A week after smoke enveloped the Bay Area (see story below), fires are still raging in Northern California. Actually, it’s still getting worse. One news station reported there are almost 30 major fires and a seemingly endless number of smaller fires. Oddly enough, while fires already raging didn’t see a drop of rain water, new fires were caused by lightning strikes.
The worst part is that resources are stretched very thin so that fires have to be put into categories depending on severity. As a result, many smaller fires cannot be contained simply because the manpower isn’t there. And while I understand the necessity for this, it is still shocking. I cannot even imagine how homeowners must feel who have to leave their houses and who may loose their houses only because the resources are just too limited.
Most of us only hear about the fires on TV, we shake our heads and we are glad that we are not affected beyond the occasional smoke clouds drifting through. But this weekend while taking a trip to Highway 1, we got to see some of the devastation firsthand. While going South on Hwy 101, we saw huge smoke clouds and even flames coming out of the Santa Cruz Mountains West of Morgan Hill and Gilroy. We had to take a detour to Watsonville because of road closures due to fires. We had to turn around on Highway 1 because of the fire South of Big Sur. And finally, while heading North on Highway 1, we went past the area where someone is suspected of having deliberately set fires. There were burnt down structures and cars. Why would someone deliberately start fires with all of this going on?
A look at the map shows just how desperate the situation has become and Summer has just begun. I don’t even want to imagine how the rest of the Summer (and year) is going to be like…
