California fire season | Watch our 2026 Wildfire Ready special

Watch our 2026 Wildfire Ready special: Get prepared for the California fire season

The winds picked up causing the fire to escape the control lines. Warm, windy weather and fires are already popping up. We have seen the attack from the air and from the ground. Crews using new tools to protect the public. So what are some of the big differences between this helicopter and the Super G? Especially as fires get larger and more destructive. It’s inherently dangerous to fly. This is twice as dangerous. Our meteorologists showing you the risks and tools from the air. To the ground, but right now the plants have the highest moisture content of the season and how Californians are coming together to stay safe. The cultural burn is *** very slow, intense burn with um with cultural significance in *** KCRA 3 wildfire ready special. Welcome and thank you for joining us for our KCRA 3 wildfire ready special. I’m Heather Waldman and I’m Tamara Berg. Tonight we have important safety tips from our team of meteorologists that can help protect your family in case of *** fire, plus the latest technology being used to keep neighborhoods safe. This season we’ve already seen fires start popping up. The Turkey Fire burned about 50 acres in Calaveras County and forced evacuations. Live Copter 3 was overhead. We still don’t know how this fire started and in Yolo County, *** prescribed burn got out of control, burning more than 800 acres. Fire. Burning between winters and Lake Berryessa. Fire crews only meant for it to burn about 40 acres. Wildfires in California will always be *** risk. Vegetation becomes fuel in the summer and the fall. Scientists at San Jose State showed me how they measure the risk based on that fuel and which areas they’re most concerned about this year. Keep *** listen for rattlesnakes. It’s fuel sampling day in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We’ve been doing these sites for over 10 years. This group from San Jose State University comes here twice *** month. So today there’s multiple teams around the western US that are sampling. The goal track the risk for wildfires in real time. When you think of what’s burning here in, in, in the area, this is all chemise. New growth is clipped and canned. Let’s see. OK, you’re getting there. Then taken back to *** lab for analysis. So we dry it in an oven and so we dry out all the water, we evaporate all the water and then we’re just left with the plant material. The difference in weight tells how moist or dry the vegetation is at that point in time. This is critical information for tracking and modeling wildfire risk. When fuels are extremely dry, higher risk. When they’re wet, lower risk. Dr. Craig Clements is the director of the university’s wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. The group’s work spans everything from chasing the West’s most intense wildfires to the connection between climate change and fire fuels. We’re getting drier and drier by the decade. That’s not good. That means that the warming and climate change is impacting the, the plants, the shrubs, the chaparral. And so it’s getting more dangerous every year. Clements is asked about the upcoming fire season, and every year his answer is the same. What I can say is, well, the fuel fuels are drying right now and it could be bad, but it’s day to day weather that drives the fire danger. But the weather this past winter does point to *** potential danger zone. The lack of the snowpack in the middle elevation of the Sierra, I think, is more concerning because there is less soil moisture. So the fuel moistures are going to drop sooner, but they already have. And that is going to be probably an elevation that we need to be worried about. But even then it’s the day to day weather and human activity that will determine whether *** fire will start. We won’t know what happens, what will happen, what could happen in August until we get *** few weeks out from there. Clements and wildfire scientists around the world agree on one big way to reduce that risk for everyone in California doing prescribed fire across the state, reducing the fuel loads. Because that’s the big risk, and Clements told me that as AI improves, it could be used to provide much more detailed look at fuel moisture and fire risk conditions all across California’s microclimates. But for now, he and dozens of other teams will continue taking those in-person measurements year round. Very cool to see. *** UC Davis study shows more fires are claiming California forest, and reforestation can’t keep up. The study reports. California lost 6 to 11% of its conifer forest between 1991 to 2023. The worst impacts are in the Sierra Nevada and forest in the northern part of the state, especially after the 2020 and 2021 wildfires. Public lands have seen very little replanting, while private forested areas have replanted *** bit more aggressively. Now you hear it over and over again when *** wildfire is burning. They’re tackling that steep terrain that’s difficult. Well, Bay Area Company has developed *** new tool just for fire combat in situations like this. Check out this robot that’s ready for fire. Meet Seneca, the autonomous drone. Our goal is to build advanced technology specifically for situations that today for our firefighters are either