California Fire chief: 'Every year seems to get worse'
(12 Nov 2018) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Simi Valley, California - 12 November 2018 1. Various of firefighters watching smoke in hill down below ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Thousand Oaks, California - 12 November 2018 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Chief Scott Jalbert, California Fire: "I've been doing this job for 31 years and probably in the last five, maybe seven years, every year seems to get worse. A lot of that has to do with the recent drought and the drought that we're still going through. And with that, that drought killed a lot of vegetation. And so that dead vegetation is prone to burning obviously. And you know, you add low humidities and strong winds and a fire that would normally burn somewhat mundane now is burning extremely." ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Simi Valley, California - 12 November 2018 3. Various of firefighters coming up to freeway from fighting fire below ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Thousand Oaks, California - 12 November 2018 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Chief Scott Jalbert, California Fire: "You have to attack these fires aggressively. But safety is our number one concern. And you know our firefighters, no matter what agency they work for are very well trained. We can recognise the conditions and no when to directly engage a fire and when to back off. And you know we always try the approach of keeping this small fires small. But in this case here when you arrive and the fire's already 100 acres and running you know when you have 70 mile per hour winds and you know 300 foot flame lengths that's something you don't get in front of. So you take the defensive approach at that point and the number one goal is just to get everybody out of its way, try to save which you can save and then essentially you have to wait for the fire to run out of fuel or the winds stop and then that's when you start making good progress to contain the fire." ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Simi Valley, California - 12 November 2018 5. Various of firefighters watching smoke in hill down below 6. Various of firefighters coming up to freeway from fighting fire below ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Thousand Oaks, California - 12 November 2018 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Chief Scott Jalbert, California Fire: "We're dealing with you know 30-foot brush and grass.Up in Northern California, the camp fire, they're dealing with 100, 150-foot trees in addition to 30-foot brush. The fuel loading is just tremendous. You know, Cal Fire along with other agencies just in the last few years under the direction of the governor and local officials have just spent an enormous amount of money and effort to try to reduce fuels. But it's a long race. And these you know fuel conditions didn't happen overnight it took decades and it's not it's just going to take time to be able to reduce these fuels to help us out." ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY Simi Valley, California - 12 November 2018 8. Various of firefighters working to help crews below, watching smoke in hill down below STORYLINE: Gusty Santa Ana winds are rising again in Southern California and firefighters are battling two new wildfires. Officials say the fires Monday morning west of Los Angeles in the Rocky Peak and Thousand Oaks areas show that the risk of more fires breaking out is high. Ventura County Fire officials say the Rocky Peak fire is about 20 acres (8 hectares) and has forced the shutdown of the State Route 118 freeway. Clients are reminded: Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: www.facebook.com/APArchives Google+: plus.google.com/b/102011028589719587178/+APArchive Tumblr: aparchives.tumblr.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/39cf0adbc0e70b80b32a781cf3cb788f
