The Hills of L.A. Are Burning

It's that lovely time of year here known as fire season. The weather dries out, warms up, and the Santa Ana winds blow everything all over the place. The humidity drops really low and there is a sort of electricity in the air that makes you feel like you could spontaneously combust at any moment. The humidity at this time of year is usually below 15%, which is why people might be surprised to know that despite our non-existent winters and warm weather, L.A. residents are actually some of the first in the country to drag out the good old humidifier. Apparently bodies, computers and wildbrush need to be between 30-55% humidity or things dry out and blow up. This is nothing new to residents here; we get these winds every year and along with them come the seasonal wildfires.

The fires are usually bad every year in some way or another, but every few years it gets really bad in L.A. County and it looks like 2007 might be one of those years. Parts of the Malibu Hills began burning last night; the fire spread across about 1200 acres and today at 4 PM the fire was still described as zero percent contained. Flames were reportedly jumping the Pacific Coast Highway, which obviously had to be shut down. The Malibu Presbyterian Church and the Kashan Castle both burned to the ground (the 2nd picture is the church). Pepperdine and many other areas of Malibu were evacuated last night and many residents of Malibu are still wandering around in bathrobes trying to figure out what to do and where to go. In the northern hills of the San Fernando Valley, along I-5, there are more than 10,000 acres on fire in Agua Dulce and Canyon Country. I feel rather fortunate right now to live on along the southern hills of the valley right now...

The thing that most people don't know about wildfires is that they are actually very good for enriching soil and they also help prevent the brush overgrowth that can actually lead to stronger and less easily controlled fires. There's a delicate balance here of needing enough rain not to be at risk for fire without having so much rain that things overgrow, because then there is just that much more fodder to burn during the next fire season.

It's a weird balance to try to understand, and I'm not 100% certain that it's compatible with human life in this area. Los Angeles is after all a desert and the main reason people can live here is only thanks to the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River. People have hoped for decades that Los Angeles would burn and my husband and I have lately been joking that as long as we're out of town, we're OK with that. Thanks for being out of town tonight without me, honey :).

At any rate, I really feel for the unfortunate people who have lost their homes or who are in danger of having their homes burn...how scary to watch that happen, or worse - to come "home" and your home isn't there anymore. I'm grateful to have sat on my lazy bum in my home all day today!