“A combination of abnormally dry conditions and powerful wind gusts have fueled Los Angeles with destructive wildfires.” This was the subtitle of the first article published by the L.A. Times, and I think you have all read about what is happening, which areas are affected, and how hard they have tried to put out the fire and contain it, but it is a machine that does not stop.

All photo cred: Zion Irving-Singh

The first element that hit the Southern California area was the wind, a storm that reached 100 mph. According to the L.A. Times, Los Angeles and the Southern California area, in general, is a state with consistent and, sometimes, as in this situation, severe drought conditions, and the water level and rain have not risen enough since May even though the rainy season is between April and October. Many firefighters, workers, and volunteers have described current events as the worst and largest fire in the last 25 years. Driven by dry conditions and mighty winds, the flames have claimed at least 24 lives so far and forced more than 130,000 residents to evacuate from their homes. We join with all Caltech members, teachers, workers, office members, researchers, and students who have lost their homes and fear for the future.

All photo cred: Zion Irving-Singh

Caltech has continued to send out emails, alerts, and detailed instructions on what to do, leaving nothing to chance. In several of the homes and dormitories, students are evacuating, moving south toward the San Diego area, or even going to the Bay Area.

NBC reported that five separate fires are blazing in the greater Los Angeles area so far. Along the coast, the Palisades Fire erupted Tuesday and has since expanded more than 17,000 acres. Over Wednesday night, the Sunset Fire started in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City, prompting evacuations that led to a traffic gridlock on Hollywood Boulevard.

How did they start?

It was mainly the combination of drought and strong wind that ignited the first spark. In addition, the speed of the wind caused branches, leaves, pieces of houses, and cars to move, spreading continuously and expanding. It is contagious, it spreads, it seems like a virus that grows incessantly and finds food in the destruction of Los Angeles.

Yet, as with every news story, doubts and the probability that the situation could be malicious are unleashed. The LAPD has confirmed to NewsNation that the Kenneth Fire is now being investigated as an arson case, and one person is in custody. Investigators believe the fire may have been set on purpose, and it was citizens who helped detain the suspect. The main reason arson is suspected is because the fires started in different locations more or less at the same time and so far away.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the suspected arsonists could face charges as steep as homicide that may result in life imprisonment. “Justice will be swift. It will be firm, and the maximum punishment will be sought,” said Hochman in a statement. The truth remains unclear, but the substance of these rumors is being thoroughly investigated and law enforcement is doing their best to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Speaking of damage, officials said Thursday that at least 10 people were killed and more than 9,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings appeared to have been damaged or destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton Fires. Around 5,300 of these structures were destroyed in the Palisades Fire, while another 4,000 to 5,000 structures were estimated to be damaged or destroyed in the Eaton Fire burning in the Altadena area.

At a morning news conference on Friday, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said the growth of the Eaton fire had been “significantly stopped.” At 3:30 p.m., however, he announced that the fire had grown by more than 3,000 acres—to 13,690 acres—as it spread toward the historic Mt. Wilson area with 0% containment. Moreover, the Palisades fire grew from around 17,200 acres Thursday morning to 19,978 acres Thursday evening, at which time the blaze was 6% contained, according to fire officials. On Thursday afternoon, the Kenneth Fire ignited in Woodland Hills and spread to around 1,000 acres.

“This has the potential to be, at least collectively, the costliest wildfire disaster in American history,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said Wednesday. “Even just the Palisades fire on its own may become so.”

SubArticle: A beaver in the trap!

I was leaving Fleming to go to the library on Tuesday evening; I would define that walk as a sacredness for my daily schedule, a way to relax and at the same time know that I brought home so many discoveries and innovations. I was enjoying a chocolate chip cookie, surely you have tasted one, the ones they sell at Red Door or Broad, with vanilla chips. I don’t know, but by now I have a real addiction to those cookies, if they are there, ahhh, I lose my mind! Anyway, it should be a serious article, but they say that the first lines must capture the reader!

Having said that, that evening the chocolate could not resist and, the cookie, as well as my certainties, had flown away. An unstoppable wind hit me in the face, my hair filled with leaves in an instant, and my legs were shaking. What was happening? Was it a storm? But no, it wasn’t raining, nor too cold. Maybe there was sand in the air, I was struggling to breathe, and my lungs were blocked by an invisible wall of toxic fumes, but I hadn’t noticed, I saw the trees with all their roots fallen on Olive Walk, branches flying. It seemed like the famous scene from The Wizard of Oz when there is a hurricane at the beginning, but, even though it is in L.A., it wasn’t a movie.