unsafe. Inefficient or impossible. Stuart Landisberg created the aerial fire suppression aircraft after years of research. Landisberg says over the past two decades, acres burned from wildfire is up nearly 200%, while firefighters per capita is down by nearly 30%. So you have more fire with fewer resources. The only way that we can solve this problem. is by making every single individual from the hotshots to our municipal firefighters more productive, something the Seneca drone can do. You get 500 to 1000 gallons of finished foam. The aircraft can take off autonomously. All they need is *** single GPS waypoint, delivering suppressant to *** fire in less than 5 minutes. The single most important piece in *** wildfire is getting to it early. How do you catch *** fire at what’s called its incipient phase? Once off the ground, guiding the robot is simple for *** firefighter. This is basically all flown through an app that you could have on your phone or an iPad, or you could fly it from your kitchen table, putting more force safely into high risk situations. You can think of them almost like flying waymos. They’re guided by LDA and they have *** relatively sophisticated autonomy system. It doesn’t really care if it’s day or night, allowing the drone to fly across tough terrain into gusty winds and through reduced visibility, things that can typically cost *** fire suppression crew time and resources on any wildfire. And Heather, in just *** few weeks, Colorado and some California firefighter teams will be getting these drones. Now Seneca plans to get them in the hands of firefighters in the trucking Tahoe Basin before the end of the year. Very cool. During fire season, having *** go bag ready can make all the difference when disaster strikes. Officials recommend having essentials ready like these things prescriptions. Medications, *** change of clothes, extra glasses or contact lenses, *** first aid kit, *** flashlight, *** battery-powered radio with those extra batteries, as well as chargers for any of your electronics or tablets. Pet owners should also have leashes, kennels, pet food, water, and any prescriptions they may need all at the ready. And coming up, *** look at the latest aircraft being used by Cal Fire, plus behind the scenes of how all those planes and helicopters are maintained. Welcome back to our KCRA 3 wildfire ready special. As fires get larger and more destructive, Cal Fire is finding aggressive new tools to keep them contained. Meteorologist Dirk Verorn shows us the different aircraft being used in our state. The Cal Fire Aviation program is made up of hundreds of personnel to keep its fleet of 68 aircraft mission ready. With the help of communications officer Linnea Edmeyer, we are going to get to know these aircraft. I’m at McClellan Airport where Cal Fire Aviation headquarters is located, and I’m here because what we’re going to do is take *** look at some of the aircraft that they use to help keep you safe. We are going to start with *** UH-1H Super Huey. The Huey has been in our fleet for over 40 years. It was the front line. Copter for our heat crews. We have *** lot of, uh, we had *** lot of faith, *** lot of value in this helicopter, *** lot of sentimental value, right, for *** lot of us that were on this copter. Brought everyone home. It can carry 8 firefighters for quick deployment in remote areas and supports their efforts by dropping water. You will see the Huey carrying either *** bucket that it can dip into *** local lake or pond, or *** tank that uses *** fixed snorkel with *** strainer on the end to suck up water like *** straw. The Super Huey has been the workhorse for Cal Fire for *** long time, but now they have something *** little bit newer. Well, this is the latest addition to Cal Fire Aviation. We have the Sikorsky S-70I. It’s the Cal Fire Hawk, and it has lots of bells and whistles. Let’s go ahead and take *** look. In 2018, funding was secured for the purchase of these Cal Fire hawks, which can fly faster to the scene, carry more water, and more crew members. So what are some of the big differences between this helicopter and the Super Huey? The biggest difference for us is the measure of safety. So we’ve got dual engine, we can the bigger payload, just *** lot more capable safety wise. Operationally, we can, we can fly at night aided by night vision goggles in this aircraft. So this takes on the mission of trying to put out the fire. So you have, do you load it with water? Do you load it with retardant? Water, water, so water, yes. So we have *** fixed tank of 1000 gallons on this. It has *** fixed hoist, OK, *** hoist here, yes, so it has *** fixed hoist, and that air rescue is obviously really important to us, and our air rescue program really is so that we can rescue our own. That’s the primary reason we have the program. But obviously we are in *** lot of places, so we do get the calls for air rescue. The Cal Fire Hawk, with its greater speed, night operations, and air rescue capabilities is an important piece to keeping California safe from wildfires. So the Super Huey and the Cal Fire Hawk are the rotary wing aircraft in the C Cal Fire inventory. Now let’s move on to *** fixed wing aircraft, the Grumman S2 air tanker. And out of all the aircraft that you have, this is what you have the most of. Why is that? This is our workhorse. Uh, we