AUBURN, Calif. - Cal Fire is warning of what may be a very long and very difficult fire season ahead.
"Over the next couple of months almost all of Northern California's gonna be at an above average potential for large and damaging wildfires," said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.
The state has already seen 950 fires, triple the number in an average year. And the state is in the grip of the worst drought in recorded history.
"A lot of the green hillsides up and down the state are really just masking the dead grass that's been sitting there all winter long," Berlant points out.
At the Cal Fire station in Auburn, seasonal firefighters have been in place since the end of January, nearly three months earlier than usual.