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The massive Creek Fire burning in the Sierra National Forest continues to grow at near record speed, fueled by millions of dead or dying trees that cover the forest floor.
During the drought of 2012 to 2015, as many as 150 million trees died in forest areas, including vast territory where the Creek Fire burns. It's those dead trees that are fueling the wildfire.
“Some of those dead trees that were killed by that drought are now on the ground, and, unfortunately, that type of fuel bed is something we have never really seen a fire burn in,” Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California Berkeley, said.
Unlike a typical wildfire, which cools at its center as the blaze spreads outward, the Creek Fire is different.
“The interior of the fire is still as hot as the exterior edge,” Stephens told KCBS Radio. “That tells me a lot of those deadened down, heavy fuels are still burning. And, it’s causing, then, something we call, I believe, a mass fire, which is one of the most dangerous fires ever created in a forest.”
It’s also one of the hardest to contain, because there is a near endless amount of fuel in the form of the dead trees.