EDITORIAL: Update wildfire warnings for Californians’ safety

Aug. 08--In California's newly permanent wildfire season, 2018 has seen even bigger blazes than burned the state in the horrible fires of 2017.

The damages to forests and grasslands are huge, with the two combined fires known as Mendocino Complex near Clear Lake surpassing last year's Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as the biggest ever in the state's history, more than 283,000 acres in 11 days. But the burning of brush and trees is not an entirely bad thing -- and in many cases, is a good thing, or at least a normal one, having gone on well before human beings were around to worry about it. Fires clear kindling, allow many plant species to reproduce, make for new growth to follow the old.

The damage to homes and other buildings and their contents creates enormous economic -- and emotional -- hardship for Californians, but most things are ultimately replaceable, and there is the balm of insurance. As exurbs and suburbs have moved increasingly into parts of our state, whether in the hills or in the flats, that were pure open country until recent decades, material loss will be more a fact of life going forward, barring some unexpected ban on building where it is increasingly unsafe to do so.

For the loss of human lives, there is no such real balm. There are 14,000 firefighters out there right now trying to save our things and ourselves, and putting their own lives on the line. In great part, and with great valor, they have mostly been successful. But these new fires, hotter than ever thanks to the ongoing drought and global warming, are creating their own weather, howling winds that allow them to jump across wide rivers such as the Sacramento in just minutes.

Up in Redding, that's one reason an older woman and her two great-grandchildren were killed, unaware that the Carr fire posed an immediate danger to their neighborhood.

Could they have been saved if the state's emergency-alert system were more high-tech and effective? Many people who have had to quickly evacuate their homes this year and last say they were never warned.

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One big reason for that, as the Sacramento Bee reports, is that here is no real statewide system for notifying people of fast-approaching wildfires.

New legislation from state Sens. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, would create a statewide alert system through text-like messages to cell phones. All California counties would have to register telephone numbers for all residents and connect them to the federal Wireless Emergency Alerts system. Californians who for reasons of their own didn't want to be a part of that could opt out; otherwise all would be signed up.

Gov. Jerry Brown is right to say that even in widespread natural disasters, we have to be individually aware. "People also have to rely on themselves," Brown said recently. "I think the local police and fire have done a hell of a job, and neighbors have a role because we're not all just dependent on government. We're free American citizens."

But he's also right to say that he would be inclined to sign the legislation creating a better, faster alert system throughout California, useful for floods and earthquakes as well as for fires. Living in the Golden State is getting more dangerous, and we can use all the warnings we can get.

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