I am in Central California (Carmel), near the coast. We got our fires two years ago. Here is the time lapse video, taken back then from our balcony:
That summer, we had a fire engine and a complete crew who spent each day at the bottom of our driveway for over a week, on standby, in case the sparks from that fire landed in our neighborhood. At the peak, we had over 4,000 fire fighters living here in our community of 4,000 people. It was one of the largest number of fire fighters for a single fire in state history.
This summer, for us, we have been completely unaware of all the other fires because we have no smoke or haze. That is actually surprising because last summer, during the horrible Napa fires, which destroyed thousands of homes, we did get smoke, even though those fires were almost 200 miles away.
I've lived in California for thirty-five years, and there is no doubt that we are getting more fires than before. I think it is mostly due to having more homes built near undeveloped land that is not being cleared. Also, our tax money keeps getting diverted to other things and not used as much for fire prevention. The tax diversion problem is so bad that we no longer have any police patrols after dark. Yes, that's right: we have no police here during the hours when they are needed. Same thing is true of grass cutting along the highways. This used to be done everywhere, so that a stray cigarette or a car parked on the side of the road wouldn't start a fire. That is getting done in fewer and fewer places, and we now have lots of tinder-dry fuel right next to many of the major roads here in our valley.
