The fires that engulfed a string of communities in Los Angeles County have already been labeled the biggest natural disaster in U.S. history. The blazes, which number more than 30, began January 7th and firefighters, including several contingents from Colorado and other states along with help from Mexico and Canada, are still not out.
But those still burning have left thousands of acres now blackened landscape. Homes are today memories preserved only in photographs, photographs that have survived. Preliminary damage estimates have been set as high as $50 billion.
Images of the fires show wind-fed flames in a joust-like dance with ground-level firefighters. Other scenes had fire reaching skyward almost daring aircraft to engage them. It is warfare, man against nature.
While bigger than the Colorado’s 2021 Marshall Fire, the Los Angeles infernos rekindle painful memories both for firefighters and thousands of Boulder County residents who experienced our state’s worst ever natural disaster.
On December 30, 2021, unusually strong winds that joined forces with a spark from a powerline. In a dance of destruction, the fire quickly swallowed drought-starved grasses devouring more than a thousand structures including 991 homes across a six-thousand-acre grid. Damage was estimated at more than $2 billion.
As the southern California fires burned, said Boulder Fire-Rescue Public Information Officer Jamie Barker, a feeling of déjà vu seemed almost palpable across the department.
First responders, Barker said, have to balance the work and emotions when facing a fire like Marshal. Professionalism is the priority. “This is the job when on duty,” she said. After the fire is out, the department provides “support resources” if requested. “Not everyone is the same.”
But, beyond fighting a fire, an epic fire like Marshall or California’s, there is another battle, said Barker. It’s the fight against misinformation.
BF-R and the city of Boulder, Barker said, “makes a point to provide information to community members” via social media, text alerts and traditional media. In an age of social media, a single internet posting can quickly swallow truth and create a whole new ‘reality.’
Only when the last ember is doused and an objective look can be made of the scorched earth that covers an area estimated to be bigger than the size of Manhattan, can California property owners even begin to think about rebuilding or rethinking what is next. That, says Metropolitan State University-Denver economist Dr. Kishore Kulkarni, will be an entirely different challenge.
Property values have soared both for modest homes in communities like Altadena and multi-million-dollar estates in the toney Pacific Palisades. Will insurance policies be adequate for rebuilding? Will supply chains be able to deliver? Will President Trump’s deportation plan tie a knot in the labor flow?
“I perceive recovery will not be short,” said Kulkarni. The MSU-D professor wonders if political battles with Canada, a country that supplies wood, and Mexico, a country whose ex-patriates hold four in ten construction jobs in California, be solved for the rebuild?
Kulkarni suspects that Trump, despite his bellicose promises to deport millions of undocumented, will have to quickly come up with a ‘Plan B.’ “There is a big difference between stating it and actually doing it.”
There is little good to say about fires like Marshall or southern California’s except for lessons they may teach when fighting similar blazes in the future. “So much can be learned after an incident, large or small,” said Barker. Looking back often provides lessons for fighting fires they may one day be battling.
