California is known for its beaches, warm weather, and beautiful landscapes. It’s famous for LA, Hollywood, San Francisco and Disneyland. It’s these favorable qualities that make the state of California America’s biggest tourist attraction. California leads the country in tourism, population, and wealth, setting the bar high with its many merits. Dr. Greanoff, Lakewood’s AP American history teacher, explains the extent of California’s wealth in more detail.
“California is an entertainment mecca, an agricultural mecca, and it’s one of the country’s net contributors,” Greanoff said. “Its gross national product, I believe, is 10th in the world, if it were its own country. And, it contributes more to the income tax base than any other state in the country.”
However, California isn’t perfect. Despite its many strengths, the state still has its fair share of challenges. One of California’s biggest problems is caused by its most likable quality. The environment of southern California allows for year-round warmth, accounting for much of California’s appeal. However, the dry, hot environment is also a primary factor in the state’s predisposition to wildfires. California has had the most wildfires out of any state in the US and continues to burn to this day.
Throughout history, over 20,000 wildfires have been recorded in California. 8,024 of these fires are from 2024 alone. This year, with the help of climate change, drought conditions, and an influx of weed-like plants, a hugely destructive fire destroyed the Las Angeles area. The LA fires are now ranked the fourth most destructive wildfire in California history.
The LA fires started on Jan 7 and were not fully contained until Jan 31, a full twenty-four days later. Despite constant effort from firefighters, the fires could not be put out quickly, due to their unpredictable nature and immense size.
Wildfires are much harder to extinguish than a typical household fire. They are obviously much bigger and lack the containment of a structure fire. Captain Joe Lamping of Fairview Park Fire Department goes into further detail about the differences between the two fires.
“A structure fire is going to be generally contained to just the one building, and we have all the fire hydrants everywhere and all the apparatus,” Captain Lamping stated. “But then, if you have a wildfire, there’s nothing to really contain it.”
Any wildfire is devastating and difficult to contain, but with California’s environmental conditions and lack of resources, a wildfire is much harder to put out and is much easier to begin.
“California has a lot of water issues,” Lamping said. “They seem to have a lot of droughts which is bad. It will dry out all the bushes and trees and shrubs and everything. So when you have something that lights it on fire it’s just going to go because everything is dried out.”
There is no better place to start a wildfire than California. Mo Dugan, a LA resident describes California’s qualities as “the perfect storm.” With its high heat, drought, and hurricane-level winds, fires are inevitable.
“I learned that two or three years ago there was quite a bit of rain after a number of years of drought,” Dugan said. “So there was all this new growth from the rain, but then we’ve been in drought conditions for the last year or two which dried out the growth. So it was just a perfect storm of these terrible winds and this new growth that had just shot up out of the ground then was immediately back in a drought scenario. So basically it was just a tinder box.”
The conditions in California were exceptionally devastating this year, but these fires are not new. Wildfires have been a constant in California’s history. They have torn through land and destroyed natural resources across the state. The most important thing they burn through, however, goes beyond land and property. California’s wildfires tear through lives, families, and homes. Irreplaceable resources that so many people lose due to these never-ending fires.
“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone, not just who has had to evacuate, but who lost everything,” Dugan said. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone who lost their house. That’s the scale of this.”
The scale of the fire affected everyone. And even those who didn’t have to evacuate from the fires lived in fear for the two or three weeks they were burning.
“I don’t know anyone who got more than a couple hours of sleep for those 10 days or so, which does really weird things to your body right?” Dugan asked. “You can start feeling drunk and then you can start feeling like you’re losing your mind.”
The fires consumed LA and LA residents for weeks. The stress of living without the promise of safety affected everyone. All LA residents lost something because of the wildfires, and the state itself lost 250-275 billion dollars due to damages.
People outside of California need to realize that they are also being affected. The loss of over 12,000 houses and 24 lives should be alarming to all people, especially those who live outside of California. People should care about California’s fires because of their devastating effects on citizens and their own economy. All of America will reap the misfortune from the fires due to California’s sway in the economy.
“It’s going to make food more expensive,” Greanoff said. “Insurance is going to be generally more expensive, expensive because the costs tend to be funneled over everyone. So yes, the fires can affect us in very tangible ways as well as intangible ways.”
The condition of California is directly connected to the well-being of America, and recently, California has been facing extreme challenges with its wildfires. But this issue is just going to get worse. The LA fires have been contained, but that does not mean the fires are over. Fire season is from June to October, not January. In the upcoming months, fires will escalate.
In an emergency, it’s important to remember that America is still America. No matter what divides us, we are still united.
“We are all linked, economically, socially, together,” Greanoff said. “And if we let our fellow citizens suffer unduly, then we are all going to pay for it. In the end, we are all connected.”
California will continue to suffer from devastating conflagrations. As Americans, it’s our responsibility to help California overcome the devastation caused by its wildfires. As Americans, the state of California should be a concern to everyone. No matter your beliefs, the importance of helping the country supersedes us all.
