Wildfires turn California from heaven to hell

US Features

Nov 18, 2008, 14:34 GMT

Los Angeles - California always evoked bikini-clad beach beauties, high-tech hothouses and carefree surfers in the endless sunshine of America's most populous state. Members of the Police look for looters during a wildfire in Diamond Bar California, USA, 16 November 2008. Diamond Bar is a community in Orange County where many rich and famous people live. Firefighters were battling three wildfires in southern California that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of residents to be evacuated, local media reported. EPA/MICHAL CZERWONKA

Members of the Police look for looters during a wildfire in Diamond Bar California, USA, 16 November 2008. Diamond Bar is a community in Orange County where many rich and famous people live. Firefighters were battling three wildfires in southern California that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of residents to be evacuated, local media reported. EPA/MICHAL CZERWONKABut those visions have gone up in smoke, replaced by new images seen around the world in the last week: massive flames roaring through the mansions of the rich and famous, and razing to the ground an entire neighbourhood of 500 mobile homes. For while California remains at the cutting edge of US culture, lifestyles and the economy, it also lies at the epicenter of natural hazards and demographic changes that can make it a very tumultuous and sometimes dangerous place to live. That's even before the eternal threat of the powerful earthquakes that are long overdue to hit - and for which more than 5 million people practiced last week in a massive drill. 'Are we all crazy?' anguished columnist Steve Lopez asked in the Los Angeles Times. 'Don't live here, says the wind, the trembling earth, the parched land, whose natural inclination is to explode in flame every year about now. But we do.' This central conflict of California life has become markedly sharper in recent years. The Santa Ana winds that fueled the latst fires are as old as the Mojave Desert from which they blow every autumn. But now, perhaps due to global warming, they blow even hotter and cause ever more destruction. Then there are the demographic changes that are fueling a population explosion in California and prompting people to live directly in harm's way. Professionals call this the wildland-urban interface. It means that more people are building homes in areas susceptible to wildfires, either because land is cheaper there, or because they long to live in nature's open spaces. Decades of forest mismanagement have taken a heavy toll. In the natural cycle, forests burn frequently. Mature trees survive the same quick fires that clear out undergrowth and brush, which otherwise builds up into a critical mass that can feed blazes big enough to ignite even the stoutest trees. Since the 1940s, though, forest management has focused on suppressing every fire as quickly as possible. Forests and wild lands are now packed with thick layers of dry undergrowth, enough to fuel almost uncontrollable fires. Years of drought have killed many trees and only turned brush into tinder. The effects, when they strike, are almost apocalyptic. 'It's devastating to us. It looks like a war zone,' said Judith Napolitano, a resident of the Sylmar mobile home park, where house after house lay in charred ruins as if hit directly by a firebomb. 'If I didn't see it, it would be hard to believe.' Another fire victim spoke of making an escape with just seconds to spare, 'as embers rained down on my truck like golf balls.' Residents were finally allowed back to survey the damage Monday, making the gruesome tour of their neighbourhood in government vans. Of 600 homes, only about 100 were left standing. Their owners were allowed to go inside and quickly pack up some valuable possessions - as long as they fit into the plastic shopping bags they had been given by officials. The grim toll from the latest blazes does not begin to approach the devastation caused by fires that ravaged the region at around the same time last year. The fires have destroyed hundreds of homes since Thursday, including 500 mobile homes in Sylmar, east of Los Angeles. More than 100 homes in the luxurious celebrity enclave of Montecito, north-west of Los Angeles, also went up in flames. According to figures released Monday by Cal Fire and the National Inter-agency Fire Centre, the Triangle Complex fire had burnt 11,600 hectares and 60 structures and was 40 per cent contained. The Sayre fire had burnt 4,400 hectares and 611 structures and was also 40 per cent contained. The Tea fire had burnt 800 hectares and 210 structures and was 95 per cent contained. In total, more than 6,500 firefighters were trying to contain the blazes, and more than 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate. In two fires in October 2007, more than 2,000 homes were destroyed, damage was estimated above 2 billion dollars, and more than 500,000 people were ordered to evacuate from areas in and around San Diego.

