What We Gain From the Fires
This author writes from Los Angeles, just outside the reach of the Eaton fire that swept East and West along the 210, ravaging homes and communities in the northeast corner of the LA Basin.
The author would like to promote the following organizations, and encourage your support to them however possible:
WatchDuty, a app for monitoring evacuation warnings and news
California Fire Foundation, for the families of fallen firefighters
Los Angeles is my home, and will always hold a special place in my heart. I was raised by its multiculturalism, glitz and glamour, and near constant drought. Wildfires are a deeply ingrained part of my childhood. I still vividly remember in seventh grade, walking out of class into the orange-brown haze, stunned at the ash falling from the sky. My first thought was confusion, thinking that the bits of angry ash were snowflakes, until I connected the dots between the haze and the smell. Though I moved away to the Bay for a period of time, the fires were never far behind. I lived through the dystopian haze of the 2018 and 2020 wildfires, and am well equipped to handle the physical effects.
But this time was different. This was the first fire where I really considered evacuating my home. Weighing what to take, and what to leave behind. I had just moved down from the Bay and most of my possessions were still in highly flammable cardboard boxes. What was worth unpacking and repacking? What should be left behind? Where would I go from here?
I write this now in a state of relative safety. The air quality has returned to normal, which is famously never that fresh and clear in the city, but a marked improvement relative to last Tuesday evening as the fire engulfed thousands of acres of arid land. The fires are burning, but containment is steadily progressing. Contributism is hard at work, bringing in support from neighbors local [1], national [2][3], and international [3][4][5].
While there is much to be written extolling the virtues of continued international cooperation, especially in the face of rising isolationist rhetoric, I want to take this opportunity to contribute my vision of the future, and how we both as Californians, and as a modern society, reflect on what has happened and rebuild.
Contributism is not just about fighting fires as they erupt. As inspirational and uplifting as it is to see international unity in these times, it would be so much more effective and efficient to practice this same conscientiousness and cooperation daily, in less stressful times.
What does that look like? Much has been written on the fact that many of the homes affected by the fires were built in areas prone to wildfires, that have been burned in the past, and will likely be burned again. Insurance, the marriage of cooperation and capitalism, exists to help protect those who live in these areas from absolute financial ruin, by leveraging the aid of the collective. Recognizing that this may incentivize risky behaviors, the California legislature has passed new regulations on insurance companies to enable increasing premiums on homes in fire prone regions. This is what thoughtful, concerted, and supportive leadership looks like. We recognize that there will continue to be those in our society who are drawn to the beauty of living in those hills. It is not our right to restrict them from settling there, but it is also not our duty to subsidize their loss. We can and should show compassion, but we must also ask for compromise.
This is the harsh reality of climate disasters, whether they be fires or floods. [6] The American expansion of sprawling suburbia has led to an untenable system of land use that has disregarded the inherent environmental risk in order to slake our thirst for larger, more comfortable homes. [7] From the very beginning this was unsustainable, but now it is time to pay the piper, and accept the financial and environmental costs.
Understanding this context, what comes next? The bitter optimism of this moment is to recognize that in many respects, fire can be cleansing. Just as the ecosystem of Los Angeles uses wildfire to germinate seedlings, the devastation wrought by these concurrent fires can give life to a new tomorrow. [8]
This author argues that we cannot rebuild as before. Sparsely populated, sprawling homes, built with more preference given to aesthetics than fire prevention, would show little respect for the efforts of all involved to contain these fires, but also continue to put lives at risk again in the future.
Whether or not these fires are a direct result of anthropogenic climate change, the expectation is that fires will become more frequent, and with that increased frequency, more damaging. This is an opportunity to be more efficient in our land use, to increase housing density in areas that are more safe from fires, and for those who choose to live in more fire prone regions, to migrate towards greater resilience.
Increasing housing density as means to increase housing affordability, needs to become a rallying cry for the future. Removing parking minimums, designing streets and cities to be safer for all road users, not just cars. As I followed the news last Tuesday, waiting to see if I would need to evacuate, I quickly decided to evacuate using my bike, and avoid the freeways. People fleeing the Palisades fire were met with complete gridlock, along PCH, and I did not want to risk getting trapped in my car along the 710. [9]
Los Angeles is the archetypal American city. It exemplifies urban sprawl, leveraging the mobility of the automobile on a scale that had never been seen before. It is necessary for Los Angeles to take on the mantle of leadership again, to blaze a new path in building resilient, efficient, sustainable cities, capable of weathering the storms to come.