BANNING, Calif. — California is the Golden State this summer — golden brown — and that has fire officials worried heading into the peak of the wildfire season.
It’s still weeks before the fire-fanning Santa Ana winds usually arrive, and already it’s been a brutal fire season, with nearly twice as many acres burned statewide from a year ago, including 16,000 scorched this week in a blaze raging in the mountains 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
So far this year, California fire officials have battled 4,300 wildfires, an increase from the yearly average of nearly 3,000 they faced from 2008 to 2012, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Until last week, those fires had burned more than 71,000 acres — up from 40,000 during the same period last year. The annual average for acreage charred in the past five years was 113,000, he said.
“We have seen a significant increase in our fire activity, and much earlier than normal,” said Berlant, adding that fire season began in mid-April, about a month ahead of schedule. “We’re not even yet into the time period where we see the largest number of damaging fires.”
On Friday, firefighters launched a fleet of seven retardant-dropping airplanes against Southern California’s latest wildfire, which has destroyed 26 homes and threatened more than 500 in the San Jacinto Mountains.
The so-called Silver fire has forced about 1,800 people to flee their homes and injured six people, including one civilian. The fire grew by 2,000 acres to 25 square miles overnight, but it was less active Friday morning.
In the Twin Pines neighborhood outside Banning, Andy Schrader, 74, said he couldn’t get out in time. The wildfire crept up and blew over his house, burning his motor home and singeing his hair as he sprayed water from a hose to keep the house wet.
“I could feel my face burning,” he said. “And I thought I was going to die.”
