When i was growing up our town had a volunteer fire department. Volunteers were summoned by a blaring siren that could be heard throughout the town. One day when we were at school we heard the siren, then we heard it again, calling for more volunteers. It repeated several more times and everyone, including our teacher began to get concerned. Not long afterward the principal came into our classroom and conferred with our teacher and shortly after that it was announced that there was a wildfire rushing toward our town. There were lots of firefighters working on the fire and it still was a ways from town, but we would be released from school early. We were instructed to go directly home and not delay. Students who rode buses to school would be given instructions by their bus driver.

I could see the smoke clouds rising from the hills above town as I ran the block from the school to our house. It looked to me like the fire was near the airport. I was worried because our family businesses included the operation of the airport. We had airplanes in the hangers up there. My mother tried to reassure us that everything would work out, but we could see that she was worried. Our father was somewhere up on the hill helping with the firefighters.

As it turned out, the fire, driven by winds that reached 40 to 50 miles per hour, raced across the prairie and grasslands west of town. It had started near one of the roads, but was between the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers and burning towards their confluence. Our town was in the path of the fire, but fire lines were drawn, a back fire successfully removed the fuel from the path of the fire and it was contained and controlled before it reached the airport buildings. The fire burned in an area of relatively low fuel load. It was early in the year and the grass had been grazed. Though the snow had melted, the grass had not yet grown high. The winds drove the fire quickly, but there was not much to burn, keeping the flames low and easier to control.
There were several minor injuries, but no fatalities. A few sheds, a lot of fence posts, some power poles and a couple of old vehicles were burned. A bulldozer belonging to my father’s company was operating too close to the fire line and the operator was forced to turn into the fire, but it passed quickly without damaging the operator and was able to keep working. The fire passed so quickly that the dozer did not even need new paint after the experience. Several fire fighters who knew what they were doing were able to run though the fire line and survive on the burned grass on the back side of the fire.

Even prior to that fire, I had learned to think of fire as an enemy. We were taught about fire safety and had an evacuation plan for our house should it ever catch on fire. Our father flew fire patrol over parts of two national forests and Yellowstone National Park. He had flown lead plane for smokejumpers and for planes that dropped water mixed with retardant on fires. In those days the community of aerial firefighters was relatively small. Once, when it was not on an actual firefighting mission, I got a ride in a Ford Trimotor airplane operated by Johnson Flying Service that was a jump plane for smoke jumpers. Firefighters were considered heroes and fire was an enemy to be fought. My father was proud of his 25-year record of flying fire patrol in which no fire spotted by his plane ever burned for more than 24 hours. Discover fires early and fight them aggressively was the plan.

Of course, we now know that it was a less than perfect plan. The huge fires of 1988 and 1989 in Yellowstone National Park burned more intensively because the fuel load was so high due to years of extinguishing fires that were part of the natural ecology of the park. Fire ecology was little understood. These days forest managers better understand the role of fire in healthy forests.

On the one hand, the out of control wildfires that are ripping across parts of Los Angeles are part of a natural cycle. The dry chaparral on the hillsides has burned in cycles for millennia. The dry Santa Anna winds drive flames rapidly. After the fires, the rain returns and the land that has been burned is vulnerable to mudslides. Fires and mudslides occurred long before those hills were heavily inhabited. However, there are some things that are unique about this year’s fires. Flames are burning in areas where they have been successfully controlled in previous years. the fuel load is particularly high because there have been several wet years in which the fuels could grow rapidly. Most importantly, the growth of the Los Angeles urban area means that the fires are burning in areas with a lot of buildings. Structure fires are different than wildfire in open and unpopulated areas. The demands on equipment and the use of urban infrastructure, especially pressurized water lines, are very different than wildfire in areas with fewer structures. With 179,000 residents under evacuation orders and an additional 200,000 under evacuation warning, traffic management is a unique dynamic challenging firefighters and emergency managers. At least ten persons have died. Looting and theft is occurring in evacuated neighborhoods. At least one of the fires was caused by arson.

But there is even more to these fires. In general in previous years, fire season ran from May to October. Earlier fires, like this year’s firestorms, are relatively recent. However, conditions have become such that there is no real fire season in that part of the country any more. Fire season is all year round. Weather extremes, including increased temperatures, extended drought, and changes in the distribution of airborne moisture into atmospheric rivers has resulted in increase risk and larger wildfires all across the Western United States.

The cost will be high. Over 10,000 structures have burned. Insured losses are expected to be above $8 billion. These are expensive properties that have burned and it will have a large impact on insurance costs across the region.

Despite what some are saying, there is nothing normal about these fires. For now we watch from a distance, but we know that we are all in this together and even though we live far away these fires will have an impact on our lives.