The news is reporting a couple of large "forest" fires in Southern California. I put forest in quotes because what grows wild in SoCal is hardly a forest as others know it. It is mostly a mix of wild grasses, chaparral and scrub oak except along normally dry creeks. At higher elevations on the north (non-sunny) side of mountains real oak and pine forests can occur, and of course they burn too.
Reading about the fires makes me nostalgic. Some of the most vivid memories of my adolescence were watching big fires burn across the coast range mountains of the Los Padres National Forest which border the Ojai Valley on the north. The view was spectacular at night.
I lived in the rural valley for about 13 years and the hills seemed to burn off roughly every third year. Almost all fires were man-caused, usually accidents, as the region gets very little lightning and almost no thunder storms.
The news in LA and beyond always reported Ojai was burning, a gross exaggeration. Relatives would call to see if we were okay and we had to tell them the fire never came within 5 miles of our house.
A couple or three houses in the foothills would burn. We lived in the middle of an irrigated orange orchard, good luck with trying to burn that. I don't remember my folks complaining about the fire insurance costs so apparently the underwriters knew our risk was low, even if the press for its own reasons hyped it.
Anyway, it is part of living in California. There will be wildfires, mostly in late summer and autumn since it only rains in winter and early spring. Like earthquakes, it is the bitter that comes with the sweet of no snow and little humidity.
N.B., This story is not a part of the "California Death Spiral" series. Wildfires in CA are neither new nor do they interfere with the lives of most residents. They are inconvenient, costly and sometimes, as with the Camp fire, very dangerous to the minority of people who choose to live in high risk areas.
