Awaiting Wildfire
In California, located on the American West Coast, wildfires are not a new thing, they have always been a part of life here. However, since the 1970s, the rising temperatures have caused wildfires to occur eight times more frequently. Throughout the last 100 years, the state has struggled with droughts. It is a growing problem, and multiple places in California have suffered extreme droughts since 2011.
With the combination of a living population, dried natural environment and the hot Santa Ana winds that sweep over Los Angeles at the warmest and driest time of year, then it is only a matter of time before disaster hits.
In November 2018, the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles’ history was ignited. Over the course of four days, the fire spread from the mountains in Ventura to the coastline in Malibu, where it destroyed more than 96,000 acres of land and more than 1,600 houses and buildings. Three people lost their lives, and around 295,000 inhabitants were evacuated from their homes. The authorities, firefighters and the local population still struggle with the memories from that time, and they now do everything they can to avoid another natural disaster from occurring in the area.
The authorities and firefighters are encouraging members of the community to be more aware of the fauna which they plant on their property. Additionally it is recommended that a large part of your land is devoid of plants and trees, and that growth is kept down to a minimum so that it is more difficult for the flames to spread, should a fire should break out.
Robert A. Sales, 48, Fire Station 70, Malibu:
‘Our biggest problem is that some inhabitants will not let themselves be evacuated. Luckily, most people take it seriously, also the multimillionaires, who have their own firefighters. But some want to stay and deal with it themselves. These are the kind of people who stay in the house, even though there are walls of flames outside. These are the kind of people, who live completely by “My home is my castle”. It is the American Way.’
Jim Smith, 78, Topanga:
‘Throughout the years, I have experienced five wildfires in the hills just outside our house. The worst I have ever seen was in 1993, the one that is called The Topanga Fire. It destroyed 388 homes and burned down around 17,000 acres of land. Wildfires around here are unavoidable.’
The Woolsey fire broke out in the afternoon on 8th November 2018, near Santa Susana Field Laboratory in a mountain area north of Thousand Oaks and Calabasas. The area is owned by Boing and Southern California Edison, SCE, which is the largest power supply company in southern California. Subsequent investigations have shown that the fire was probably ignited by sparks that occurred when two of the company’s electrical wires struck each other due to strong winds. Afterward, the fire rapidly spread through the bone-dry terrain.
Large wildfires in the US now burn over an area twice the size of what they did back in 1970. Nine of the ten biggest fires in the state’s history have occurred since the year 2003.
From Earth’s early history nearly all wildfires were started by lightning strikes. Since humans began altering the environment, they have been responsible for the majority of fires. About 84% of wildfires in the USA are started by the human population.
Arie Duran, 30, Fire Station 70, Malibu:
“Of course it affects the people we are close to. My fiancé was worried during the latest large fire. I was out there for three days with no time to text her, so that affected her. But I still never become scared myself. We sleep at the station, and we help each other. Always.”
Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 70 is located by the oceanside in Malibu north of Los Angeles. 6 firefighters operate from here. This makes the respons time shorter if a fire brakes out in the areas of Malibu or Topanga.
After a number of years with droughts in California, politicians have now accelerated The Green Transition. Among other things, this entails that they want to have a greener fuel economy, build more houses with solar power cells, construct more offshore wind farms, and develop a greener farming industry. The state has even begun to develop electric airplane prototypes. Based on the slogan a New Green Deal, the state authorities in California have decided that the state must be completely CO2 neutral by 2045.
The question is, however, whether this is enough? One thing is California, another factor is that USA remains one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, greenhouse gases and the production of fossil fuels on a global scale.
Published by Euroman