California — San Diego and the Fires

The deserts were becoming uncomfortably hot, and in accordance with out trip policy — go where the weather is likely to be nice — we headed for the ocean. We spent the night in a state park campground right on the beach north of San Diego. Next day was Sunday and I visited the UU fellowship I'd belonged to, back when I lived in this area. It had changed — new buildings built, old buildings remodeled, new minister, new faces. I chatted with the few people I could find who remembered me from back then.

The weather was gorgeous, bright and sunny with winds from the east. But by late afternoon we noticed smoke blowing in the air, and a phone call from a friend prompted us to listen to the news on the radio. Two wildfires had broken out and were growing, but they were so far away (dozens of miles to the east) that I wasn't worried and went to bed.

By next morning, the situation was very different. The air was thick with smoke, nearly blotting out the sun. Now the news said that new fires were burning, one of them just miles from us, and the strong easterly winds were blowing it in our direction! Yikes! Surely, though, we would be safe at the beach? Maybe not — the news said that the fire might be unstoppable until it reached the ocean. Then came the order to evacuate. We wasted no time in packing up and leaving. The campground, full the night before, was quickly emptying. We got on the road and headed north, away from the fires. We were fortunate that the freeway, Interstate 5, was moving smoothly, and by afternoon we were far from San Diego county and all the fires burning there.

We spent the night at a state park campground in Huntington Beach, in the Los Angeles area. We spoke with others in the campground and it turned out that they, too, were refugees from the San Diego area. That location worked fine for a day, but then the air became smoky again, this time from new fires in Orange and LA counties (more than a dozen altogether). We weren't afraid of the fires, but we didn't want to breathe smoky air — very bad for the lungs — so once again we traveled north, stopping for the night north of Santa Barbara and moving the next day to the coast at Pismo Beach.

Fires like these are no stranger to Southern California. Vegetation is dry and very flammable, even more so because of the extended drought here in the west. The hot, dry winds — locals call them Santa Ana — blow from the east with gusts to 60 mph, fanning the fire and blowing it forward faster than fire fighters can stop it.

I'm reminded that decades ago, Minnesota suffered similar wildfires — for example, the Hinkley fire if 1894. Circumstances were similar: Prolonged drought making vegetation very dry and flammable, and strong, strong dry winds fanning the fire to burn hot and spread rapidly.

It is a humbling experience to flee the fury of nature, when, as Garrison Keillor has said, "Nature is making a serious attempt to kill you."