When most people think of California, they think of nice weather year-round, beaches, palm trees, Disneyland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and avocados. However, as a Southern California native, one thing that hits close to home (literally and figuratively) is wildfire season. Every year, usually starting around late September/early October, wildfire season begins in Southern California. The Santa Ana Winds (a local term referring to the direction the hot, dry wind blows from) pick up, posing concerns for wildfires throughout Orange and LA counties due to the dry shrubs in the area.
Map of the Santa Ana winds, a hot and dry wind coming from the desert that can result in wildfires throughout Southern California.
The La Tuna Fire
This year poses no exception to the unfortunately inevitable wildfire season. While Houston has been struggling with Hurricane Harvey, Los Angeles was hit with a record-breaking heatwave over the weekend, resulting in one of the largest (by acreage) fires in the county's history. The La Tuna fire broke out on Friday September 1st and has just recently no longer been considered an imminent threat (as of Tuesday September 5th). Though the origin of the La Tuna Canyon Fire is still being investigated, it has still caused a significant amount of damage and worry amongst the state's residents.
Over Labor Day weekend, the La Tuna fire has scorched about 7000 acres of land throughout Burbank and Los Angeles. Several injuries were reported and treated, and all injured parties are in stable condition. California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, allowing state and federal resources to be used to aid in combating the fire. As of Tuesday September 5th, the La Tuna fire is reported to be 70% contained (compared to 30% on Sunday September 3rd) and all evacuated residents in the Burbank and Glendale have been able to return home. However, in its wake, the La Tuna fire destroyed 3 buildings and 4 homes.
Map of the progression of the La Tuna Canyon Fire.
Thoughts from a Southern California Native
I've lived in Southern California all my life. My home is a suburb of Los Angeles that is close to the beach. I love going to the beach and being able to wear shorts pretty much all year, but I along with many other people, tend to overlook some of the less popular aspects of California. One of the things that often slips my mind, especially since moving away from home for college, is wildfire season. For the first 17 years of my life, I never really considered the impact of wildfire season. I was always fortunate enough to never have been personally affected. All that I can truly recall about the September and October wildfire season back in SoCal was when there were fires closer to my hometown, sometimes my elementary school would not allow students to play outside during lunch and recess due to the air quality being impacted by ash and smoke.
What struck me when I read about the La Tuna fire was given how big of a fire that it was, there was minimal damage to property. Though four homes were lost, thousands of others were able to stay out of the path of the fire due to prompt responses from LAFD and by luck of the heat wave dying down by the end of the weekend. The La Tuna fire is a good distance away from my hometown, but had the winds been stronger and the heat wave persisted, there might have been a chance that it could have spread a lot closer to where I come from. I consider not only myself to be lucky to be safe from LA's biggest fire, but also the millions of LA residents directly impacted by this fire because in addition to minimal property damage, there were no casualties.
The past couple of weeks haven't been great (which is really an understatement) for the United States in terms of weather conditions. Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on Houston, the La Tuna fire burned through 7000 acres of Burbank and Glendale in California, and Florida and several US territories in the Caribbean are bracing for impact from Hurricane Irma. I hope that in the wake of these events, we continue to stand together and offer support to victims in any way we can. While these natural disasters tear apart cities, they also bring us as Americans closer together.