As if things weren’t bad enough, with the Trump/Republican tax monstrosity about to be passed and the Trump/Republican counter attack against Special Prosecutor Mueller and his team picking up steam, comes the news that my home state of California is burning up. Wildfires, which have often troubled California residents, have reached a crescendo this year because of unusually heavy rainfall last Winter and Spring which was a boon for the agriculture industry after five years of drought, but caused heavy growth in the state’s forests and grasslands. The hot, dry summer of 2017 (I think the hottest on record) turned all this new growth to tinder, and the rains that usually come in the Fall have not come. Worse, the warm, dry winds from the South, known locally as Santa Ana, did come on time, and in more force than usual. Forested parts of the state are like tinder boxes, ready to be set off by the smallest spark.
And so fires have raged this year through some of California’s most valuable and productive areas, like the wine country of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and also through some of its most scenic and bucolic areas. The present huge fire, called “Thomas” is raging through the heavily forested, gently rolling hills above the coast northwest of Los Angeles. This fire, one of the largest in the history of the state, is moving sometimes as fast, sometimes faster, than the humans who flee from it, and the multitudes of firefighters who are trying to stop it. It is pushed by winds that descend from the higher elevations and become warmer and stronger as they descend. The big fires occur in the Fall, when the wind are stronger and warmer and the underbrush is dryer.
For me this is close and personal. In the map, which is just a small slice of the state, you will see two cities, Ventura at the bottom middle, and Santa Barbara at the far left. I lived in both as a child, from six months to six years old, through my first year of school in Ventura, and from six to eight in Santa Barbara, where my mother had grown up. Ventura, according to at least one news report was “utterly destroyed” by the fire which swept through it last week, and something like 27,000 people are said to have been evacuated.
Santa Barbara, one of the nicest cities in the US, known as the “American Riviera,” now has the fire galloping toward it. It is unclear, however, whether the firebreaks that firefighters create to stop forest fires before they reach inhabited areas will be wide enough to stop the fire before it damages Santa Barbara. It depends on the wind, and if the firefighters have had time to make them impassable.
But there is a more personal connection than my distant past. A good friend, since my university days, who is in occasional touch, lives in Ojai. If you look on the right middle part of the map, you will see a small ovular patch of unburned area surrounded by the red blob of burned or burning areas, and in the middle of that patch is the town of Ojai. The fire has missed it so far, and with the wind blowing toward the west, perhaps it will stay missed. A New York Times story a few days ago was headlined, ”Ojai, Calif. Encircled by fire, an ash-covered Shangri-La.”
When I heard last week that the fire was heading toward Ojai, I called my friend, who was trying to figure out whether he should evacuate his home. After he and his son had done many scouting trips, they decided to wait until the following day, and this process went on for several days—they arose each morning not knowing if they would evacuate or not. Each day things were better, so finally there was no evacuation. During the few days that evacuation was under daily, sometimes hourly, consideration, my friend sent out daily reports. Here are a few excerpts:
It is Friday morning and we have survived four days of the Thomas fire. It is very smoky but otherwise OK. We evacuated again last night after being advised that the fire was within a quarter of a mile of our home. We checked out the fire from [high ground and] decided the fire was not that close, and returned home.
The fire is huge, extending over some 55 square kilometers. It will continue to burn north and west into the green area of the map, the Los Padres National Forest [A]t Von’s market… one of the firefighters [who] had spent the night fighting the fire on Fairview, east-west road next to the north of us…explained that, by reason of low winds, they were able to get the fires there under control.
This morning all was well. Investigation shows no more threat from the north, south or east. However, there is a threat from the west through Meiner’s Oaks... [but] it appears the firefighters had the problem under control. We are of the opinion that they fight furiously to save homes [and the] fire has been stopped wherever it came in contact with Ojai homes.
The firefighters are from as far north as Oregon and include crews from Palo Alto and San Jose. They are doing a magnificent job, but are exhausted. We are thankful for the work done by the fire[fighters], particularly those who came from out of area just in time to save the City from complete destruction.
Another personal connection is the grandson of a close friend from high school days who is a firefighter. Since they come from all over the state and the West, I imagine he is there too, although there are so many fires in California, he may well be fighting another somewhere else. There are, according to officials 8,300 “fire personnel” mobilized to fight this monster fire. Well over 1,000 are frontline firefighters. The effort to quell the fire has cost, so far, $110 million.
The fire rages on and has now burned about 270,000 acres of woods and meadows, and killed two people, one a fireman. It is the third largest wildfire in the state’s history, has destroyed over 1,000 structures and damaged many others. Evacuation is mandatory for, at least, 1,500 Santa Barbara County residents and voluntary for another 35,000 or so. The fire is moving toward the town of Montecito (the home of Oprah Winfrey) and houses in its foothills are now under grave threat. Wind, gusting up to 65 miles per hour, blowing toward the ocean, is pushing the fire directly at the town. The wind could push the fire all the way to the coast.
Coming at the same time that California, along with other heavily urbanized states, is being attacked by a Trump/Republican Congress with a tax bill that certainly discriminates (deliberately) against such states, this one-two punch will only push California further in an anti-Trump/Republican direction. And Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Climate Change agreement as well can only add to that, as most Californians accept the assertion that the climate is warming, and believe that a warming climate is at least partly responsible for the hotter summers and the dryer falls that lead to these large wildfires.
