In California's current fire frenzy, reporters seem to be focusing on the breaking news, speaking mostly to firefighters and evacuees. Once the embers begin to cool and analysis begins, they will likely turn to UC experts, among others, to try to tease out reasons for the devastation and how to prevent it in the future.
Already, UC ANR experts have been tapped by two media outlets. ABC 30 News in the Bay Area spoke to UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens. He noted that, until the wind dies down, crews can only take a defensive position, and get people out of harms way.
"It's constantly jumping from one place to another, so it's making it impossible to catch," Stephens was quoted on the TV station's Web site.
The San Bernardino Sun, which reports on an area heavily affected by the fires, sought comment from Richard Minnich, a professor of fire ecology at UC Riverside.
In a story titled "Empire on fire," Minnich compared the fires to the severe blazes of 2003. He said this year the fires were of a "smaller scale," and that the weather conditions four years ago -- Santa Ana winds and low humidity -- are comparable in 2007.
Minnich predicted temperatures would rise and humidity would stay dangerously low today as winds could lighten. In the coming days, fire behavior will be based as much on the combustibility of the drought-stricken vegetation as it was Monday on the erratic wind, he said, according to the newspaper report.