have 23 in the fleet, and one of the things in Cal Fire we say we want to keep small fires small, right? And the way we do that is by having aircraft throughout the state, right, to be able to reach. Any part of the state in 20 minutes or less. Well, I want to see how this is set up underneath, when it drops. So these doors that just drop the doors will just open like. So you’ve got the seam here in the middle and those two doors just go out and all the fire retardant just boom so it’s out. Now does this have the capability of adjusting the amounts as well? So if you have *** smaller fire or you just don’t have as much space to drop it in, you can do *** smaller. Wow, that’s interesting. All right, let’s go ahead and take *** look on the inside. So we’re inside of the Grumman S2 air tanker, and this tanker is just piloted by one person, even though there’s the two seats in here. And it’s probably best because there’s not *** lot of room to move around in this aircraft. Cal Fire has been using the S2 air tanker since the 1970s, and with recent upgrades of modern, powerful turboprop engines, the reconditioned S-2s are better equipped to continue their fight to keep California safe from wildfires. These are just three of the six types of aircraft that Cal Fire has in its arsenal of aircraft. Next time, we’ll explore some tactical aircraft as well as the larger C-130 air tanker. Converting those planes to fight fires is *** complex and technical process with no room for air. For that, Cal Fire relies on Omentum, *** global company specializing in engineering and technology. As meteorologist Kelly Curran shows us, the state just extended their contract with the company for another 3 years. This contract, in my opinion, brings great sustainability and stability to the state of California. This $425 million contract includes maintenance of all Cal Fire-owned aircraft. We train all the mechanics, all the mechanics here that work, they actually work for Omentum. They’re contracted by Omentum. They work on all the fixed wing airplanes you can see behind me and then the helicopters as well. And while Cal Fire employs helicopter pilots, pilots for the fixed wing aircraft are trained. Employed by Omentum and they don’t hire beginners. *** lot of our pilots, both men and women, come here with 67, 8000 hours already under their belt. Once they get here, there’s specialized training for the OV-10, the S-2, which is the airplane most of California is familiar with. It’s the one flying around dropping the retardant, and now the C-130 we’ve added as well. You’re taking airplanes into canyons with large fires, lots of smoke, limited visibility. It’s inherently dangerous to fly. This is twice as dangerous. While mechanics are employed year-round on Cal Fire bases throughout the state, pilots are typically seasonal. The pilots, *** majority of them are seasonal. Well, that seasonal is changing, so we’re keeping more and more pilots on longer through the season. In the last 4 years, Omentum has added 125 additional mechanics and pilots to the contract, and the fire season getting longer, that number is likely to grow. Yeah, turning fire into *** tool to help save communities. Why cultural burns could soon become more common in California when we get back. Welcome back to our KCRA 3 wildfire ready special. *** new study out of UC Davis claims efforts to reduce wildfire fuels has saved billions of dollars. The new data is from nearly 300 fires between 2017 and 2023. The report says. For every $1 spent on prevention, about $3.75 was saved in damages. Treatments like forest thinning and prescribed burns prevented about $2.8 billion in losses. The study also found prescribed burns were more effective than thinning alone, and treating larger areas worked best at slowing the spread of wildfires. Now when it comes to fighting fire with fire, legislators are joining local Native American groups in that fight. The Good Fire Act is *** bill currently in legislation that puts the power to burn back in indigenous hands. Meteorologist Ophelia Young spent *** day with *** Maidu tribe to learn the many ways fire can be good. This 60 acre land in Berry Creek near Orville was reduced to ashes. Late summer of 2020 during the North Complex fire, what started off as *** devastating loss has over time turned into *** reset button, both culturally and ecologically to local tribes. This generation of the indigenous Maidu grew up with *** grave warning from their elders. There’s going to be *** big one, he called it the big one, that was going to come through, and it wasn’t *** matter of if, it was *** matter of when. It did, 2018. And 2020 we’ve seen them, you know, very quickly back to back happen between campfire, North Complex fire, and so on. Decades of neglected land and overgrown vegetation dried up by severe drought turned much of Northern California into *** tinderbox. The Maidu, who call this land home, panicked, but the elders. Said, this is *** reset. Get out there and get your hands on the land. It would be *** reset of the land. We started off right here, right down there over this hill. This is 60 acres they acquired after the fires ravaged it. Unexpectedly, those fires served as *** harsh guide. Revealing what needed to be cleared. There was *** lot of work to be done. Angela Bolton said mobilizing the Berry