American Chronicle

October 23, 2007

The Orange County Wildfire: First Hand Account of the Conditions

Kobina Wright

The sky here in Southern California is a yellowish brown and the wind had been whipping trees and residents around at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour at times, but mostly averaging 35-45. While my attention and television set had been focused on Malibu, Aqua Dolce and other fires north of Orange County, what I didn’t realize was that the smoke in the air was not coming from Los Angeles county.

Early Sunday evening an arson fire started in Santiago Canyon and Silverado Canyon and has burned through Hicks Canyon toward Jeffrey and Portola. Currently, the fire is moving near Modjeska Canyon and Silverado Canyon. Authorities stated that the fire was arson and determined that fires were set in three different places.

Sunday night, while the gusty winds violently rattled my front room windows, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep as the smell of burning things began giving me a throbbing headache though all my windows and doors were closed. Over the weekend, I wasn’t so sure that my windows wouldn’t break, but Sunday the added heat, smell of fire and smoky skies made the night almost unbearable. I was only able to sleep by using my comforter as an air filter, and slept with it over my head all night. Once, when I must have forgotten while I slept, I uncovered my head, and immediately woke up to cover it up again.

Early Monday morning, I received a phone call from my mother who owns a home in Rancho Santa Margarita. She called to tell me that two toll roads near her, the 133 and the 241, were closed due to the fire, and wanted me to be aware that Irvine Boulevard, a street close to my daughter’s school and the street I work on, was partially closed off.

I still drove my daughter to school, ready to write a note stating that I didn’t want her to participate in P.E., but thankfully, they weren’t even allowing the children to wait or play outside before school began. Students were instructed to head straight for their classrooms, and I was informed by the office that all recesses would be indoors as well. At work I received an email from the school administration.

“Parents, please be advised there will be no car-line this afternoon due to the smoke from fires. Please walk into your child's classroom to pick them up between 2:45 - 3:00 p.m. Students in daycare after 3:00 p.m. will be indoors in the Fellowship Hall for pick-up. Thank you.”

In my air conditioned office, all was well until about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. While I was on the phone with a client, the entire office went black. The florescent lights above me, the computer and monitor I sat in front of, the lab equipment, and the telephone – all completely out. I was already making plans to go home for the day when the lights popped back on ten minutes later.

Twenty minutes after that, on my lunch break, as usual, I drove to my daughter’s school to pick her up, and in the short time it took me to walk to her, get her, and her snare drum from the band room, and back to the car, my entire chest was burning, and when I asked about her day, she said she had been nauseated all day. My poor baby.

Like everyday, I was happy when the work day had ended. In the 80 degree heat, I maneuvered through fallen dead palm fronds, piles of wind whipped leaves and past small uprooted trees under the yellowish-brownish-grayish sunny sky.

I’m trying not to complain too much, because I am grateful that the reported injuries have been minor, but with the testy winds and 15% humidity, I must say that the conditions, even in the surrounding areas, have been miserable as fires are now blazing in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and Orange Counties. What a Monday – and with zero percent control, and 30 percent containment, it’s not even over.

Kobina Wright

Wright is a second generation Southern California native and attended the University of Georgia for two years before transferring to California State University, Fullerton, where she earned her BA in journalism, minoring in Afro-Ethnic Studies.

Wright has written for publications such as LACMA Magazine, The Daily Titan, and CYH Magazine. In 2004 she wrote her third volume of poetry titled, "Say It! Say Gen-o-cide!!" − dedicated to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. In 2003 Wright created the Hodaoa-Anibo language and in 2004 published the first edition Hodaoa-Anibo Dictionary.