Hotter temperatures this week bumping up wildfire threat risk

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Hotter weather this week are causing a slight bump up in the risk of a local wildfire.

With temperatures expected to climb into the 80's and 90's in some parts of the Central Coast today and tomorrow, fire agencies are keeping a close eye on the warming conditions.

"There has been a somewhat unseasonable uptrend in weather, in both temperature, relative humidity and some locally gusty winds," said Danny Ciecek, CAL FIRE San Luis Obispo County Fire Department Fire Captain. "Right now with the increased temperatures, decreased humidities and some locally gusty winds, it definitely does set the stage for some fire threat."

However, despite the warm weather forecast for the first couple of days this week, Ciecek pointed out that recent rain has helped drive down the overall risk level.

"We are seeing conditions that warrant some fire hazard or fire spread concerns, but as you can see, we are locally experiencing green grasses," said Ciecek. "The seasonal outlook does state specifically widespread green ups are predicted, so while we do have some of some of these conditions that do potentiate some fire threat, we are still in a winter preparedness mode."

Ciecek added the winter mode means that staffing and resource levels are currently lower than they are at more fire prone parts of the year.

"There is a minor decrease in available resources to put out fires locally," said Ciecek. "However, that will quickly change in the coming months. We'll bring back on seasonal staffing and bring back on aircraft at the Paso Robles air attack base and have our full fire season staffing available usually towards the back half of spring or summer months."

With conditions still in a favorable position, people that live near the wildland interface, the zone where development meets wild vegetation grown, are being urged to use this time wisely.

“We always ask the residents to be mindful of those what we call light, flashy fuels," said Josh Daniel, San Luis Obispo Fire Department Fire Marshal. "We were surrounded by vegetation and we're a community at risk as we've declared it. We want to make sure that people in our community are always protected, and that's where the fires usually start in those light, flashy fuels, and then they transfer into other fuels that are more sustainable. We have beautiful open space, our community is built around that and we enjoy that. We just want everyone to be safe and also be mindful of those flashy fuels around structures and we want to make sure that is being mitigated at all cost."