Red flag warning sparks fears of fire danger

FAIRFIELD, Calif. - It was a warm and windy afternoon in Fairfield. Solano County is one of more than a dozen counties in Northern California under a red flag warning.

Brooke Bingaman, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service said there’s dry fuels, low humidity and these areas can expect strong winds.

"That’s the kind of conditions where if a fire were to start it would spread rapidly and very easily," said Bingaman.

Because of the high fire danger, the city of Fairfield closed some of its parks and open spaces through Saturday.

In Vacaville, firefighters stay hydrated and ready for any calls.

"We make sure all of our apparatus and our firefighters are ready," said Fire Chief Kris Concepcion. He said they train year-round and did a controlled burn Monday. They canceled a second training exercise because of the elevated fire risk.

"We monitor the weather very closely to see what’s happening and if the winds start picking up we ask people don’t do any sort of risky behavior," said Concepcion.

The rest of the Bay Area was not included in this red flag warning. 

Bingaman explains, "The fuels in the Bay Area aren’t quite as dry as they are in the Central Valley. So we are near critical fire conditions but not quite at that red flag warning criteria."