>
Article snippet: SACRAMENTO — The deluge of storms that soaked drought-parched California in the winter, filling reservoirs and packing snow on the Sierra Nevadas, also brought hope that the state would get some relief after years of devastating forest fires. But now officials are worried about a new threat, one that could put thousands of homes in Western states at risk of a different kind of fire. The winter storms have unleashed a bumper crop of highly flammable grasses in lowland foothills across the West. Those grasses don’t grow as much during drought conditions. But when they have enough water to grow, they dry out much earlier than wildland forests, creating fast-burning fuel in territory that is closer to expanding suburban and exurban homes than forests at higher elevations. “We may have had a significantly wet winter,” Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said in an interview in his Sacramento office overlooking the state Capitol. “That doesn’t take away the impact of five years of drought.” The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Boise, projects a growing fire danger in parts of California by July, and an increasing threat into August. The winter rains have lowered the threat of a damaging fire season in mountainous areas, but the threat has shifted into lower elevations, said Jessica Gardetto, an agency spokeswoman. “When you have a period of drought and suddenly you have a normal or better-than-normal winter, you ... Link to the full article to read more