Fire season?
For those that believe that fire still has a season, it doesn’t.
For those who know better, the season is year-round including now.
We haven’t quite finished the first half of 2021, yet we’ve already seen more than 400 acres scorched in Pinon Hills from the Pine Fire, just inches over the Los Angeles and San Bernardino county line.
The ash hadn’t quite settled from that blaze when residents of 1,000 homes evacuated in Topanga Canyon as the Palisades fire threatened too close. These seem small in scale because wildfires in our state break records year after year. Out of the six largest fires in California’s recorded history, five burned in 2020. Innocent lives were lost, countless properties destroyed.
We’ve been here before
Every year, tragedy from wildfire strikes in California and around the drought-ridden West. Every year it gets worse. This results in residents becoming hardened to it. Instead of asking why it’s happening, and what we can do to stop it, many of us paint it as an inevitability and just hope our turn to evacuate doesn’t come this year.
Homes burned in Apple Valley in the 2003 Old Fire. Years before we were married, my wife lived close to Bowen Ranch and was evacuated for days not knowing if her home still stood.
When they were allowed to return, her home was intact, but many of their neighbors weren’t so lucky. We moved to Baldwin Lake in 2013 and three years later we were under mandatory evacuation due to the Holcomb fire. Take this story: wash, rinse, repeat.
We knew the risk we were taking when we moved to the edge of a national forest, but living in a Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) isn’t the only threat. As the Tubbs Fire in 2017 ripped through and destroyed entire neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. The Camp Fire followed in 2018, leveling an entire town and claiming 85 innocent lives.
Smoke from wildfires like these is responsible for the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands more every year. Wildfire smoke wreaks havoc on the human body. The primary toxin in wildfire smoke is Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5). It’s roughly 30 times smaller than the average human hair. PM 2.5 works its way into the bloodstream, avoiding the body’s natural defense systems. It can attack everything from your brain — increasing the chance of Alzheimer’s disease — to the reproductive system causing diminished fertility and premature births.
Smoke is a global killer
When wildfires ravaged the West in 2020, burning more than 4 million acres in California alone, smoke from the blazes was recorded more than 5,000 miles away in Europe. The number of annual deaths attributable to air pollution – which the World Health Organization currently puts at 7 million – will continue to grow if we don’t act.
Fire is one of Mother Nature’s most fickle mistresses, but we all must band together to stave off its deadliest effects.
Ensure there’s defensible space around your home and property.
Have an evacuation plan and make sure your whole family knows it.
If you smell smoke, you’re breathing smoke. When smoke is present, stay indoors with doors and windows closed and a central air system on if you have it.
Share this simple information with your family, friends and anyone else who might be listening. The dangers are real but the awareness may save a life and property.
Whether you believe there’s a fire season or not, preparedness is a lifelong asset.