Wildfires

Legislators weren’t able to reach a compromise that helps insurers with wildfire risk while also protecting homeowners. Interest groups hope to find one in meetings this fall.

California wildfires every year emit as much carbon as almost 2 million cars, posing a threat to efforts to battle climate change.

As nights warm and droughts intensify, past models predicting fire behavior have become unreliable. So California is working with analysts and tapping into new technology to figure out how to attack wildfires. Gleaned from military satellites, drones and infrared mapping, the information is spat out in real time and triaged by a fire behavior analyst.

After several years of devastating wildfires, California lawmakers want to give hefty raises to Cal Fire firefighters. The deal could tie the governor's hands in contracts.

Wildfires and expensive rebuilding wiped out profits among California home insurers. State Farm isn't the first insurer to retreat from the state, and may not be the last.

After unanimously clearing the Senate, a bill expanding first responders' access to workers’ comp for PTSD moves to the Assembly.

Facing a mental health crisis, Cal Fire crews sought less of a workload. But they have to wait two years under their new contract.

Moderate weather and well-timed rainstorms in much of California combined to curb the acreage and structures burned.

Cal Fire faces a mental health crisis. As wildfires burn year-round, thousands of overworked California firefighters carry a heavy load of trauma, pain and grief. They leave a fire but the fire never leaves them.

Strong and stoic, a Cal Fire captain fought wildland fires and helped retrieve the bodies of despondent people who had jumped off a remote bridge. When the bridge beckoned him, he couldn’t keep fighting.