A growing threat to public health, safety, air quality and climate goals
Extreme fires are a growing threat to public health and safety, to homes, to air quality and climate goals, and to our forests. California is seeing fires that burn larger and hotter on average than ever before. One quarter of our state — more than 25 million acres — is now classified as under very high or extreme fire threat. And more than 25 percent of the state’s population lives in these high fire-risk areas.
Smoke from extreme fires can occur with little warning, and travel long distances and into urban areas many miles from the flames, negatively impacting public health and degrading quality of life.
