By William Corprew ’20, Staff Writer

On the night of October 8th, 2017, a devastating wildfire swept across the west coast, engulfing what is known as California’s wine country. According to the California Statewide Fire Summary, the wildfires have incinerated over 214,000 acres, caused over 40 deaths, and destroyed approximately 5,700 commercial and residential structures in just one week. This is one of the largest death tolls resulting from wildfires recorded in America’s history.

Eyewitnesses used terms like apocalyptic and war-zone to describe the smoke-filled air and smoldering debris left in the wildfire’s wake. Rescuers and cadaver dogs moved eerily about neighborhoods darkened by thick smog. Stone chimneys were often the only evidence that a house was ever present. Intense flames melted vehicles, and human remains were charred beyond recognition, forcing the medical examiner to seek dental records in order to identify those who had perished. Based on estimates released by the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, the California wildfires have produced as much pollution in a few days as normally emitted annually by one California motorist. Emergency rooms have reported a rise in the amount of patients with respiratory related illnesses during the week of the fire.

English teacher and trail maintenance coordinator Ms. Mahoney says, “I grew up in California’s Bay Area, where I witnessed wildfires burning in the hills during summers. My mother lives in Walnut Creek, 65 miles away from Santa Rosa, one of the town’s most brutally decimated by the current wildfires. Despite the significant distance between her town and the fire, her city was so consumed by smoke that they stayed indoors on the day after the Santa Rosa firestorm, and witnessed ash falling from the sky like light rain. The following day my mother emerged from her home with a mask in order to filter out the polluted air. The destructive reach of these horrific fires is unfathomable and difficult to measure.” The scope of the damage of the fire spreads much further than the site of the wildfires due to the excessive pollution.

A full week after the first fire was ignited, 11,000 firefighters were still trying to contain the flames. Although the exact cause of the wildfires remains unknown, investigators are crediting the size and scope of the fires to a toxic mix of environmental factors. The California Water Science Center, a research foundation focused on the water epidemic in California, attributes the fire to the protracted drought the state has experienced since 2011. Consequently, these extremely dry conditions provided more than ample fuel to feed the inferno. In addition, hurricane force winds spread the flames across the region. The National Weather Service recommended that wind patterns be used to predict the wildfire’s path. Wind pattern forecasting is significant because the high fatality rate has been attributed to two factors: the fires erupting at night while residents slept, and the lack of early evacuation orders for the citizens.

It is a fact that wildfires do occur naturally from conditions such as lightning, high temperatures, and low humidity. However, according to the U.S. National Park Service, 95 percent of wildfires are a result of direct or indirect human negligence. Unattended and partially extinguished campfires and improperly disposed waste in wooded areas are two leading causes for wildfires. In addition, arson and industrial damage, such as downed power lines, are secondary causes for forest fires.

Hopefully, the 2017 California wildfires will prompt a search for solutions and spark a debate about the developing wildfire epidemic. The trend of people moving into wooded areas could be reversed in order to minimize the need for power and gas lines in heavily forested environments. Paris Miller ‘19 says, “The responsibility for the preservation of forested areas basically falls on my generation. Protecting the environment isn’t something that I think about everyday but seeing the California wildfires on the news made me realize that we can’t take nature and the outdoors for granted. If we don’t rise to this challenge the great outdoors as we now know it will not exist.” Even residents of suburban communities can play a role when it comes to wildfire prevention. Ms Mahoney adds, “Routine trail maintenance on the NA Carol Heaney property entails various fire-prevention activities, like compressing loose brush and logs into the earth, minimizing the chance for a fire to ‘jump’ if it happened to move along the ground. Taking care of our trails with fire prevention in mind is a responsible approach to preserving our wooded areas in the present and for the future.”