I just walked outside and smoke from the California fires has rolled in for yet another day. I feel bad for those who have been burned out of their homes and forced to evacuate. I would like to say that I feel bad for the firefighters but, quite honestly, I do not. They have signed up for this job and they are getting paid good money to do this. I am aware that in most cased they are getting overtime and in some cases these fire fighter’s budget to get the big overtime checks. Budgeting to receive overtime fighting fires to me is wrong because they are banking on the destructive fires that require them to be on the fire lines for many days of long hours.
Back to the fires and I have mentioned this before if not in this blog but when speaking with others in my circle of acquaintances and friends. When I was young California rarely had conflagrations that pumped smoke into the part of the world that I live. If they did the fires were withing 50-60 miles and it made sense. But now the fires have gotten so large that fires can be more than 200 miles away and smoke billows into the valley where I live. What is different I ask? Is it that California has mismanaged their wildlands? Has California mismanaged the way they fight fires? Is there too much money to be made fighting fires that they are allowed to grow larger and larger so more money is required to be spent fighting the fires? Is it attributable to a larger population and so therefore the odds are higher now for a human caused fire? Is there another reason or reasons that I am just not aware of? What I do know is that not only is there property being lost and destroyed but that people are losing lives which is unacceptable.
This round of fires was predominately sparked by dry lightning which does not happen every year. I can accept lightning sparked fires as a sort of natural cause and something that has happened periodically long before recorded history. What bothers me is the fires happen every year and that is not natural. Dry lightning is not something that sparks these conflagrations every year which leaves the rest of the conflagrations being man caused. So, forgive me if I am a bit weary when a dry lightning year rolls around. Is the new normal to just expect smoke filled valleys every year? Am I cynical for thinking the firefighting industry expects these mega fires every year? Once again, I must check my cynical thoughts but as I said I am fire weary in addition to all the other reasons to be weary and cynical about this year.