Wildfires Rage in California

By Hattie Childs Last updated Feb 27, 2020

Firefighters confer while battling the Kincade Fire near Geyserville, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. Portions of Northern California remain in the dark after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. cut power to prevent wildfires from sparking during dry and windy conditions. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

As of Oct. 27, 2019 there have been over 6,190 fires reported in the state of California this year alone.

The newest fire has burned more than 5,000 acres north of Los Angeles, causing more than 40,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Graham Hinsche, a freshman attending St. Lawrence University from Santa Cruz, California blames climate change for the continual blazes. “With climate change comes the droughts and there’s not enough water for California to prevent fires,” he said. “There’s not enough precaution going into solving the issue,” said Hinsche.

“I research climate change and that obviously has a fingerprint,” said Dr. Jon Rosales, the chair of Environmental Studies at St. Lawrence University. “As the weather gets drier and hotter there’s just more fuel for the fires,” said Rosales. “The other thing would be land use. Oh man. Southern California, Central California and places like San Diego have just sprawled since post World War II,” he described.

In addition to the climate, the overpopulation of California is increasing the risk of fires according to Dr. Eric Ziegelmayer, an Adjunct Assitant Professor of Urban Planning at St. Lawrence University. “California essentially has, every year since 1945, doubled its population,” Ziegelmayer said. “In these decades there were massive changes in land use, farming and grazing, changing the fire landscape,” he stated. “We’ve changed an environment without much forethought.”

Due to the increase of population, there has been an increased need for electricity.

However, for companies like PG&E who provide electricity to many parts of California they are easy to blame. “It’s really interesting how climate change and land use can take down a major company like that,” says Rosales, “cuz they’re bankrupt.” Rosales believes that while PG&E could be contributing to the issue of the fires, they are more of a “scapegoat for the governor out there.”

While the fires may seem unstoppable in California, there are potential solutions.

The only issue is no one fix will change the years of environmental damage in California. “Builders are starting to understand that they need to construct homes in a certain way with certain materials,” said Ziegelmayer.

However on the other hand Ziegelmayer states, “Construction techniques, technology, and zoning changes will help, but again what’s brewing up out there are these complex problems that one dimension responses are not going to really handle that well.”