California Chronicle

October 24, 2007

Orange County Santiago Wildfire Update

Kobina Wright

“Mom! Mom! Look! A postcard!” That’s how my daughter described the high early morning sun that was the color it usually is when it is setting. Light blue patches peeked from behind yellowish brown haze in South Orange County near the Santiago wildfire.

Though most of the media coverage is fixated on the larger, more threatening fires like the ones in San Diego, that have 12,000 evacuees at the Qualcom Stadium; what is referred to as the “Santiago Incident” by the Orange County California Fire Authority, still threatens the residents, homes and wild life in South Orange County. Approximately 19,200 acres have been burned.

According to OCCFA, this arson fire that originated at Santiago Canyon and Silverado Canyon, will continue to move to the east/southeast into the foothill and canyon areas of Santiago Canyon Road, and the Cleveland National Forest, including the communities of Silverado, Modjeska, and Trabuco Canyons. Modjeska Canyon is also the location of the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary.

Though the temperatures are lower (high 80s), the humidity has also decreased from 15 to 7% with wind speeds of 26mph. And though ash can be seen floating in the air and covering parked vehicles, reports state that this fire is at 50% containment.

It is reported that in total, 7,000 firefighters have been laboring to contain the Southern California fire storms, and 600 firefighters have been working on the Orange County fire, using 110 fire trucks, 4 helicopters and 4 air tankers. In the OC 12 outbuildings have been damaged, and 8 have been destroyed, however, 8 homes have been damaged and 9 have been destroyed.

So far, there have been mandatory evacuations for over 11 canyon communities. This does not include, however, the voluntary evacuations in the foothill areas Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills. Four elementary schools and 12 regional parks have been closed and several organizations have made accommodations for animal evacuations including the Orange County Fairgrounds, the Los Alamitos Race Track and the Orange County Animal Shelter.

Including OC, the fire storms of Southern California has burned more than 400,000 acres and nearly one million people have been evacuated. California has suffered from 8,000 wildfires this year alone, and sadly, 6,800 of them were started by people. What is interesting is that right now there are 2,300 inmates working with firefighters to put them out. In total, one death has been reported, and over 50 injuries – 17 were sustained by firefighters.

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.