Residents in Los Angeles are being devastated by damaging fires, and Portland Fire Chief Chad Johnston says our area presents its own unique dangers. 

Jonston Joined The WGAN Morning News and says Portland is the most densely populated city in Maine with many wooden structures, which makes the city vulnerable if there’s a massive fire.

“Our resources are only so thick, and we do deplete them on a daily basis,” said Johnston. “So, we are vulnerable. Not crazy. But there is the chance that we could have a perfect storm exist, as is what’s going on in California right now.”

Johnston also says the islands in Casco Bay are isolated and can be a challenging location to send a fire crew.

The fires in Los Angeles are being caused by an extended period without rain leading to especially dry conditions couple with historically high winds that have reached 100 miles per hour.

Johnston says the warm and dry fall in Maine brought an unusually high number of wildfires to the region.

“I had not felt the pressure that we had this fall where we had some really dry conditions that exposed us to some fires, even in Portland, that we haven’t normally had,” Johnston said.

Maine experienced significantly more wildfires this past fall because of the high fire danger.

The death toll from the five fires in the Los Angeles area is currently five, while at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders because of the fires in Los Angeles County.