The Southern California wildfires have caused devastating damage, destroying homes and businesses, burning large amounts of land, and causing vast numbers of residents to evacuate.
Read President Dynes’ statement on the Southern California fires.
UC experts and resources on wildfires
A number of UC campuses have compiled directories of faculty experts who can address a wide range of wildfire and fire management issues, from air pollution to predicting fire risk, that have arisen out of the Southern California wildfires. The list below also includes research centers and other sources on these topics.
UC Cooperative Extension, with special funding from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, developed a site that creates awareness of wildfire risks and hazards and offers tips on how to reduce them:
http://www.wildfirezone.org/
UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County has a SAFE (Sustainable and Fire Safe) Landscapes Program.
UC Cooperative Extension also offers assistance in Spanish through a toll-free hotline (1-800-514-4494). For those facing evacuation or relocating to a shelter, AsisTel de la UC includes information on steps that can make the process easier, as well as messages on protecting home and family from future fires. Also, there is information in Spanish in print and audio on preventing, coping and recovering after a wildfire. For additional Cooperative Extension tips, click here.
UC Berkeley’s Center for Fire Research and Outreach also has information. The site includes a toolkit (http://firecenter.berkeley.edu/toolkit) that provides interactive tools to help homeowners, decision-makers and researchers better understand where wildfires occur and how to protect homes and neighborhoods, as well as get up-to-the-minute wildfire news. For more information on the toolkit.
UC Irvine assistant professor of informatics Bill Tomlinson and a team of students have created a free Web site, www.CalFireHelp.com, to help residents displaced by the Southern California wildfires find temporary housing by electronically matching them with others who would like to offer assistance.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed an award-winning wildfire model, FIRETEC. The model, refined with assistance from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, has modeled the 1996 Calabasas fire. For more information or to speak to wildfire model experts, contact James Rickman, jamesr@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9203, or the LANL Communications Office, (505) 667-7000.
UCLA research on wildfire impacts on downstream water supplies
UC Merced expert on the effect of climate change on wildfires: Anthony Westerling. awesterling@ucmerced.edu, (209) 228-4099
UC San Diego air quality expert Kim Prather, kprather@ucsd.edu, (760) 943-7920
UC San Diego Scripps release about warming climate’s role in western U.S. wildfires
UCSF pulmonary specialist Homer Boushey
Santa Barbara’s Southern California Wildfire Center
For information on UC Santa Cruz’s wildfire monitoring efforts
For a list of additional experts:
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Other resources:
American Red Cross