California Wildfires '07

(photo courtesy of Kevin Labianco @ Flickr)

Southern California is burning. The causes for most of the fires are still officially 'unknown', what got the party really going was a combination of dry foliage and heat (drought conditions) and strong hot winds from Santa Ana.

Look at where the wildfires are.

It has been confirmed that the Santiago Fire in Orange County (the closest one, incidentally, to yours truly) was caused by arson. CNN.com has an article about it here.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been visiting the residential areas affected by the fires, joined today by President Bush on a tour of a Rancho Bernardo neighbourhood. It seems that the federal government have learned from Hurricane Katrina, when turtles with full bellies could have outraced them to the stadium full of marooned people in New Orleans.

Detailed and regular reports of the wildfires can be found on Sign on San Diego Wildfires Blog.

Civilian death toll: 8
Firefighters injured: 40
Estimate of area that burned: 3,200 square km
No. of people evacuated: somewhere between 500,000 - 1,000,000

As for those of us further to the north but still close enough to get the by-products of a thousands of acres of woods going up in flames, here were my observations on Monday:

"The air smelled like ashes. Above, the sun shone orange-yellow, not unlike the middle bulb on a stoplight. Dryness and tiny debris made the throat burn and eyes sting. Walking in the open air left skin feeling like dust."

California is officially a "major disaster area". My uni is on Red Flag Alert, so no outdoor sports. But things seem to have calmed down a little. Or rather, we've gotten used to a sky that looks like it's made of dirty cotton balls, a glowy orange ball for a sun, and a feeling of surprise whenever we encounter a pocket of air that doesn't smell of smoke.

When all this dies down, the firefighters in this state should get one great big THANK YOU.