11-13-2003  After the Fire

One of the recent Southern California wildfires came much closer to us than I had initially realized.  Behind us runs a set of hills, and behind the hills spreads the Somis valley.  At the rear of Somis's valley is a parallel set of hills that drops off precipitously toward Santa Paula and Fillmore to the north.  The fire, which started east of Fillmore, jumped the freeway and ran west toward the coast, licking its way up the hillsides and over into the back areas of Somis, about five miles from us as the crow flies.  Below are a few images I caught on my trek through the area yesterday afternoon.

 

At the top of the pass on Balcom Canyon Road, looking toward Santa Paula.  These hills are usually covered with a coating of wooly chaparral, hearty, drought-tolerant plants that grow from one to five feet high.  Now the hills are bare. 

Heading down into the canyon.  The thing I noticed most was the absolute quiet--no birds, no lizards scurrying in the bushes, etc.

At the bottom of the hill I discovered the Bardsdale/Fillmore area looking pretty much as
it always does, with quiet lanes among huge old orange groves.  The fire had kept mainly to the hillsides and the chaparral that was tinder-dry.

A lot of the fire damage seemed the work of whimsy, one area burning almost completely while a small pocket, or pockets, remained untouched for reasons that are not readily apparent.

In the photo above, at left, a burned pepper tree stands surrounded by charred cactus while in the foreground, new grasses have already sprouted, coaxed to life by the sudden rains that came just days later.  This does, after all, seem to be the pattern of life on our planet.  No matter what the disaster, new life sprouts up and goes on.  At right: a quarter of a pepper tree remains green while the rest of the tree--and everything around it--was charred.