"Southland Fires" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Southland Fires

The fires in Southern California have been captivating in a horrendous sort of way. Linda is from the area; she has friends and relatives throughout the fire zone. Including her mother, who moved backed to The Southland only last month, and yesterday had to evacuate together with her two dogs and a visiting sister and niece. They are camped at grand-daughter Denise’s house, waiting to see whether the new house will be standing when the flames are stopped.

The future rides on the Santa Ana winds, those notorious dry gales with gusts of 100 mph that sweep through parts of Southern California like the devil’s broom. Compounded by unseasonably hot temperatures approaching triple digits, the winds will take a spark and turn it into an inferno. Apparently, though, this latest conflagration had help; authorities believe it was started by an arsonist.

Now the fires burn anything in their path, as local residents and firefighters pray for less wind and higher humidity. If the forecasters have it right, those prayers won’t be answered anytime soon. They will suffer at least another day or two, as of this writing on Sunday morning, before the temperatures begin to moderate, and the winds slow down somewhat. Until then, they won’t know what will survive, watching through the smoke as the fickle flames hopscotch through neighborhoods, incinerating one home while avoiding the neighbor’s.

At least most people have gotten out of the way of the fires and the firefighting effort. Some stay late and hose down their homes, futilely, drawing on limited supplies of water. Two elderly people died of heart-attacks, an end no doubt brought on sooner by the fires, but such a figure is somewhat miraculous; a testament to the primitive intelligence of many residents, and the experience and training of the emergency services people.

Which brings me to another point. It is nigh impossible to control fires from the air during the high winds as they were experiencing. Small planes and helicopters simply can’t fly. And all planes have to be back on the ground by dusk. That means the fire has to be fought on the ground, and firefighters are being brought in from across California, and other states. Does it not strike anyone else as strange that we have 130,000 troops with guns in Iraq when we would be far better defended from real dangers if those people were here, trained to fight fires and deal with other domestic catastrophes?

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.