California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Mild Summer Keeps Fire Damage Down

Wildfires would normally have charred tens of thousands of acres in California by now, but mild weather has helped hold losses to 84% below average, officials say. “This is like the year that summer forgot California,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said. The loss of about 5,200 acres on lands protected by state agencies, which is one-sixth of normal, is mirrored in the low number of structures burned--13. By this time last year, more that 600 structures had burned in wildfires, most of them in a June 27 blaze in Santa Barbara that killed one person. California has been spared largely because temperatures have been lower, humidity higher, winds less dry and rains more frequent than normal, said state Department of Forestry spokeswoman Karen Terrill.