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Westboro Baptist #137Nov 18th, 2008 - 21:08:13

This is God's wrath on our country for allowing degenerate acts of homosexuality to continue. Killing our young men in Iraq did not get our attention, so He has moved to striking the very kingdom that He has blessed us with. He is striking with fires, poverty, and a worsening economy. We have ignored His will for too long and we are going to pay through the fires of hell brought to earth! We as a country are entirely too accepting of homosexuality. It should be a dark, evil act that brings shame to all those that partake. It should be considered the same as acts of sodomy performed on a child or necrophelia. These acts are not celebrated in parades but are the source of shame to anyone who had knowledge of it.

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@ westboro baptist. #37Nov 20th, 2008 - 07:00:06

Pull your head out of your arse, and get a good grip on yourself(if God hasn't declared that to be a sin, too) Gird up now thy loins like a man and shut the f*ck up.

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CaliforniansNov 22nd, 2008 - 06:41:14

Will not live in peace until California is returned to Mexico.

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WowNov 24th, 2008 - 21:36:55

Sounds like the nut house burned down and there is no place for the residents to go but on this site!

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SP4' Oh yeah...Nov 25th, 2008 - 22:28:39

...it was the poofters...

I don't suppose they could hire a gardiner to cut the undergrowth...maybe even a gay gardiner...?!

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Arnold SchwarteniigerNov 26th, 2008 - 00:35:04

Declares CALIFORNIA a fully independent republic!!!!!!!!!

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hey, EssPee...Nov 26th, 2008 - 00:53:42

are you applying for the job, poofter?

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Hawaii too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Nov 26th, 2008 - 09:53:49

The Hawaiian Kingdom DEMANDS return of its sovereignty to the native people of the Hawaiian islands from the evil empire. The withdrawal of the occupation forces including the US marines and coast guard. And re-establishment of the Hawaiian constitutional monarchy.

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SP4: No way!Nov 26th, 2008 - 10:57:18

But I am applying for a job at the nearest gay bar as a go go dancer.

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@ Hawaii TooNov 26th, 2008 - 16:37:38

You can keep Hawaii. I spent three years there and it was the worst time of my life. That place is a dump. Naturally beautiful, but the people are idiots. Even when English is their first language they can barely speak it. Dumb.

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Nooooo..................Nov 29th, 2008 - 23:11:09

English is NOT our first language. The filthy, ugly howlies brought their culture and language and tried to 'brainwash' us, which of course did NOT happen, and will NEVER happen. GO BACK you stinking howlies. LEAVE Hawaii for the native peeps. And take your occupation troops with you. Aaa Looo Ha!

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@Hawaii TooDec 4th, 2008 - 00:51:38

AHH HA HA HA!!! You are retarded!! It's obvious you are from Hawaii!! You say a sentence with words like haole (yes, it is the correct spelling but I wouldn't expect you to know that because 1) you are obviously Hawaiian thus retarded and 2) You retards didn't even have a written language until the haoles started arriving). You are ranked 47 of the 50 states in terms of public education, only behind states that have a majority of English as second language students. And most Hawaiians DON'T SPEAK HAWAIIAN!! English IS their first language and sometimes I can't even UNDERSTAND it!! HA HA!! I'm actually laughing right now, pretending my computer screen is your face. I'm literally laughing in your face. I wish you could see the cesspool Hawaii would turn into if it wasn't a state!! I wish the military would leave and half of the middle class in that God-forsaken state would be gone. Your economy would be non-existent.

But don't get me wrong, I do think the haoles should leave. I use the term 'haole' with respect and call myself that with pride. I am definitely not one of you beach monkeys.

Do some research, get a dictionary, and please reply intelligently. Or in Hawaiian, I'll be entertained.

P.S.: Your spoken language has 8 consanents (our word, you didn't even have a word for a concept like written characters put together to form words and sentences) and 5 vowels (once again). RETARDED!! You might as well speak in clicks!

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