My son and I volunteered this weekend with our Search & Rescue Unit Cal-ESAR in Paradise, CA. We were part of a huge effort of hundreds of first responders and volunteer search & rescue units from all around California. I’m sure there were units from other states as well. I saw units represented by the army, national guard, police & sheriff, firefighters, coroners, chaplains. The base was in Oroville and it was amazing for me to witness such an effort. The whole park was sequestered and everyone there was certified to be there. There were command centers, food units serviced by prisoners, laundry and decontamination shower units, organized spaces for various units to camp. They passed out Tyvex suits, booties, respirators and gloves.
Apparently president Trump paid a visit to Paradise while we were there, but there was no talk about it. Everyone was focused on the task at hand and such a visit is more political than anything else.
I don’t know the missions of other units, but our unit was given a section of homes in Paradise to scour. We basically went property to property looking for human remains. This was not a rescue mission. What surprised me was that even though the fire ravaged the town, it was still serene and beautiful, with plenty of old oaks surrounding the wooded hilly neighborhood. I am sure many survived. As did some homes. Some were beautiful large homes. Those were for the most part locked and we could only look through the windows to gauge if anyone was inside. But the majority of homes were leveled completely.
A unit volunteer who is also a volunteer firefighter explained that many of the homes that survived were surrounded by defensible space – 100 feet of open area around the home rather than trees and shrubs nearby. And one home that survived was surrounded by a high large-stone wall, not a wooden fence.
It is hard to describe what a leveled home looks like, though there have been plenty pictures on the media from the Santa Rosa fires and others. When a fire gets that hot, up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, everything melts, including metal alloys and glass. Both leave pools on the ground. So there was very little evidence of wood framing left, or any furniture for that matter. Only charred remains of stoves, washing machines and dishwashers. Many homes or sheds left evidence of a tool shed or auto shed, with burned out cars and heavy machinery, presses and even weight machines. Pianos were just strings of wires on the ground. And since many of these homes had been two stories, it all collapsed onto itself so all we saw were piles of white ash on the house footprint.
We were looking for bone shards. I believe I identified a long bone looking through a window hole, but it was inside a partially standing structure that I could with a collapsed corrugated metal roof so I couldn’t get in. We had to call a fire engine to come later and remove the roof to look further.
Even if someone took vestige in a home which survived, I am told that the levels of CO2 would be so high as to make it hard to survive. There were anthropologists and coroners available to be called in to any finds, to ID remains. I have also read that DNA may not survive at such temperatures, and that dental records may not be useful if the local dental office burned down! But families are looking for closure, much like waiting for any information about MIAs from past wars. And even though finding the remains of a loved one is the last thing one wants, it can also allow a family to come to terms, mourn and celebrate the life they lost, and move on.
The air was terrible. Even breathing through the proper respirators all day, my lungs felt irritated. Driving up there in the morning before dawn felt apocalyptic. So much haze and smoke. We counted telephone poles along the road to gauge visibility – starting at 12, ending at 5 before the poles stopped. The air quality index for Berkeley where I live is currently 156. It was 221 when we drove up to Paradise. The night before we embarked, Paradise was in the 500s! When we got there it was in the 300s.
Coming home, I can’t help but imagine what my home, the market, my car would look like if reduced to their base carbon units. It’s eerie. Like Hamlet holding a skull, looking at our ultimate destiny. Ashes to ashes. How will this experience affect me? I don’t know. I certainly better understand that nothing is permanent. And that we should savor where we are and what we have.
I think poor air quality takes a toll on everybody. And I appreciate the need to wear an air filter when outside or when exercising. Look for a N95 rating. You can get the paper masks with the small plastic respirator hole in front. For this air, a simple hospital mask isn’t adequate.
What lessons can we take from this? There are many major fires burning throughout the state. And last year we had the same. Gov. Brown called it our new abnormal. President Trump blamed poor forest management, without realizing that 60% of California’s forests are Federally owned and managed, or that the majority of these fires started in grasslands and are urban-interface fires and not forest fires. But whatever they are, it’s our new reality. And our urban landscape won’t allow for defensible space around our homes. But I can only imagine that improving home building materials in the future can make a difference. Although at 3000 degrees probably not!