Tag: wildfire

Last Year, This Year

Fire season has begun! Up the coast, along Highway 101, the first fire has broken out near Gaviota. The land is hilly and grassy, and rugged in areas. This makes stopping the fire more challenging, and when the winds pick up, it can travel so fast. We have been having a heat wave in the 90s F for the past few days – today is supposedly the last one like that in our area. Then, down into the 70s F, which is much nicer. I used to love the hot winds, but they have become more fierce and destructive over the last few years that they are more frightening than ever.

This photo shows what we can be up against. The new spring growth, becoming lush in our seasonal rains, changes to dry, dead tinder for a wildfire. The swath of grey is last season’s new growth.

The 8th Day

Today we went to see how the sky looked after 8 days of wildfires in our area.  Earlier, the smoke was piled high into the sky, looking like an atom bomb had exploded nearby – a mushroom-shaped cloud on the horizon.  The air is brown and hazy.  Now, the wind has picked up, again with 60-80 mph gusts, and the clouds have flattened out.  This is the view from behind the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, looking west toward the cities of Ventura and further into Santa Barbara County where the coastal town of Carpinteria is being threatened.  While my in-laws are now home, friends elsewhere are in danger.  We await our turn . . . we have been lucky so far.

Burning

Today we went up to the Reagan Library to view the Thomas Fire from afar.  Here, you can see it from the hills around Santa Paula, California, past Ventura on the coast, moving toward Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County.  Nearly 200,000 acres have burned in 8 days through rough back country.  Valiant efforts by fire fighters from around the country are helping, but here and elsewhere in Southern California houses and animals and people are all suffering.

Fire

Last night a fire started about 25 miles from where we live, in the dry mountains between Santa Paula and Ventura in California.  At 1 a.m. my in-laws showed up.  They may lose their home.  It is not pretty out there.  Most importantly, they are safe.