Three fires in a month!

Finally, the gusty winds have died down and all is quiet - just the way I like it. The haziness has dissipated and there was only a slight hint of smoke in the air when we drove into Los Angeles last Sunday for breakfast at the Breadbar in the Century City Westfield Mall. There was one day last week when the dry gusty winds actually felt hot and the non-stop howling was most unsettling. It is amazing how the weather affects our mood!

I did not check this morning but as of last night, most of the fire to the south and north of us are contained and thankfully there is no longer any threat to homes. More than 600 homes and structures were lost in the last week to the fires in Montecito and in Los Angeles area. Last month, there was a big fire at the Sepulveda Pass that burned very close to some beautiful homes up on a ridge. I gaze up at those homes every Sunday when we drive to Century City for our Sunday breakfast. I can't help but wonder how the homeowners must have felt. It appears they have only one way in and out of that ridge and judging from the burnt area which covers most of the slope, it must be a very intense experience.

Here in California, many homes are built on top of ridges for the view and often in the canyons for a sense of quiet and away from it all. Much of the hillsides are covered with brush and many areas are inaccessible by foot. So, when we get the dry gusty winds, a small fire or flying amber can easily result in thousands of acres being burnt and hundreds of homes lost. That is the risk we all take when we build our homes on ridges and in canyons.

Because of the fire risk, new codes were placed on new homes which require fire sprinkler systems installed in homes over 5,000 square feet and most people now use roof tiles and other fire retardant material for their roofs. There is also a requirement to clear some 20 feet around a house in high fire risk areas. But when we have the high powered winds and when ambers are carried away from their origin to miles away, sometimes 20 feet is just not enough. Sometimes, we have such steep slopes behind homes which makes it not only difficult to clear but difficult to maintain as well.

We get additional problems whenever large areas are lost to fire, the raining season that follows in the winter brings with it potential for landslides especially on steep slopes of burnt area and where there is not enough time for new vegetation to take root.

La Conchita landslide in 1995

In 1995, we had so much rain that it resulted in a huge landslide in La Conchita. There was no burn in the area, just so much rain that the earth could not absorb another drop. Imagine if that hillslope had been burnt - it would be turned into sludge rather quickly. On the other hand, because there was no burn, there was no way the little community at the bottom could know that a landslide was waiting to happen. They were caught totally unexpected. Fortunately, the hillside tumbled down during the day when most residents were out and about, at work or in school. It is a sight to behold when you drive pass it on the 101, especially with the little community at the bottom of that hillside. You can still see the gapping hole when you drive towards Santa Barbara from the south.

As a little girl, I used to read the newspaper first thing in the morning and quite often the front page is splashed with news of disasters in the United States, I used to wonder why they are so proned to disasters. They have fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, landslides and they fight wars overseas, they seemed to be always plague with one disaster or problem after another. It did not dawn on me at that tender age that it is because this United States is a physically big, really big country. It is easy to forget how vast this United States is.

I remember in the early years of my living in this United States, while I was at the hairdresser - the hairdressers here usually try to find something to talk about while doing your hair - I don't remember how the topic came about but she asked me what I would take if there was a fire. I couldn't give her an answer because that thought never crossed my mind. I asked what she would take - she said without hesitation - as many of her photo albums as she could carry.

Her answer makes a lot of sense because everything we have can be duplicated - almost all documents can be replaced, money lost can be earned again but you can't go back to age 10, 15, 20, whatever and recapture that moment in time. Unless you managed to save the negatives since most photos are developed from negatives in the old days - you'd have absolutely no way to replace them short of another family member or friend having a duplicate of the photos.

Thank goodness for the digital age and digital camera - now we can store our photos in CDs which makes it more practical to carry than bulky albums or we can set up an account with some remote storage service on the internet. Now, there is a way to safeguard our precious pictorial memories. Which is why it is on my to-do list to get my local photoshop, a very nice Korean lady, to transfer all the photos I have from negative to CD and I need to research for a safe and secure place on the internet to "park" all the photos I have.

I think everyone should have a small bag packed with basic personal essentials, important documents and some irreplaceable sentimental items and keep it in an easily accessible place for times of emergency. In a crisis, we do not have time to think and we would not be able to think straight either. Therefore, being prepared makes absolute sense and let's hope we never have to make a dash for that bag, ever!

I watched the fire coverage over the last weekend and my heart goes to those who lost their homes. How heartbreaking it must be to have to leave everything behind in a hurry and return to find smouldering ashes where your home once stood.

There were some wonderful stories of neighbors helping to save other neighbors' home after seeing their own home go up in flames and to learn that the firefighters do go into burning homes where possible to rescue certain precious items for e.g. a firefighter managed to save a wedding album and a wedding ring he found on a shelf in a burning house - bringing some comfort to a family who was forced to evacuate in a hurry. A teddy bear given to a then young English boy in 1945 by his mother survived the fire. As always, the firefighters did a wonderful job! Many thanks!

Then, we have other stories like Oprah's dogs checking into the Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara when the Montecito fire started. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "It's a doggy dog life."

Four Seasons Hotel, Santa Barbara