I step out onto the porch of my cousin’s home in San Jose, California and immediately squint my eyes and pinch my nose. The air has turned a sickly gray color due to the smoke from a forest fire just 15 miles away, and I flinch as the hot air touches my skin for the first time. I return inside only to find out that this weather is actually quite common for the bay area valley where my cousin and her family live. A few days later, all of us drove four hours east to visit Yosemite National Park. As we entered the park, a fire-danger meter pointed to a high risk for the day. Despite this news, the trails were as packed as ever, with popular attractions such as Nevada Falls and Half-Dome bringing in visitors from all over the country, and showing that though wildfires have become dangerously abundant, they are also surprisingly normal.
A recent fire in Los Angeles confirmed that this year’s fire season had begun and would be one of the most dangerous yet. After many years of drought, California has become a dry and arid landscape with little to no vegetation, making it highly prone to combustion. Key factors including the climate, human contributions (haha gender reveals), and strong gusts known as the Santa Ana winds have all contributed to making this year’s fire forecast especially deadly.
Fires have been burning across the state for years, but what have California lawmakers been doing to prevent this crisis from getting worse? Solutions included prescribed fire (weird, right?) have been proven successful for increasing the resilience of forests and reducing the severity of fires. Besides this, as well as the requirement for citizens to rid their properties of flammable vegetation and fire safety measures, nothing more can be done to prevent this natural disaster. Local and national organizations have been pushing legislation to improve upon their action plan towards fighting fires, which was put on the backburner due to the pandemic. However, steps can be taken to ensure that citizens are prepared to live in a state where fires are commonplace, and to make the state as safe as possible.
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