chaparral

Most chaparral plants are adapted to this fire cycle.

Villanueva also said that L.A. has chaparral that goes 15 to 25 feet down into the ground, but that the depth reached by the department’s thermal imaging cameras is only a foot.

According to the ATF special agent, a firebrand became lodged within dense chaparral and then smoldered and burned within the roots of the vegetation.

Left alone, chaparral typically burns every 30 to 130 years, historically due to lightning strikes.

Villanueva downplayed the effectiveness of the thermal imaging cameras, noting that some chaparral in the city extends 15 to 25 feet underground, while the depth of the department’s cameras is only a foot.