You’ve been hearing about it all week – and chances are while you are listening to this, temperatures are creeping up into the triple digits in the Morongo Basin for the first time this year.
California’s first heat wave of the year is here – and even though a wetter spring brought milder temperatures and cooler mornings and nights over the last few months, a high pressure system is going to bring warmer air up from Mexico and dropping it on the morongo basin – keeping it hot all weekend.
The hot weather comes as we celebrate independence day weekend – with many of us heading outdoors for cookouts and outdoor activities during the day, and taking advantage of the long, warm summer nights for firework activities on the 4th.
When celebrating this weekend and on the 4th itself, remember that all fireworks are completely illegal in the morongo basin. That includes the “safe and sane” fireworks that some parts of California allow – but that’s not the case here where extra hot and dry conditions along with invasive grass and weeds create wildfire hazards all summer and into fall.
Causing a wildfire with illegal fireworks not only puts our morongo basin and first responders at risk – it can also find you fiscally responsible for the damage caused.
Captain Bennett Milloy CalFire Specialist was on the Up Close Show yesterday and talked with Gary Daigneault, where he and San Bernardino County Fire Prevention Specialist Tim English outlined one of the personal risks that you may not think about when lighting off illegal fireworks:
Captain Bennett Milloy: “With CalFire, In the case of a vegetation fire and we find you responsible for that… we seek restitution from you, so you would have to pay for the suppression cost. I don’t know if you’ve saw the news lately and what it cost to suppress these large and damaging wildfires, but you know they can typically be in the 10’s or 30s of millions of dollars and you would be responsible for paying the state back for the suppression costs.”
This year, kick back and let the pros handle the explosives – there are fireworks shows all over the Morongo Basin on Tuesday the 4th, and no matter where you are watching the celebrations, you can tune into z107.7 for a patriotic soundtrack as a background to the show.
