A small brush fire in Willits was quickly put out today. Crews were called to the scene near the employee lot at Howard Hospital. Reports say a man was spotted riding a bike way from the scene, but there’s no word if the person had anything to do with the fire.
Cal Fire is out with a new tool showing how wildfires have impacted vegetation. The Fire and Resource Assessment Program launched a new California Vegetation Burn Severity Online Viewer, which allows a close-up look at how fires have shaped the landscape. Officials say it will also guide restoration work and help plan resilience. The Viewer displays burn severity data for all wildfires over 1,000 acres in California from 2015 to 2023. The data will be updated annually to show new fires and their impact. You can find the link at the Cal Fire webpage.
The licenses of two men associated with the fireworks warehouse in Yolo County, which blew up just before the Fourth of July, have been suspended. The state fire marshal’s office says it has revoked the pyrotechnic licenses of Kenneth Chee of Devastating Pyrotechnics Inc. and Craig Cutright of Blackstar Fireworks. Cal Fire says the investigation is continuing, so they can’t release more information about why those licenses were pulled. 7 people died in that blast in the community of Esparto on July 1.
A local emergency has been declared in the north in Siskiyou County after investigators reported high levels of toxic pesticides at several illegal cannabis grow sites. The counts say the chemicals were made in China and illegally imported. Several agencies, including the California and Federal EPA, the California Division of Fish and Wildlife, state and local law enforcement, and the DEA. The county is starting an outreach campaign to inform people in those unincorporated areas about the risk of illegal pesticides.
