Coping with the Fire

Much of the media attention is geared towards sensational numbers like 500,000 evacuees, 1300 destroyed homes, and 430,000 acres burned (so far). And rightly so, those who are effected the most deserve all the coverage. However, there are those of us who aren't directly threatened by fire also suffering from the residual effects of this massive fire.

We live in a town called Redlands which is in no way threatened by the fire as nearest fire is at least a dozen miles away. While I was at work in Moreno Valley yesterday, I received a call from my wife around 3pm. The school my 2 children are attending decided to close down on Wednesday due to bad air quality. And I don't blame them. All day yesterday, I've been sneezing and blowing nose with thin trace of blood. One of the office staff was worried about her asthma and told me that she'll try to find the inhaler that she hadn't used for over a year. She complained of slight difficulty in breathing.

All last night, I've been online shopping for air purifier which cost arms and legs for decent ones these days. One particular one that I liked cost $460. Getting up this morning blowing more blood out of my itch nose, the conversation with my wife who had developed sore throat consisted of whether to order the device online and wait a few days or risk going outside with children and get it today. Meanwhile, we brought out an old noisy HEPA air cleaner which needs filter replacement and had it on full power all morning.

Our problems in no way match in scope what those displaceds are going through. But this fire, being so massive and so close to the communities, is effecting millions of Southern Californians in a wide spectrum of interruption of our daily lives.

I hope that lawmakers of the state see that this is a chronic problem that we have. Every year, there's fire some where and 2 or 3 times a decade, we get this kind of massive fire that interrupts daily lives of millions. And the monetary damage from structural loss and fire fightint cost is astronomical. The loss of natrual habitats of animals is priceless. It's about time that the state put together a task force geared towards preventing these types of massive fire in a long term basis.