Early-season Santa Barbara fire unexpected

UC Berkeley Cooperative Extension fire ecology specialist Max Moritz told a Bloomberg.com reporter that the wildfire raging in Santa Barbara County caught forest experts by surprise.

“It is very early, the plants still appear to be quite full of moisture, and when you look at the ferocity of this wind condition, that’s when you say it is surprising,” he was quoted in the story.

Moritz said overzealous fire suppression cannot be blamed for the devastating inferno that has already burned 75 homes and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

“There isn’t any such thing as a low-severity fire in the shrub lands,” Moritz said. “The hot, dry wind event has opened the door to what looks like a catastrophe.”

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