At 6:22 last Thursday evening, July 6, snowflakes of ash began falling in downtown Santa Barbara, thanks to one of the Central Coast’s recent wildfires, bathing everything — and everyone — in that sickly beautiful translucence that can only be generated by an inferno. As the sun went down, the moon rose — full, round, and a deep blood orange. Photographers rushed to capture the astonishing night sky. But for those of us who have witnessed years of vast wildland blazes rampaging throughout Southern California, such visual poetics have long lost their appeal. The “new normal” is too scary to be aesthetically savored. Not long ago, California had something known as a fire season. No more. “When veteran firefighters with 30 to 40 years’ experience looked at what’s been happening, they described it as ‘unprecedented,’” said Janet Upton, spokesperson for Cal Fire. “But after the same thing happens year after year, you really can’t call it ‘unprecedented’ anymore.” Hence the “new normal.”
From January 1-July 9, 2016, Cal Fire reported 2,270 fires on the more than 31 million acres for which it’s responsible. This year, there have been nearly 700 more; the burned acreage has more than doubled, jumping from 30,574 to 68,129. And that doesn’t count the number of fires blazing away on the 31 million acres controlled by the United States Forest Service. Year to date, California has experienced 3,449 forest fires consuming 92,439 acres. Little wonder, then, that when the Whittier Fire started near Lake Cachuma last week, there were already 35 other fires burning elsewhere in California — 14, including Whittier, of which have been deemed serious. The biggest is just up Highway 101, eight miles east of Santa Maria; that’s the Alamo Fire, which, at last count, has voraciously consumed nearly 30,000 acres. With so many fires raging, it’s no surprise that Whittier or Alamo couldn’t get the same resources — firefighters, engines, fixed-wing aircraft — that Santa Barbara got last year when we needed to put out the now all-but-forgotten Sherpa Fire.
Like its rainfall, California’s forest fires are part of a natural dynamic dating back millions of years: feast or famine, boom or bust. Even without human intervention, California cycles gravitate toward the extreme. But those extremes are growing. Climate change is a main suspect. Last year, for example, the National Academy of Sciences concluded in a published report that during the past 30 years climate change has doubled the amount of western United States acreage experiencing forest fires, and the landmass temperature of the country has risen 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The same study also concluded that climate change is not the only factor fueling the flames. During the past 100 years, forest fires — naturally occurring phenomena — have been ruthlessly extinguished throughout the same region, allowing a proliferation of biofuels just waiting to be ignited. Republicans in Congress have seized upon this latter interpretation as an excuse to open the forests up to logging interests. One such bill is now wending its way through Congress. Santa Barbara Congressmember Salud Carbajal, a Democrat, is opposing it.
