The Latest Wildfires

Watching our usual morning news whilst eating our breakfasts, my husband and I stopped what we were doing and stared at our television. Were we looking at pictures of a warzone? Was it a bombsite? No, the pictures were showing the complete devastation left by the wildfires in Los Angeles, California, in America.

Fueled by powerful winds and extremely dry conditions, these fires started on Tuesday, wiping out thousands of homes and businesses, and killing 16 people. Hundreds of thousands of people, families, older folk and businesses have had to evacuate in order to survive the scorching flames, which the firefighting teams are trying to bring under control.

But who can control Mother Nature?

An estimate by an American insurance company of the homes lost could top $10 billion or £8.1 billion.

Several landmarks have been destroyed, with others being evacuated. The Capitol Records building, the TCL Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame being just 3 mentioned in the news to be evacuated.

Fire chiefs are calling these wildfires a “tragic” chapter for the city.

These fires are not just in one area, which would make them much easier to control, but, according to Friday’s news, there are 5 fires spreading over several areas => Lidia, Hurst, Kenneth, Eaton and the Palisades.

The wind speeds of up to 100mph have worked to spread the raging flames, while the lack of humidity in the air and the patches of dry vegetation have made the ground flammable.

It’s interesting that Gavin Newson, who is the governor of California, has said that fire season is now “year-round in the state of California”. It is unusual for a fire to start at this time of the year showing us how much climate change is starting to affect our planet Earth. The President of America, Joe Biden, has said that he is “surging every federal resource possible” to tackle the wildfires. These resources include hundreds of federal firefighters, 30 firefighting helicopters and planes, and 500 military ground-clearing personnel. They are certainly giving these wildfires ‘a good fight’!

Although the dry weather is expected to continue, thankfully the winds are dropping, and there is hope that these wildfires are dropping, and there is hope that they will be put out ‘very soon’. Seeing the extent of them, it is a miracle that more people have not died, but that is still 16 people who have died, 16 souls who belonged to loved ones.

Watching the news again this morning, local residents who were allowed to go back to their homes because it was safe to do so, mostly went back to a completely destroyed and flattened house. But even as they looked around an empty ‘hole’, these residents all said the same thing: “We will rebuild Stronger and Safer homes, and we will come through this a much Stronger Community!"

These wildfires are taking a very real toll on the local residents. Their whole lives have literally gone up in smoke and I cannot imagine what that feels like. But they are so strong! Expecting to see them crying and moaning, instead I see them looking Mother Nature in the eye and saying: "We will carry on, learn from the experience and do better next time!" I appreciate they have wildfires and have prepared and put things into place, but this one has got to be the biggest and the worst in their history. A shout out to the authorities who obviously were very well prepared, even for such a devastating experience.

Rather then get into the 'how can we avoid these from happening' and 'climate change', both of which are important, I wanted to write about the "Human Side". It seems that these people are good examples for the rest of the world, that no matter what happens, (and what can be worse than loosing your whole home), they will still carry on, fighting and building their futures. As long as they have their "lives", these people will never give in. I'm not questioning the mental and emotional toll these wildfires have already taken, but these local residents will not let 'that' get in the way of creating a happier and stronger future.

It is good to see the rest of the country (America) sending help, coming to the aid of their fellow Americans.

True, we did have the Great Fire of London in 1666 but it was a different time and completely different world. All we humans can do is learn from the past and move on into the future.

But still, I admire these very strong people their determination to never let anything or anyone stop them from living, not even Mother Nature can stop them!