Two Upcoming Fire Meetings
The Montecito Fire Protection District is hosting two meetings next week to discuss wildfires. The first will be a review of the 2017 Thomas Fire and the Department’s Wildland Fire Program, and the second will be a discussion about climate change and its effects on wildfires.
On Wednesday, October 17, MFPD will present a report prepared by Geo Elements: “A Retrospective Study of Montecito Fire Protection District’s Wildland Fire Program during the 2017 Thomas Fire.” The report and discussion will review the actions of the District in the years leading up to the fire, as well as actions that took place under the guidance of the Incident Management Team prior to and during December 16 to understand how these actions resulted in significantly less property loss than what was anticipated based on modeling in the 2016 Community Wildfire Protection Plan and as compared to the recent Tea and Jesusita fires. The Retrospective Report meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 17, at the Montecito Fire Protection District Headquarters, 595 San Ysidro Road at 5:30 pm.
The following day, another meeting will be held to discuss climate change and wildfires. Contrary to some recent opinions, the Santa Barbara front is still very much at risk for catastrophic wildfire, despite the extent of the record 2017 Thomas Fire and other recent extreme wildfires in the region. Recent increases in fire size and severity have been attributed to climate change, which is projected to continue, producing more extreme fire activity in the decades to come. Given these projections, this meeting will discuss what homeowners and communities can do to protect lives and property.
This discussion will be presented by Dr. Crystal Kolden, who will cover the science of how climate change alters wildfire seasons and impacts the different types of wildfires in the region. She will also discuss the types of mitigation strategies that have been successful in recent wildfires, both for individual homeowners and for communities. Dr. Kolden is an associate professor of Fire Science, Director of the Pyrogeography Lab at the University of Idaho, and a former wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service in California. She conducts research on wildfire disasters and how to mitigate them, and has published more than 50 scientific articles on wildfires.
The Climate Change & Wildfire discussion will be held on Thursday, October 18, at the Montecito Fire Protection District Headquarters, 595 San Ysidro Road at 5:30 pm.
All stakeholders including property owners, residents, local agencies, organizations, associations, business owners, community leaders, and interested public members are encouraged to attend these meetings.
