Dear Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:
I woke up in my house in Point Loma four years ago to find the house full of smoke. Being a fully integrated Californian, my first thought was that the Hell’s Angels had parked on my street for a smoke break and were trying to kill me with secondhand smoke. Shortly, I found that it was the right half of the county on fire and the smoke was blowing my way. We were having a Santa Ana.
Shortly afterward, I discovered that there was a fire burning from San Diego to L.A. I wrote letters then about a strategic attack. Nobody printed them. I spent the last 25 years in San Diego but moved to Colorado a year ago. I didn’t leave because of the fires or the earthquakes. Earthquakes are natural disasters, so far. Terrorists aren’t yet stuffing weapons of mass destruction between the tectonic plates. That would be expensive and conspicuous. They don’t have to. A book of matches is sufficient to wipe out half the state of California. It keeps happening.
When the winds shift direction and the warm Santa Ana winds blow west toward the shore from the inlands, 15 fires break out at 10-mile intervals ” the same distance from the coast to the undeveloped areas ” and burn west and reach out-of-control status and become one huge fire before they reach the residential neighborhoods.
These fires are not acts of God. They’re not the result of spontaneous, blue-sky lightning strikes or downed power lines or careless campers or smokers. Whether it’s the work of professional terrorists or Raiders fans or disgruntled teenagers is irrelevant. When the conditions are right, they strike. Instead of spending money on equipment and personnel after the fact, California needs to practice an ounce of prevention and build a firewall between the boonies and the developed areas from Mexico to Santa Barbara. In the long run it will be cheaper. You can paint the wall green! You can make it look like a mountain range or paint a mural on the inside. Hey, it’s California! After a while, they’ll think its cool. You can build a walkway on the inside with pavers and Starbucks will open a shop-in-a-grotto every mile. Starbucks might even pay for it. People will come from all over the world to see it. Even the fireproof tunnels for the freeways will be easy to construct. It won’t be like drilling through a mountain. The freeways are already there. We don’t live in a perfect world. We have to be realistic. These fires aren’t acts of God, Arnold. I know you know that. You’re a smart guy. I love California. I found myself out there. I hope it’s still there when I visit at Christmas. They elected you to protect them. Build a wall! Terminate the problem.