Wildfires

Red Flag warning are being issued earlier than normal. A weekend of busy fires is evidence fire season is here, says firefighters.

Red flag warnings are unusual this early in the year, but because California is in a drought, and water levels are below average, the bigger fires typical in the months of August and September could spark as early as July.

Several vegetation fires broke out in parts of the Bay Area Saturday afternoon in the heart of the Red Flag warning zone.

The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for the North and East Bay hills and the East Bay valleys from Friday night through Monday morning due to weather conditions that pose a risk of wildfires.

A trust approved by a federal judge to help compensate victims of deadly California wildfires sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment paid survivors just $7 million while racking up $51 million in overhead in its first year of operation.

The fire broke out Wednesday evening near the area of Yellowstone Circle.

The cause of the tree fire appears to be the 2020 Castle Fire, the service said in a statement.

A federal judge is weighing whether Pacific Gas & Electric violated its criminal probation by sparking a wildfire north of San Francisco that destroyed more than 100 homes and injured six firefighters in October 2019.

A number of state and federal agencies urged people to get prepared for fires now ahead of what is shaping up to be another challenging wildfire season.

This week marks Wildfire Preparedness Week; state crews are taking advantage by hosting wildfire preparedness events. The state has already experienced more than 1,300 fires this year.

Firefighters stopped the forward progress of a 2-acre wildfire burning in Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sunday afternoon.

A group of residents in the Moraga Orinda Fire District are preparing to go door-to-door to spread the word about wildfire safety.

Fire officials are warning that wildfire season is off to an early start in 2021 in California, because of the dry winter.

Conservationists on the California-Nevada border are experimenting with a new way to try to revive forests devastated by wildfires: by using drones to rain balls of nutrients, soil and pine seeds over the ravaged landscapes.

Authorities say the deadly fire near Lake Berryessa was no accident, nor was Mother Nature to blame.

Crews with the Contra Conta County Fire Protection District extinguished a vegetation fire in Pittsburg Thursday afternoon that burned up a hillside and near several homes.