California Wildfires

Californians want the state to lead the world in fighting climate change, according to a new poll — and many are ready to tackle the problem on the road, at the ballot box, and even with their pocketbooks. 

Is this a utilities bailout? Will it help prevent future fires? How will all this work? Here's a breakdown of the new plan California lawmakers are putting in place.

The state-approved plans utilities have submitted outlining how they will prevent their equipment from sparking wildfires provide few details—and little evidence to support the companies’ claims that indiscriminately clear-cutting millions of trees and replacing hundreds of thousands of wooden utility poles with steel ones will actually reduce the risk of wildfires.

Officials had to slap utilities for starting blazes—but not inflict undue financial damage or bail them out—and avoid punishing fire victims or further burdening electricity customers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's strike team offered a provocative–and politically challenging–idea for easing utility wildfire liability that has already prompted PG&E to file for bankruptcy.

After years of catastrophic wildfires, California lawmakers and taxpayers are eager to protect the state—but it won't be easy. It's expensive. It will take time. And Californians will have to think of fire not just as a destroyer, but also as a tool.

Malibu's sprouting hills show how fresh growth can renew wildfire danger.

Sen. Bill Dodd wants to establish a California wildfire warning center that would allow officials to turn off power and better position firefighting crews during extreme heat and high winds.

We track key data on California wildfires: land consumed, lives lost, growing firefighting costs.

After a particularly wet rainy season fueled growth of lush vegetation, the sweltering summer of 2017 dried those plants to a crackly, combustible crunch. Several locales had racked up record temperatures, including a historic thermometer high of 106 in San Francisco on Sept. 1. Wildfires were an inevitable consequence, but none so fierce as October's infernos that consumed vast swaths of the state's iconic Wine Country.