We’re at the end of the first full week of August. I realize we’re getting a late start here, but you’re just going to have to live with it. None of y’all are paying for this and I have had a day.
Like so many all-American miseries, enormous wildfires scorching the Pacific Northwest have almost become so commonplace they barely raise an eyebrow on the national face. Like really big snowstorms, we’ve started giving them names, probably because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to keep up. I hope I’m not coming off as too glib here because right now, rural Northern California is getting burnt away.
It’s called the “Dixie Fire,” based on the road where it started. It’s chewing up Butte and Plumas Counties, in the northwest corner of the state. When most people think of California, their minds lock on big cities like Los Angeles or San Francisco, but people don’t seem to realize how much of the state is made up of small towns, farmland, and tribal areas. Plumas County even more so than Butte, with the former having under 20,000 souls living there. It’s slightly more Republican than Democrat, as well, which probably confuses everyone who thinks “Californication” or “The People’s Republic of California” is witty.
Anyhow, being a grumpy middle-aged stoner, I have an affection for that part of Northern California. I drove through that area on my way down to Mendocino a couple of years back. It’s gorgeous and the people are as fine as you’d find anywhere from sea to shining sea. Which is one of the reasons the Dixie Fire is so heartbreaking. According to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, it probably started somewhere around July 18 due to some faulty equipment. By July 23, it had become the largest fire of the 2021 season, and the fact that we have wildfire seasons is… well, it is what it is, isn’t it?
Today, though, it’s grown so large that it’s labeled the largest wildfire in California on record. It grew by 110 square miles from last night to this morning and has burned roughly 430,000-plus acres. To put it in perspective, this time this morning – around 9 a.m. Central – it was the sixth-largest in the state. So far, I can’t find any numbers on deaths caused by the fire but over 91 structures have been destroyed.
Including whole towns. Greenville, which dates back to the gold boom of the 1850s, was almost completely destroyed by the fire. Buildings over 100 years old, up in smoke, and most of the Downtown area was wiped out. The town suffered a similar fire back in the 1880s and they rebuilt. As of right now, residents are just trying to get themselves collected.
Firefighters are doing what they can and have it around 35% under control, and it’s not the only fire going on in the state. For that matter, California isn’t the only place in the world on fire right now. Indeed, dealing with record heat, dryness, and drought, much of Southern Europe is either fighting blazes or trying like hell to keep one from starting. In particular, Turkey and Greece are fighting with out-of-control wildfires. And all this is being exacerbated by global climate change and will probably get worse before it gets better, whether we do something about it or not.
However, this is America, by God, and we do things differently here in the Land of the Free. Much like those brave patriots refusing free vaccinations during a raging pandemic that’s being made worse by that same refusal, some residents of Northern California are refusing to bow to Big Public Safety. Although evacuation mandates have been out for a while, lots of folks are asserting their freedoms and refusing to leave home. Firefighters are having to spend time rescuing these dipsticks instead of actually fighting the fire, and there have been several reports of liberty-loving residents pulling guns on firefighters for the audacity of trying to make sure they don’t die in a horrific manner that could’ve been avoided.
And, really, ain’t that the most all-American thing you’ve ever heard of in your life?
Dear Y'all 