Fire Fighting in Southern California
by Russ Allison Loar
Claremont, California
Southern California, where I grew up, was once agrarian, relatively peaceful, and filled with orange groves. Now it is surrounded by freeways and increasingly threatened by fires. Every year the fire season is longer and more intense than ever before. I live in Claremont, California, where we’ve been immersed in what looks like a heavy fog but which in fact is thick smoke coming from the north and the east of us. We live close to the foothills but thankfully have been spared from the fires–so far.