The author is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, and a former US diplomat who was Ambassador to Pakistan and Bangladesh
And so fires have raged this year through some of California’s most valuable and productive areas, like the wine country of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and also through some of its most scenic and bucolic areas. The present huge fire, called “Thomas” is raging through the heavily forested, gently rolling hills above the coast northwest of Los Angeles. This fire, one of the largest in the history of the state, is moving sometimes as fast, sometimes faster, than the humans who flee from it, and the multitudes of firefighters who are trying to stop it. It is pushed by winds that descend from the higher elevations and become warmer and stronger as they descend. The big fires occur in the Fall, when the wind are stronger and warmer and the underbrush is dryer.
This will push California further in an anti-Trump/Republican direction. Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Climate Change agreement can only add to it. Most Californians believe that a warming climate is at least partly responsible for the hotter summers and the dryer falls that lead to these large wildfires
For me this is close and personal. In the map, which is just a small slice of the state, you will see two cities, Ventura at the bottom middle, and Santa Barbara at the far left. I lived in both as a child, from six months to six years old, through my first year of school in Ventura, and from six to eight in Santa Barbara, where my mother had grown up. Ventura, according to at least one news report was “utterly destroyed” by the fire which swept through it last week, and something like 27,000 people are said to have been evacuated.
Santa Barbara, one of the nicest cities in the US, known as the “American Riviera,” now has the fire galloping toward it. It is unclear, however, whether the firebreaks that firefighters create to stop forest fires before they reach inhabited areas will be wide enough to stop the fire before it damages Santa Barbara. It depends on the wind, and if the firefighters have had time to make them impassable.
But there is a more personal connection than my distant past. A good friend, since my university days, who is in occasional touch, lives in Ojai. If you look on the right middle part of the map, you will see a small ovular patch of unburned area surrounded by the red blob of burned or burning areas, and in the middle of that patch is the town of Ojai. The fire has missed it so far, and with the wind blowing toward the west, perhaps it will stay missed. A New York Times story a few days ago was headlined, ”Ojai, Calif. Encircled by fire, an ash-covered Shangri-La.”
When I heard last week that the fire was heading toward Ojai, I called my friend, who was trying to figure out whether he should evacuate his home. After he and his son had done many scouting trips, they decided to wait until the following day, and this process went on for several days—they arose each morning not knowing if they would evacuate or not. Each day things were better, so finally there was no evacuation. During the few days that evacuation was under daily, sometimes hourly, consideration, my friend sent out daily reports. Here are a few excerpts:
It is Friday morning and we have survived four days of the Thomas fire. It is very smoky but otherwise OK. We evacuated again last night after being advised that the fire was within a quarter of a mile of our home. We checked out the fire from [high ground and] decided the fire was not that close, and returned home.
The fire is huge, extending over some 55 square kilometers. It will continue to burn north and west into the green area of the map, the Los Padres National Forest [A]t Von’s market… one of the firefighters [who] had spent the night fighting the fire on Fairview, east-west road next to the north of us…explained that, by reason of low winds, they were able to get the fires there under control.
This morning all was well. Investigation shows no more threat from the north, south or east. However, there is a threat from the west through Meiner’s Oaks... [but] it appears the firefighters had the problem under control. We are of the opinion that they fight furiously to save homes [and the] fire has been stopped wherever it came in contact with Ojai homes.
The firefighters are from as far north as Oregon and include crews from Palo Alto and San Jose. They are doing a magnificent job, but are exhausted. We are thankful for the work done by the fire[fighters], particularly those who came from out of area just in time to save the City from complete destruction.
Another personal connection is the grandson of a close friend from high school days who is a firefighter. Since they come from all over the state and the West, I imagine he is there too, although there are so many fires in California, he may well be fighting another somewhere else. There are, according to officials 8,300 “fire personnel” mobilized to fight this monster fire. Well over 1,000 are frontline firefighters. The effort to quell the fire has cost, so far, $110 million.
The fire rages on and has now burned about 270,000 acres of woods and meadows, and killed two people, one a fireman. It is the third largest wildfire in the state’s history, has destroyed over 1,000 structures and damaged many others. Evacuation is mandatory for, at least, 1,500 Santa Barbara County residents and voluntary for another 35,000 or so. The fire is moving toward the town of Montecito (the home of Oprah Winfrey) and houses in its foothills are now under grave threat. Wind, gusting up to 65 miles per hour, blowing toward the ocean, is pushing the fire directly at the town. The wind could push the fire all the way to the coast.
Coming at the same time that California, along with other heavily urbanized states, is being attacked by a Trump/Republican Congress with a tax bill that certainly discriminates (deliberately) against such states, this one-two punch will only push California further in an anti-Trump/Republican direction. And Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Climate Change agreement as well can only add to that, as most Californians accept the assertion that the climate is warming, and believe that a warming climate is at least partly responsible for the hotter summers and the dryer falls that lead to these large wildfires.
The author is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, and a former US diplomat who was Ambassador to Pakistan and Bangladesh