For fourth-year American literature and culture student Rebecca
Buel, brush fires have become a yearly threat to her home.
Just days ago, Buel and her family watched from their Simi
Valley house as fires raged in the nearby hills. They even prepared
to evacuate in case the fire came closer.
“We could see the flames, and we kind of started packing
up,” she said.
And it was not the first time.
Fires rage through Southern California brush each fall, as they
have done “since the beginning of time,” said Brian
Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Christina Bussing, a first-year business economics student,
compared the yearly fires to California earthquakes ““ a
threat that is always present and one that residents prepare for,
but not one that occupies her daily thoughts.
“It’s just like living in California with the
earthquakes ““ you just learn to expect it at that time of
year,” she said.
Just as many people across the state store nonperishable foods,
flashlights and battery-operated radios to prepare for an
earthquake, Bussing said her family keeps brush and other
flammables out of the backyard.
But even though these fires may be predictable,
“it’s still really scary,” Buel said.
Fortunately for Buel, the fires stopped advancing and turned
away from her home, as they have done in the past.
Humphrey said the most recent fires, which broke out on Sept.
28, have burned more than 24,000 acres of land, and thousands of
firefighters have come out to fight the blaze.
About 1,200 people were evacuated from their homes on Friday,
and Humphrey said the fire department has spent $8 million fighting
the fire.
Though the fire has blazed for days, Humphrey said there have
been no deaths or serious injuries reported, and there has been
relatively little structural damage.
As of Sunday evening, three residences and two commercial
buildings had been destroyed.
The fire was 65 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon and,
“Mother Nature willing,” will be fully contained by
this evening, Humphrey said.
But the fire season is not likely to end with the successful
containment of the most recent blazes.
“The season’s very young still. … We certainly
expect more fires to come,” Humphrey said.
Students from areas that are regularly threatened by fire have
seen past fires near their houses, and now watch from Westwood as
their old homes are endangered.
As each summer comes to a close, Buel knows the threat of
another fire could be just around the corner.
“As you kind of watch the weather get hot and it’s
more dry, it’s really scary,” she said.
After months of dry heat during the summer, the fields of brush
are easily susceptible to fires. Most start with accidents, but the
cause of the most recent fire has not yet been determined, Humphrey
said.
The Santa Ana winds fanned the flames, causing the fire to grow
and spread, he added.
The rains toward the end of fall typically bring fire season to
an end.
Though she and her family did not have to evacuate, Buel said
she has friends and neighbors who did have to leave their
homes.
And she said watching friends leave their homes and seeing
uncontrolled flames in the distance can be a jarring
experience.
More than just instilling the fear that her house could be
destroyed, the fires made her see how much her life revolved around
her possessions.
“You look around and you’re like “˜Wow, I have
so much stuff that could be gone in a second,'” Buel
said. “It definitely makes you realize how much emphasis you
put on materials.”
In Westwood, about 50 miles away from the largest blazes, the
air was thick with smoke Thursday evening.
Buel, who no longer lives in her parents’ home in Simi
Valley, said she went to visit her parents in the area twice during
the days that the recent fires threatened the area.
At her parents’ home, much closer to the fires, Buel said
“ash (was) raining down … like snow.”