Comment: Wildfires are coming with the sewage that is drawing us to Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a topographical wonderland. The mountains are in the distance. Hillsides and canyons are a haven for hikers and dog walkers. The beaches and bluffs above the coast are attractive. In this wilderness we have connected the places where we live and the roads, not to mention the highways, making it a mixture of forest and urban areas. We are the only major city in the world with mountain lions roaming the streets; Only Mumbai and its tigers can even compare. Here, mountain lions hide mostly during the day but come out at night, captured on video by doorbell cameras sneaking through yards and jumping fences.

We plumbed and electrified the Los Angeles wilderness. But we didn’t control it. How could we do that? Living here, we are not making a pact with nature as much as we are reaching a disagreement with it. We know there will be earthquakes – the world is full of fault lines – but we back off and tell ourselves that the higher the risk, the less likely the events are. That allows us to sleep at night, perhaps with a false sense of security in the roof over our heads.

And we know there are going to be wildfires, but we think they’re going to die down quickly and happen in the foothills and in areas with poorly managed underbrush – areas that homeowners haven’t cleared or ravenous goats haven’t been sent to eat.

We were wrong.

An unusually bad confluence of events – no big rain since then May (dripping on your car window on Christmas Eve didn’t count) and a powerful hurricane-like gust of wind — blew a fire that may have started in a backyard in Pacific Palisades Tuesday morning into a mysterious hot spot that washed branches off the coast. community within minutes. Then a fire broke out in Altadena, destroying the neighbors. A day later, the Palisades fire has destroyed thousands of acres, with 0% containment.

By the end of the week, six fires had burned across Los Angeles County, not only the Palisades and much of Altadena but areas of Malibu, the San Fernando Valley, LA near the Ventura County border, and the Hollywood Hills. People lost their homes, and we all lost the historic Will Rogers Farm, part of the Will Rogers State Historic Park in the Palisades. The fire went through everything. Black smoke billows towards the historic center of Mt. Wilson Observatory to the east and flames reached the grounds of the legendary Getty Villa, which houses priceless antiquities. Both have survived to this day, and the Getty Villa no doubt helped with brush removal and fireproof construction.

What happened this past week raised all of our concerns about our deal with Los Angeles. We made a mistake when we thought that our infrastructure was enough to save us from this disaster.

I have lived here for over 30 years and have never been burned. But like other Angelenos, I always knew it was coming. There have been so many fires while I’ve been here that sometimes I think Los Angeles will be destroyed by fire faster than the big earthquake we have to prepare for.

I live near a forest of tall cypress trees, which are very flammable. Their beauty outside my windows is a big part of why I chose to live here – “my treehouse,” a friend named it. Whenever the trees move violently in the dry air, I become very concerned and check them for any signs of fire.

The wildfires that burned the hills above where I live have never come down to us. But I have heard the police driving down those streets at 3 in the morning telling people to get out.

I was writing this piece on Thursday afternoon when I received an emergency evacuation warning in my area. Confused, I started packing. How do you choose your valuables to pack in a few sleeping bags? Before I could throw more than a few things, my phone rang again. The evacuation alert was a false alarm. I was relieved – but maybe my panic was too much for me, and the relief was a return to the denial that makes it possible to live our daily lives in this dangerous place.

Angelenos are upset about the emergency emergency warning system, but that’s the least of the issues this disaster has revealed. Overwhelmed by high demand — especially with water-dropping planes grounded by high winds in certain areas — fire hydrants in the high Palisades have run dry. Lack of pressure to move water is the cause, city officials said. Should the city overhaul the hydrant system, which seems to work well when there are few buildings on fire? Or was this just a once-in-a-lifetime fire that destroyed the city’s water system?

There are other questions. People criticized Mayor Karen Bass for going out of state when the fire started on Tuesday and for cutting the Fire Department’s budget, although the city official said the budget has been increased and nothing has affected the ability to put out the fire.

It is clear that Bass would not have been able to stop the fire. (He is not Moses.) But what he must do now is follow through on his promise to help his people rebuild violently. “The red tape, the bureaucracy – it all has to go,” Friday said. That is something that will help us all. To survive in this wilderness, we need all the help we can get.