Gray ash drifted from a turbid orange sky at the beginning of this week, reminding Southern California residents of the threatening flames enveloping the area.
Since breaking out Thursday, fires in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Orange and Riverside counties have traversed 41,000 acres, according to The Associated Press.
While Santa Ana winds dropped from gusts of 70 mph Saturday to 20 mph Sunday, The Associated Press also reported that the fires have destroyed more than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments, a fact which may leave UCLA students from these areas concerned about the safety of their homes and families.
Bianca Carrion, a second-year physical science student, returned home to Sylmar this weekend only to be evacuated by firefighters and police. The fire on the nearby mountain proceeded to threaten her street and burn a house four doors down from her own.
Carrion said that evacuating was stressful and chaotic. Her family left for the home of an aunt where a total of 15 people would live over the weekend after they were joined by other evacuated relatives. Crowds were also an issue as the number of people leaving Carrion’s neighborhood created major traffic through the community’s only exit.
The scene was hectic, Carrion said.
“Everyone looks frantic. How are you supposed to feel, when there’s the possibility of your house burning down?” she said.
Sylmar, located near the Angeles National Forest, was the birthplace of a fire that burnt 9,500 acres across Los Angeles County and was contained at 30 percent as of press time, according to Captain Tina Haro, Public Information Officer at the Los Angeles Fire Department.
In Santa Barbara County, a second fire that is suspected to have been caused by arson and began in Montecito burned 1,940 acres.
Flames in Orange and Riverside counties were, however, the most threatening of three major fire areas in Southern California, having burned more than 29,000 acres at a 40 percent containment level by press time, according to The Associated Press.
Neva Movahedi, a third-year philosophy student, spoke on the phone with his father after flames in the Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills area were, at one point, approximately 200 yards away from his house during the weekend.
“My family evacuated and my dad stayed behind to help hose,” Movahedi said.
Plans for Movahedi’s family’s evacuation, however, took a spin when the family whose home they were fleeing to was also ordered to vacate. Back in Movahedi’s own neighborhood, neighbors stood outside talking worriedly, waiting for updates from the police.
He said, “It was as under control as it could’ve been.”
This week’s flames have spread at a much quicker rate than the fires seen in Southern California last fall.
Ron Meyers, a firefighter at the LAFD, reported that last year’s fires were easier to maintain.
“None of them turned into large-scale fires such as this,” he said. “This year the fires are burning extremely fast, extremely hot, because of the high winds and humidity.”
Khaled Eib, a third-year political science student, had to evacuate last October when flames came within 25 feet of his Santa Clarita home.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d be coming back to my house or not,” he said.
While Eib’s family retreated to the home of relatives, he said that some in his community evacuated to a local high school during the two days that they were out of their homes.
“It was really limited information that they were letting out,” Eib said. “They didn’t have time to give a detailed report.”
Eib said community measures were later established to prevent future destruction by fire, such as clearing dry bush that covered the nearby mountain.
Jessica Hopkins, a second-year molecular cell and developmental biology student, said that fines for forest fires and fire hazard warnings in houses were implemented in Thousand Oaks after flames threatened her area in spring 2007.
She added that the protection of residential communities and the individual units within them is pivotal to people that have been through natural disasters like wildfires.
“Your house is everything,” she said. “You put your heart and soul and your life in your house.”
Students whose hometowns and families have been threatened by fire stress the importance of communities being united during such alarming crises.
Matt Masterson, a first-year undeclared student from Point Loma, said that the San Diego community came together in response to last October’s fires by fundraising and praying for those affected.
“Everyone really helped out. A lot of my friends went down and volunteered time and money,” he said.
Carrion, whose home in Sylmar was filled with smoke, debris and ashes this weekend, concluded that experiences such as the fires, which are threatening a handful of UCLA students’ homes and neighborhoods this week, should bring people closer together.
“When all your things are gone, what you have left is only each other,” she said. “Everything else we have, it doesn’t mean anything.”