The government will deploy 15,000 firefighters, 1,600 engines, and 625 aircraft against what is expected to be another dangerous year for wildfires, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. Wildfires burned a record 10.3 million acres last year, including a “gigafire,” the August Complex, that covered more than 1 million acres in California.
More than 90 percent of the West is in drought, increasing the chance of wildfires while straining water supplies. Climate change has added to the length and severity of fire season, said Haaland. “These days, it seems like the fire season is the entire year,” she said during a teleconference.
“Signals are we are headed toward another very dangerous fire year,” said Vilsack. The Interior and Agriculture secretaries spoke to reporters after a briefing by wildfire experts, who predicted that the above-average potential for wildfires will expand northward into the Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Northwest this year.
Interior and the USDA work together in battling wildfires. The National Interagency Fire Center, in Boise, Idaho, says more than 547,000 acres have burned so far this year, less than the 10-year average of 951,354 acres by mid-May. Six large fires, three of them in Arizona, were burning on Thursday.
Leaders of fire operations at Interior and the USDA said their strategy this year will be to smother fires as soon as possible. “Active initial attack is still very much the focus,” said Jeff Rupert, director of wildland fire at the Interior Department. Patty Grantham, acting director for fire and aviation management at the Forest Service, said, “Our focus is on smart firefighting, aggressive firefighting, catching fires while they are small.”
Rupert and Grantham said the government, like last year, would employ safeguards against the coronavirus while fighting wildfires. The two departments say their wildfire force will include 15,000 firefighters, 1,600 engines, more than 500 helicopters, 91 single-engine air tankers, up to 34 multi-engine air tankers, and 360 pieces of heavy equipment.