The news is all about underbrush and fire wood.
Having traveled in California as a tourist, I recall much of the state is a gigantic field of high brown grass that is always a fire risk. They say the cows escaped from Wisconsin to California but to me it seems their pastures were brown and shriveled.
I wonder, why doesn’t all those thousands of square miles of dead brown grass conflagrate?
The reason is that this is about "forest management." The envirowhackos were concerned about "Spotted Owl" habitat, and the ensuing firestorm of regulations drove out the lumber industry that used to scientifically manage the forests. Further, the envirowhackos wanted to let the forest do what it normally did (only they didn't, because the forests would naturally have fires that would take care of the dead wood and underbrush). Instead, CA spent $$$ putting out these fires.
The dry grass does burn from time to time, and every year, rice farmers burn off the rice stubble from Maxwell to Willows, and the CO2 and carbon smoke from these fires piles up against Mt Diablo.