Wild Bears and Wild Fires. Wild Bear Warnings, As Wildfires Fought and Evacuations. Northern California Focus. What Happens Next? Answers Got At in This Blog Post

Polar bears, which can travel nearly impossible distances, through the water, and land, and climb vertical heights as if they had a rope pulling them, might be coming from the west.  This means the coast of upper northwestern part of California.

Brown or black bears might be coming down from the areas just north of the northernmost state line of California.  Them travelling southward into California.

Then, logically in between, there are bears that are mixed breeds of brown bear and polar bears, that might be coming from the areas, likewise, in between, where the polar bears and brown bears would be coming from.

This is just an opinion, and not an in-depth study of bear behavior in California, however, earlier articles from ETIS, and many sources, have examined bears behavior enough in the last 5 years, that it is safe to say, that exercising acting prudent, when it comes to bears, especially in the aftermath of the fires that are burning in California right now, which there are somewhere between 9 and 15, roughly, wouldn't hurt.

It might be wise to hold to consider, that, the kind of bear activities described here, is not out of the question.

The process, in theory goes something like this:
Nature has its order of events.
Fires took place, which resulted in people moving out, on a practical level, they evacuated; houses were destroyed.
In the interim before returning to their houses, if they return at all, or return to rebuild, bears of different gradations make their presence.
A danger is, since there has been a fire, there might also be the disruption of tracking all these animals.  If any just 'popped up out of the water' and ran inland, that have never been tracked before, there could be the possibility of large bears, in those residential areas.

Further haunts are, the bears are not seen or heard from, and are virtually hidden from the human population, for lengths of time, then, suddenly they make their presence known, hopefully, it is not a disastrous one.

Once humans leave an area, this is a new 'playground' and 'feeding ground' for some of these wilder animals.

Summing up, once the fires have ended, and the aftermath is upon us, be on your guard as to the possibilities of bears and other animals making their mark.