Los Angeles is a topographical wonderland. Mountains loom in the distance. Hillsides and canyons provide refuge for hikers and dog walkers. Beaches and cliffs high above the coastline beckon. We have woven highways, neighborhoods, and streets into this natural environment, creating a place where nature and the city are fused. We are the only major city in the world where mountain lions roam the streets. Only Mumbai and its leopards can be compared. Here, mountain lions mostly hide during the day, but come out at night and have been caught on doorbell camera footage sneaking into backyards and jumping over fences.
We plumbed and electrified the Los Angeles wilderness. But we haven’t tamed it. How could you? To live here, we enter into an uneasy conflict with nature, rather than entering into a contract with it. We know that earthquakes happen – there are a lot of faults in the ground – but as an afterthought we tell ourselves it’s a high-risk, low-probability event. It allows us to sleep at night, perhaps with a false sense of security in the roof over our heads.
And while we know that wildfires occur, they tend to be contained relatively quickly and in areas where foothills and underbrush are poorly managed, where homeowners haven’t logged trees or where ravenous goats are We believe it occurs in areas where munching has not occurred.
we were wrong.
A combination of not having had much rain since May (not counting the drizzle that fell on my car window on Christmas Eve) and an unusually bad event of unrelenting hurricane-like storms led to the Pacific Ocean raining on Tuesday. The fire may have started in Palisades’ backyard. In the morning, an unimaginable inferno descended upon the area, mowing down entire coastal areas within minutes. A fire then exploded in Altadena, wiping out the neighborhood. The next day, the Palisades Fire destroyed thousands of acres and had 0% containment.
By the end of the week, six fires were burning across Los Angeles County, burning large parts of the Palisades and Altadena, as well as Malibu, the San Fernando Valley, and areas of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills near the Ventura county line. People lost their homes, and we all lost Will Rogers’ historic ranch home, part of the Will Rogers State Historic Park in the Palisades. Fire passed through everything. Black smoke billowed east toward the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, and flames reached the grounds of the famous Getty Villa, which houses priceless antiques. Both have survived so far, with the Getty Villa no doubt helped by brush clearing and fireproof construction.
What happened last week upended all our assumptions about Los Angeles’ truce with Mother Nature. It was a mistake to think that our infrastructure was enough to save us from this hell.
I’ve lived here for over 30 years and have survived fires. But like any other Angeleno, I knew all along that it could happen. There have been so many fires while I’ve been here that I sometimes wonder if Los Angeles will be destroyed more quickly by fire than by the big earthquake we should be preparing for.
I live next to a eucalyptus grove that is highly flammable. The beauty outside my window is a big part of why I chose to live here. A friend named it “Tree House”. Every time the trees sway violently in the dry wind, I get frantically worried and look for signs of fire.
The wildfire that scorched the hillside above where I live never came down in my neighborhood. But I have heard police driving down that street at 3 a.m., telling people to evacuate.
On Thursday afternoon, as I was writing this article, an emergency alert for evacuation was received in my area. I started packing in a hurry. How do you choose the most valuable items to pack in your bag for a few nights? Before I could throw in a few things, my cell phone rang again. The evacuation advisory was a false alarm. I felt relieved. But perhaps my panic was more appropriate and the relief was a return to denial that allows me to get through everyday life in this dangerous place.
Angelenos are outraged by faulty emergency alert systems, but they are just a few of the problems highlighted by the blaze. Overwhelmed by huge demand, fire hydrants in the Palisades’ hills have dried up, especially after strong winds stopped aircraft dropping water drops in some locations. City officials say the cause is a lack of pressure to move the water. Should the city retrofit its fire hydrant system? This may seem to work fine if there are only a few buildings on fire, but should the hydrant system be retrofitted? Or was this just a once-in-a-generation fire that drained the city’s water system?
I have other questions. People have criticized Mayor Karen Bass for being out of the country during Tuesday’s fire and for cutting the fire department’s budget, but city administrators ultimately said the budget will increase overall and increase firefighting capacity. states that it had no effect.
The bus was clearly unable to stop the fire. (She is not Moses.) But what she must do now is follow through on her promise to help people rebuild positively. “The red tape, the bureaucracy, it all has to go,” she said Friday. It serves all of us. To make a living in this wilderness, we need all the help we can get.
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