I ran as fast as I could to the dorm and I would be lying if I didn’t say that there was a part of me that enjoyed imitating Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, jumping over the branches, avoiding the leaves, and slaying between the flying bushes. As soon as I was inside I could hear my breathing, my cough and the distant whistle of an unstoppable wind, my eyes were burning, my glasses were dirty, what was happening? Wind, I muttered, so much wind. I immediately thought of my horses, they were probably going crazy from fear and noise, I thought of my cells in the lab, I thought of the workers at the university, I thought of everything, but me. I think it is in these situations where everything that seems real or seems to work disappears and you reach the essence of the situation. The canceled classes… what would I have done the next day? There, yes, I realized a detail that is conditioned these days: I am alone.

I sat on the floor of my six square meters and I was short of breath, but I couldn’t open the window, the wind could be felt, but I didn’t care, it wasn’t just that, there was something else that escaped me, something more subtle. That night I struggled to sleep, not that it never happens, on the contrary, but the uncertainty flowed through my veins like hemoglobin, it made me breathe and look at the ceiling. It was around three when I decided to get up and see what the situation was like outside. I took my cell phone from the nightstand and saw hundreds of messages, alarms, and emails. That’s what it was, the fire. I went out and flakes of ash were falling on my hair, the wind had calmed down a little, but what confused me the most was the smell, even if it brought back several memories. It had been a few days since the New Year’s Eve celebrations and it is tradition for my dad and I to build all kinds of fireworks, I have lost my passion for pyromania, yes I got to the point of throwing firecrackers directly from my hand after lighting the fuse, so much adrenaline! (“And so much stupidity,” my mother says), and yet that smell was the same, but much stronger, sharper… toxic.

With all those threats of evacuation, it is not hard to believe that the night was tormented and that I felt the fire surrounding me, but the worries were bigger, how could I sleep, it was not the time, the place, the hour. When I woke up the always blue California sky had turned orange. It seemed like one of those disaster movies with post-apocalyptic scenarios. It made me laugh at least to think about how much my brother loves those types of movies, he says, according to his very adult philosophy, that by watching those movies, then you realize that your life is rather better, that, covered by the warm sheets, you feel comforted knowing that it’s all fake and that someone will win the Oscar for best special effects. But no, this is not the situation, and when he called me and said “No Cami! I’m terrified at the same time, but also excited, I mean you will be part of history, having taken part in everything that is happening. In short, you lived it!” My voice, I would say dry on the other side of the world: “I would also like to avoid it, I want history to talk about me in other ways… there.” Nothing, I couldn’t shut him up, but it comforted me to talk to someone, to know that they were safe. And I am? This question was constantly hitting me, what could I do, how could I help, I turned around and there were only white walls to crash into (so no, I’m not in Blacker, otherwise I would have written black!).

I thought it wasn’t happening, so close then, we’re talking about a few kilometers at most, of a highway, and thank God that the Americans build 10-lane highways! It was all so… palpable. I read about the professors and workers of the university who lost their homes and who were evacuated, but one thing comforted me, and for this, I have to thank the security of Caltech. The emails, the constant messages, were certainly very annoying but useful in clarifying the situation. And with all my heart I am close to those who are suffering more than anyone else from this terrible situation. However, these days have given me something fundamental, friendship: I have found peace in the laughter and chatter that during the term is difficult to mistake for the mountain of things to do and, although there is always a mountain of things to do (or that I invent to do… because that’s what it is), in the end I know that people matter more than what we have (and the horses OBVIOUSLY).

Hard days, days of suffering that I hope will pass soon. During a lesson held via Zoom I felt like during COVID-19 again and no, those memories, those dark moments, have marked us enough, they have changed our lives, and we do not want to open new chapters of a complex era. I close by reflecting on how returning to the essence is fundamental in these situations, to look the enemy in the eye and know that we are just a piece of the LEGO that surrounds us, a globe made of people who work, suffer, and love with you. Above all look at that fire, that enemy, and understand that most of the time that enemy is you.

I hope with these words to be able to share and help other people who find themselves in difficult situations and I thank again the entire Caltech community for the protection and safety given. Writing a joke to lighten the mood, if something like this had happened in Italy, no Italy would exist anymore, and the police is not so specialized and cohesive for such objectives. So, the stereotype of the American who is two meters tall and “thick” two meters due to training and muscles will always remain, even if I am still waiting for The Rock to come and save me. Yet there was another The Rock who lifted me in sadness and that was the Caltech community.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Camilla

Caltech Campus, trees everywhere, thank you for the wonderful job of the community workers.