With the Madre Fire still burning, it’s easy to see that it's wildfire season in the state of California.
Dan Turner, Executive Director of the SLO Fire Safe Council, is a former fire chief with CAL FIRE who has more than 37 years of firefighting experience. He explained that "the wind with no name" is a Central Coast wind phenomenon that happens along the coastal range when cold air from the ocean and hot air from the interior valleys meet to create an unpredictable wind effect.
“It's the coast winds battling the inland winds and it just pushes back and forth across that ridge top with wind direction changing," Turner said.
With the constant change in wind direction and gusts, Turner says the fire spread at a rate of three to four thousand acres an hour on Wednesday. He cited similar fires like the Highway 41 Fire in 1994, which he says spread 6,000 acres an hour under similar conditions.
“This fire yesterday afternoon would bend to the east and then bend back to the west. That was just indicative of that wind battle that was occurring," he said.
In 1979, the Spanish Ranch Fire also burned off Highway 166, not far from the Madre Fire, killing four firefighters.
“This is stuck in the hearts and minds of CAL FIRE firefighters all over," Turner said.
He went on to explain that the number one priority is safety and that until the wind stops, the fire is likely to keep burning.
“They'll try to reduce the amount of damage that's occurring with the resources that they have waiting for the wind to stop because it's going to continue to burn until the wind stops,” Turner said.
