Other states have hunting seasons or tourist seasons. We have those in California as well but we also have fire season. As the dry summer winds heat up the California landscape the moisture is driven from the ground vegitation first and eventually from the trees creating a very dangerous set of conditions. If you have ever spent a summer here you quickly get used to reading and hearing about the wildfires that spring up around the state.

Two years ago I got the chance to cover my first set of wildfires that occurred very close to San Jose. The first fire was the Summit fire that started when a land owner illegally burned some debris up on Summit Road along the border of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties. That fire quickly spread down the steep slopes on the Santa Cruz side of the mountain ridge and threatened many people’s homes in the Corralitos area of Santa Cruz County. While that fire was still being mopped up there was a string of over 2000 fires started by lightning in a 24 hour period. One of these, the Hummingbird fire was on the hill just behind a friend’s house in Morgan Hill.

After these experiences I would say that I got a little hooked on covering wildfires. Last summer I was not here to cover one of the biggest fires in California history, the Station fire in Southern California. This fire season I have decided to try and get to and cover as many of the big fires that happen in the state. I attended an CAL Fire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) media training event this year and have learned better how to cover these events as well as learned the types of pictures that CAL Fire needs for their archive.

So here I am writing this update at midnight as a fire has broken out in Mariposa County. It grew from 600 to 1500 acres in a matter of 2 hours and so far they have not been able to contain it. There is a good possibility that the Robinson fire will be my first fire of the season. In some ways I feel a bit awkward pegging my fortunes on something that spells misfortune for those whose property gets damaged and I would feel like a creep if it were not for the fact that the men and women of CAL Fire and all the other agencies that respond to these incidents didn’t do such an awesome job of managing and containing these flare-ups so quickly. In the two fires that I have witnessed so far there was minimal loss to private property and as far as I know there were no lives lost. I also feel that the media does a valuable service in helping CAL Fire get their message out to the citizens not only in the areas directly affected by a given fire but also helping to keep relatives and others informed as to what is happening in such a life threatening situation.