through thousands of acres in southern San Mateo County and northern Santa Cruz County. (CZU refers to Cal Fire's San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit.)
Numerous scientific studies find that climate change greatly increases the risk of wildfire in California as the planet warms. Reducing the fuel that feeds fire is one step among several local officials are taking due to the challenges posed by climate change.
The CZU Lightning Complex erupts in August 2020.
