Two weeks into peak fire season, wildfires are spreading in California. Officials say it\u2019s just the beginning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Newsletter <\/p>\n You’re reading the Essential California newsletter<\/p>\n Sign up to start every day with California’s most important stories.<\/p>\n Enter email address <\/p>\n Sign Me Up <\/p>\n You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. <\/p>\n More than a dozen fires<\/a> began sparking across Riverside and San Bernardino counties last week.<\/p>\n A fire in rural San Luis Obispo County<\/a> had grown to more than 80,000 acres as of Sunday evening and was California\u2019s largest this year, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.<\/p>\n Experts warn that the latest fiery events set the stage for what is to come over the next few months as the state moves from an unusually dry winter and spring into what are expected to be a hot summer and fall.<\/p>\n Matt Rahn, director of the Wildfire Conservancy<\/a>, told The Times: \u201cWe are on track for a pretty devastating year overall. If we get hotter and drier throughout the state, then that risk increases significantly. We\u2019re hoping that that doesn\u2019t happen, but all predictions are pointing to a much hotter, drier summer and fall.\u201d<\/p>\n A dangerous wildfire season gets worse<\/p>\n Is the state ready for an exceptionally active wildfire season? Experts say it may not be.<\/p>\n Sweeping changes at federal agencies that play key roles in California\u2019s wildfire preparation and response could make a challenging season even worse.<\/p>\n The forecast comes as the Trump administration is enacting budget cuts, layoffs, office closures and restructuring at the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n As my colleague Hayley Smith reports<\/a>, weakening the three agencies at the start of fire season puts California at a dangerous disadvantage.<\/p>\n Firefighters are on high alert, again<\/p>\n Southern California fire chiefs caution that a season of devastating wildfires is all but guaranteed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can never let our guard down,\u201d said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, who helped lead the region through the January wildfires.<\/p>\n Ronnie Villanueva, the Los Angeles Fire Department\u2019s interim chief, told The Times that his firefighters were on high alert<\/a> for brush fires after months of light rainfall left heaps of dry vegetation ready to serve as kindling.<\/p>\n He also encouraged residents to make their homes as fire-resistant as possible, using weed trimmers, clearing roofs of leaves and digging under decks for dead vegetation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe simply cannot have a fire engine in every driveway,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n How to stay prepared in case of fire<\/p>\n Wildfires can be scary to think about, but The Times is here to help.<\/p>\n In our seven-part newsletter series, In Case of Fire<\/a>, breaking news reporter Karen Garcia guides readers through preparing your home, property and loved ones for wildfires. Every week you\u2019ll get instructions and assignments. Sign up and send it to your friends and neighbors too. <\/p>\n Today\u2019s top stories U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Department of Homeland Security police push back protesters in front of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on July 4, 2025, as they rally against the ICE raids taking place in L.A.<\/p>\n (Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Immigration raids continued on the Fourth of JulyWhat went wrong with State Farm\u2019s L.A. fire response<\/p>\n The healthcare cuts approved by Trump and Republicans go well beyond Medicaid<\/p>\n Why California\u2019s plan to \u2018Make Polluters Pay\u2019 stalled again<\/p>\n What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must readsOther must readsFor your downtime The Apennine fries from Rossoblu restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. <\/p>\n (Jenn Harris \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inAnd finally … your photo of the day (Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s great photo is from Times photographer Carlin Stiehl<\/b> and captures the scene at the July Fourth protests in Los Angeles<\/a>, where a large crowd peacefully marched to City Hall in protest of immigration raids and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics. <\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s going to be a bad fire season. Even at what historically has been the start of rainy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,11791,7823,4140,4238,11789,99,6276,2961,224,2444,5337,11395,7825,5996,11792,11790,3549,290,6620,7827],"class_list":{"0":"post-46136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-civic-revolt","11":"tag-covid","12":"tag-covid-19","13":"tag-days","14":"tag-essential-california","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-l-a","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-may","22":"tag-pandemic","23":"tag-part","24":"tag-president-biden","25":"tag-red-county","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-state","28":"tag-time","29":"tag-years"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114812340798972207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/a> <\/p>\n
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Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n