Growing with the Flames

A firestorm rolls over the mountains and
 down into the San Fernando Valley.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times 2008)

Canadair CL-215 in its iconic scooping action.
 (Alfredo La Marca 2009)

Growing up in Southern California, I had many opportunities to experience wildfires, whether it be their destructive force, impact on families, or seeing the large scale operations to contain and put fires out. The latter was, for me personally, one of the more interesting aspects of wildfires in the San Fernando valley, just north of Los Angeles. In the valley, firefighters made use of a number of aerial attacks on wildfires, ranging from helicopters carrying large buckets of water, to the iconic "Scooper" yellow and red aircraft spreading water and retardant.

As a kid, it was always exciting to see these aircraft flying around the valley, flying low with their powerful engines rumbling away. They would disappear over the mountains where low amounts of rainfall dried out much of the grasslands, creating a plethora of fuel for the fires. Often times, these stockpiles of fuel would go up because of things like a vagrant camp letting a campfire get out of control to homeowners causing sparks with their lawnmowers. To make matters worse, often times these fires were picked up and pushed further by the Santa Ana winds famous in this region. All of these factors created quite a workload for the Los Angeles Fire Departments, and as a child, I was often excited to see the planes, trucks, and crews in action battling the flames. For me, wildfires are still exciting, though as I've grown older, so has my understanding of them, and the greater role they play in environments.