LOS ANGELES (AP) -- With recent heavy rain and more expected next week, California may make it through this season without a repeat of last year's catastrophic wildfires. But dangers remain, especially in national forests plagued by drought, unchecked growth of brush and bark beetle infestation.
Fire season will end Monday in Central and Northern California, but drier Southern California may be more at risk, said Karen Terrill, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Forestry.
``We haven't made a decision yet regarding closing fire season in Southern California,'' she said. ``But this good soaking rain in many areas lessens the fire danger.''
Wildfires across Southern California last fall blackened 750,000 acres, killing 24 people and destroying more than 3,600 homes.
The region has so far escaped a replay of the disaster, despite previous warnings that this could become one of the most dangerous fire seasons in history.
In San Bernardino National Forest, hundreds of thousands of dead trees are clustered together outside cities like Lake Arrowhead and Idyllwild. The area has been hard hit by several years of drought and a bark beetle infestation. At least a third of the forest is dead.
One fire ecologist suggested homeowners in the area take advantage of the rain this year to hack away dense trees and prepare for the next round of wildfires.
``We just bought a year's time, that's all that happened,'' said Richard Minnich, a professor at the University of California, Riverside.
On Wednesday, officials reopened some areas of the San Bernardino forest that had been closed due to fire danger. Angeles National Forest was also reopened after 90 percent of that forest was shut down earlier.
The San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges received from 5 and 10 inches of rain this week, with isolated parts of the San Bernardino Mountains getting up to 14 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
``It's definitely pretty wet out there. It looks like we're going to be able to escape October without any fires or winds, and the further we go, the closer we are to winter,'' said Steven Vanderburg, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
``As long as this pattern stays as it is, there's not too much to worry about,'' he said.
