2025 is off to a dynamic start in Los Angeles with two huge wildfires and several smaller ones. I've never lived so closed to one before. I've been through hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and now this. How does it compare? With hurricanes, they can remain unpredictable in their course until the last minute, but once they hit, you hold on and it's over. Tornadoes are super random, but they're also a one-and-done deal. Earthquakes at least you have to worry about aftershocks or even if the big one you felt was a pre-shock (something I learned in 2019). So with these fires and the wind continuing to be of the Santa Ana variety, it's most like the earthquakes, the feeling of being in a holding pattern, on edge and waiting for the next installment.
I've heard wildfires spread fast, so on Tuesday night as the Hurst and Eaton fires were growing, I packed and made the decision to go to a friend's house more in the middle of the valley. I stayed there for two nights. Everything was fine at my house, and the wind had the Hurst Fire going more west, and the Eaton Fire was staying in place. The wind continues, but I'm home now and considering unpacking.

The Palisades Fire continues to be the biggest pain for firefighters and the populace. I think as I write this, it's only 11% contained, and this is the sixth day. On that Tuesday, two parents called the Hebrew school where I work, asking if school would be cancelled because of the wind. At the time, in my head I was flippant about it (I'm always professional on the phone of course). But then my coworkers and I watched the smoke grow to the south, and it hasn't gone away all week. That Tuesday, 1/7 was the start of the wildfires.
I naively wondered how the fire department allocated planes for all of these fires; how do they hold some back for "just in case?" Turns out, a ton of other states and countries' fire people have come to help! Canada brought two super scooper planes, Mexico has sent stuff, my brother-in-law read about firefighters lacing up their Nicks boots to go from Oregon to California. Plus there's the Watch Duty app; I don't know how long it's been in existence, but that's another comfort in these times, the fact that someone created such a well-working app as a 501(c)(3) for others' sake. So I'm loving the generosity and altruism in fighting these wildfires.
It does make me think about the future of water use. People say there will be real estate battles, and this will ultimately lead to even higher prices in Los Angeles, but as a non-homeowner (and probably never will be one), I don't care about that. What worries me is water availability. In fighting the Palisades Fire, apparently the water pressure got so low, they were telling people to boil water or use bottled water. A friend of mine brought up AI, which takes a lot of water for cooling. I don't know if they have AI servers in LA, but regardless, that's one more thing that needs water and power. Electric cars need power... it's like all these things that are meant to make society better and cleaner may be the end of us. Getting people to turn water off when brushing teeth or even to not flush after every toilet use (except poop)... we're really going to have to do something to educate people about better water usage as climate change continues.

Who by fire and who by water, the liturgy asks on Yom Kippur. What if that also meant "who by lack of water?" Maybe I need to do more research to see just how bad off we might be; I could end up comforting myself with knowledge, or I could fall into worse pessimism based on what I find. Anyway, returning to the topic of the wildfires, I'm very grateful for the fire fighters, and I hope they get paid well. There was some thing on Reddit about graffiti saying how money was cut from fire to go to police, but then people were arguing the veracity of that. I guess the only way I could change anything would be to be a politician...
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