Where Isn’t The Fire
- averij98
- Mar 15
- 4 min read
By: Luther Bravo
Written with : Taylor Louise
If I told you this essay was about wildfires, would you even care? Be honest. What was once a hot button topic is now yesterday’s news. Except for the small fact that wildfires are not yesterday’s news. They ares a life altering event for most people who survive them. Wildfires are a course altering event for the ecosystems in which they occur. Also, with each scorched acre, these fires are each more historic than the last .
According to FEMA, a wildfire is an unplanned, unwanted fire burning in a natural area, such as a forest, grassland, or prairie. Most of the time they are started by human interaction either intentionally or accidentally. However, they can be caused by natural events like a lightning bolt. Wildfires are dangerous as they damage and/or destroy natural resources, human life, and property.
Although we like to think of wildfires as “a Californiathing”, they are happening everywhere. The wildfires of 2024 were a wake up call to the country that none of us are immune from wildfires. In late February 2024, a series of wildfires broke out in Texas which are now referred to as 2024 Texas wildfires. These were a series of fires that debilitated Texas. These fires include the Smokehouse Creek Fire which burned around 1.1 million acres, making Texas history. This fire burned the span of over 13,000 football fields. 2024 was a big wake up call to New Jersey as several fires broke out throughout the state. Most of these fires were due to the unseasonably dry conditions New Jersey faced throughout the year. New Jersey fire officials have claimed that in 2024 11,000 acres burned in the state. The normal average is 4,000 acres for the state of New Jersey.
In Los Angeles county the year started off with bang. On January 7th, two historic wildfires started burning: The Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire. Both of these fires are around 95-95% contained. As of January 26, 2025, 11 people lost their lives in the Palisades Fire and 17 people in the Eaton Fire. As firefighters have battled those fires many others started popping up around the areas such as the Laguna Fire which is 100% contained as of January 26, 2025. These fires have rocked the Southern California community leaving many homeless and forced to start over.
We know that it is easier said than done for people to just “start over “ after a wildfire. Hawaii still has a long way to go to recover from the Lahaina fires of 2023. The plan to rebuild Lahaina will take years and that is if everything goes according to plan. Currently, the Hawaiian State Government is trying to pass a bill to help speed up the process for rebuilding affordable housing. However, even if lawmakers can get Senate Bill 1170 to pass, housing cannot be built overnight. It will take years to complete the affordable housing project alone. There are still schools, businesses, medical centers and more that need to be planned, paid for and built. Hawaii Senator Angus McKelvey was quoted, “This is something that’s being done very carefully, but we’ve got to speed this up because we are now facing a huge ton of other pressures coming in because of Los Angeles.” This is because we still treat disaster relief like something we use once every ten years. On the contrary, disaster relief is needed several times every year.
Wildfires are unfortunately apart of our new normal. This is a climate issue and a social issue but it is not a moral issue. The victims of wildfires are not to blame for their suffering. We should not politicize wildfires - we should not politicize any weather phenomenon. The same way we need money for roads, for the military , is the same way we need disaster relief. Yes, we need to do more to prevent wildfires by improving our actions within our environment. We also need to accept that natural disasters - wildfires, hurricanes, floods etc -are going to happen. We need to change our mindsets to be aware, prepared, and accepting of our current volatile reality.
Works Cited
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“Bill in Hawaiʻi Legislature Would Speed up Rebuilding of Affordable Housing Complexes
Destroyed in Lahaina Fire: Maui Now.” | Bill in Hawaiʻi Legislature Would Speed up Rebuilding of Affordable Housing Complexes Destroyed in Lahaina Fire, mauinow.com/2025/01/26/bill-in-hawai%CA%BBi-legislature-would-speed-up-rebuilding-of-affordable-housing-complexes-destroyed-in-lahaina-fire/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2025.
Brianna Kudisch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “N.J. Wildfire Sparked by July 4 Fireworks
Still Burning after More than 130 Days.” Nj, 15 Nov. 2024, www.nj.com/burlington/2024/11/nj-wildfire-sparked-by-july-4-fireworks-still-burning-after-more-than-130-days.html.
February 07, 2025 · 12:14pm. “Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Historic $4.037B
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