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Fire!


 

This week in Oregon we have had unprecedented wildfires. On Monday night we had a hot east wind blow across the state. As the night wore on, the winds got stronger and stronger and the temperature got higher and higher. At 6:30 PM it was 61 degrees with calm winds. By 9:00 it was 81 degrees and we would have up to 45 MPH gusts the rest of the night. Thick smoke rolled in and all day on Tuesday we were in semi darkness. The street lights never went off.  It was surreal. By Wednesday it was just plain scary. Five towns were burned to the ground and many more were threatened. 500,000 people were under evacuation orders. We don’t know what the final loss of life is going to be yet.

The legendary wildfire in Oregon that is in all the history books is the Tillamook Burn from 1933. Everybody in Oregon has heard about the Tillamook Burn. It burned 350,000 acres of forest land. In the past week One Million acres has burned in Oregon. This, as bad as it is, is just a sampling of what California has been dealing with for the past month.

Once upon a time I was a volunteer firefighter, and I have spent some time fighting wildland fires. In order for a fire to burn it needs three elements: heat, fuel, and oxygen. If you remove one of those elements the fire will go out. So, if you pour water on a fire you are A) cooling it down, and B) restricting the oxygen for the fire. Oregon has been pretty dry for the past summer so the forests provided a lot of fuel.

The seminal incident that caused the fires in Oregon and Washington was what people are calling a “freak wind event.” One of these fires advanced 40 miles overnight, driven by the wind. Yes, I said 40 miles in one night.   It was called a once in hundred-year wind event. Funny, how these hundred-year events, whether they be windstorms, floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes, are happening every few years now. No, it’s not funny. And it is no coincidence. Climate change is here and it is affecting our weather patterns, and it is going to keep on happening. The business-as-usual model is unsustainable. I am not just talking about cutting fossil fuels. That ship has sailed. We are already in it. Cutting our carbon output may help keep it from getting too much worse (if we actually do it) but it won’t fix what is already here. No, people will have to move or abandon where they live. Whole cities may have to be relocated. Does that sound crazy to you? It is an uncomfortable time we are all going to have to face.  

I know people don’t want to hear that. They will keep denying it, like that frog in the pot of water that doesn’t notice the water is getting hotter until he is cooked. Let’s not get cooked.

 

(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).


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