Creek restoration workforce wasn’t hard. That spiritual duty kind of like yanked on us like this is our time to get up. But organizing and funding was. After some partnerships, she was able to get men and women on the land. With hard hats. And chainsaws These new tools are the new way of stewarding the land traditional knowledge and Western knowledge, and you put them together. And so they’re going to go in with chainsaws. I’m going to go in with seeds. You know, um, and then with fire, fire, the one tool that has not changed, and it was the first time in about *** century the Maidu were able to use it again. So this looked *** lot different. We burned this last fall. Megan Herrera is the traditional. Ecological knowledge manager. She is resetting their relationship with fire by planning them. Decades ago, before fire was banned, it was good fire and it did something good for the village and it didn’t wipe everything out. We let fire do her thing and And we respected that and we coexisted. Last year’s cultural burn was *** spiritual event, and as different Maidu groups came together to burn, the fire also reset friendships. That was the first time that all of us Maidu people have gathered together like that. I’ve never seen it myself in my lifetime. Restoration project manager Gavin Anton explains that his tribe, now in Oroville, was displaced from the foothills. This land is special because it sits right across from Bald Mountain, *** sacred place of Maidu origin. As his crews clear the land, they learn the land. This is what our people did. This village was over here. And then they want to learn and then that leads to stories and language and songs. It is another reset of pride and purpose in each of these men and women who work full time. That’s what it’s doing. It’s reconnecting us to who we are and it may be the biggest reset of all. When we don’t have. The things that bring us together, we have, we’re left with the things that tear us apart. The final reset we are waiting for fire to bring is the one of trust between indigenous groups and government. With fire back in their hands, the Maidu are working with Cal Fire to improve fire prevention. Now the Good Fire Act is moving through legislature. Assembly Member Chris Rogers authored that bill. I think one of the things that we have certainly learned in California is that our suppression efforts can create *** cascade of impacts in our ecology if passed. Cultural burning should be easier and legally safer and recognized as *** wildfire prevention tool. But if harnessed in the right way, we can turn it into *** tool instead of leading communities to be afraid. Reporting from Berry Creek, Ophelia Young, KCRA 3 News. The Good Fire Act passed the California Assembly unanimously and is now pending in committees. Assembly Member Rogers says it has not encountered opposition and expects to go through the legislature. Home builders in Sacramento are using *** new method, and they say it could make homes more wildfire resistant. They’re using 3D printers to build homes out of concrete. You can see they were putting the foundation and walls on this ADU. They say the construction method makes it less costly to build. It is cheaper. It actually is more beneficial. Efficiency, energy efficiency. You save money in the long run. Just the fire resilience to it, especially in California. We are actively going in the spaces of the insurances because this is something that we can start coordinating and say, hey, would you approve x amount of 3D printed homes in *** community because that’s going to cut back the fire, the fire spreading component of it and hopefully get some of those cheaper insurance rates back into California. The builders say the homes also are also termite resistant because they’re not using lumber. Nice little perp there. Now we have much more on the KRA 3 wildfire guide, including how to sign up for emergency alerts and how to track fires near you. Thank you for joining us.

Meteorologist/Climate Reporter

Wildfires in California will always be a risk as vegetation becomes fuel in the summer and fall. We show you how scientists measure that risk. Our 2026 Wildfire Ready special report also includes coverage of a new robot tool by a Bay Area company aimed at helping combat fires, what to put in your go-bag, and a behind-the-scenes look at aircraft that Cal Fire’s Aviation Program manages. The special profiles a company that supp0rts the state’s fire management systems. And we look into legislation that would put the power to burn back in Indigenous hands. Watch our full Wildfire Ready special in the video above. Get more prepared with our 2026 Wildfire Ready guide. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

Wildfires in California will always be a risk as vegetation becomes fuel in the summer and fall.

We show you how scientists measure that risk. Our 2026 Wildfire Ready special report also includes coverage of a new robot tool by a Bay Area company aimed at helping combat fires, what to put in your go-bag, and a behind-the-scenes look at aircraft that Cal Fire’s Aviation Program manages.

The special profiles a company that supp0rts the state’s fire management systems. And we look into legislation that would put the power to burn back in Indigenous hands.

See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel