One Year Later, Roseville Officials Sharing Lessons Learned From Unsolved Maidu Fire
ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — It's been one year since an arson-fueled fire ripped through one of Roseville's most popular parks.
While the Maidu Fire remains unsolved, the lessons from that blaze are being taught to agencies in the area.
Embers from the June 2013 blaze flew onto rooftops and the flames chewed through trees, but it also sparked a creative way of dealing with the fire's aftermath.
The wind-driven fire got big in a hurry, ripping through brush and torching hundreds of trees while damaging five homes.
The open land where the arson-sparked fire ignited looks fully grown.
"Instead of just investing money we wanted to see what would come up naturally, and based on that it helps us to know if we do need to do any other restorative actions," said Brian Castellucio with the city of Roseville.
They chose not to do much, letting nature take its course. Most burned-out trees were left in place to protect the still living things that call the park home.
"Dead trees still provide habitat for insects and birds which is part of the whole food chain so if you started just removing them all you're taking away habitat," Castellucio said.
The takeaway from the fire will be that its aftermath will be used as a teaching tool for other agencies in the Sacramento region.
Looking for answers on how to recover from an open space fire while protecting the natural habitat.
"Some of that conversation will be what happens after a fire and the group is actually going to come to this site as a site-visit," Castellucio said.
