As Wildfire Season Rages, Whats Unnatural in California Is Californians

As Wildfire Season Rages, Whats Unnatural in California Is Californians
As Wildfire Season Rages, What's Unnatural in California Is Californians
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  • Parts of major highways in California were closed earlier this week amid fires and evacuations, including the essential 101 and 405 freeways.
  • As videos posted on social media illustrate, the fires were coming right up to roadside.
  • Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that there are about 330 fires currently burning in the state of California.

    California, if you don't mind paying $4.50 a gallon for gas, is a great place to live when it's not trying to kill you.

    But whenever California bursts into flames, as it is prone to do, our first thoughts and most sincere prayers turn to how this impacts celebrities. Then, after we're sure our supply of sitcom stars, Lakers, and former governors has been safely evacuated, Californians' attention turns to our second obsession: traffic.

    Southern California

    Southern California's freeways frame the culture here to the degree that each gets a definite article when being discussed. It's not "Interstate 5"; it's always "the 5." Shutting down a freeway here is like blocking the Mississippi somewhere in Missouri, filling in the Panama Canal, or turning off the internet. Serious stuff. And yesterday, the "Getty Fire" grew so serious that the busiest of them all, the 405, was partially closed at the Sepulveda Pass.

    In fact, the fire was burning right down to the 405's edge.

    The 405 through the Sepulveda Pass is the main conduit between the San Fernando Valley and the city of Los Angeles on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains. It's the freeway that divides the very prosperous West Side from the rest of merely prosperous and not so prosperous L.A. And it's the freeway most people use to get to Los Angeles International Airport. About 330,000 cars traverse it every day, and it's always crammed. Losing the 110 or 101 would suck, but losing the 405 is like having the aorta ripped out of SoCal's chest.

    As I'm writing this on Monday night, the 405 is back open, and traffic is sort of flowing through the Pass. But parallel surface streets like Sepulveda Boulevard are still shut down, and that’s forcing more traffic onto the freeway. Nothing is moving very quickly, but it's moving.

    Fortunately, the winds have died down, and the Getty Fire stalled at about 618 acres. All those acres are west of the 405, and while at last report eight homes have burned, landmarks like the Getty Museum, from which the fire took its name, haven't been touched. Don’t worry, LeBron James's house hasn't burned.

    Meanwhile out in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles along the 5, the area has suffered as the "Tick Fire" has burned more than 4600 acres and, according to KABC-TV, at least 22 structures. Fortunately, it’s more than 70 percent contained as Monday turns into Tuesday. But no freeways have closed because of it, and there are no celebrities there to evacuate.

    Northern California

    Southern California has the reputation of having bad traffic, but you haven't really experienced gridlock until you've been stuck on the 101 freeway between San Jose and San Francisco during rush hour. Northern California has traffic as hard core as the south but won't admit it. And right now, fed by insanely high winds, the Kincade Fire is ripping it apart.

    The Kincade Fire is enormous. Fire authorities report it has burned more than 73,000 acres, destroyed 123 structures (12 of which were homes), and is only 15 percent contained. But the Kincade is burning mostly in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. Sonoma has people living in it, but it's nowhere near as densely populated as Los Angeles County.

    While parts of the 101 running through Sonoma were closed over the weekend, by noon Monday all of it was open. It’s Sonoma's main traffic artery, but it just doesn’t have the scale of the 405.

    Brush fires along the 80 freeway south of Vallejo have produced some of the most dramatic video as the flames approached and threatened the Carquinez Bridge.

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    The bridge was closed for a while but has reopened as thousands of people are evacuated from their homes. It’s not clear if the bridge is still collecting tolls.

    Meanwhile, anticipation of high winds on Tuesday have the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) utility to tell its customers to expect power outages intended to minimize the risk of triggering even more fires.

    If there's one common delusion all us Californians share, it's that these fires are somehow unnatural. In fact, California's various ecosystems have evolved around regular brush and forest fires to that clear out old growth and allow for renewal. Much of the state’s native vegetation is fast growing, and scorched lands can recover very quickly.

    There are, according to California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, about 330 fires currently burning in the state. That’s bad, but it’s hardly unprecedented.

    What’s unnatural in California is Californians. There are almost 40 million people here living in a highly technological culture that needs electricity, roads, cars, and a million other things to function well.

    The fires aren’t getting in the way of traffic as much as traffic is one more thing getting in the way.

    Source:caranddriver.com