Why are there so many fires in California?
Welcome back to the Learn English Podcast, the podcast teaching English in context so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to talk about something that has been in the news a lot, especially here in my home state of California.
And that is the fires that occurred recently.
There were a number of wildfires and they did a lot of damage in the Los Angeles area.
If you haven't watched or listened to our previous podcast episodes, you might not know that I am an English teacher.
I teach English online to students who are learning it as a second language.
And this was a question that one of my students asked me recently.
They asked me, why are there so many fires and why are they so bad?
So on today's episode, we're going to talk about that.
We're gonna talk about why there are so many wildfires here, what people can do to decrease the risk.
And of course, while we do that, we're going to talk about certain vocabulary terms so you can improve your listening comprehension and English vocabulary.
So if you're interested, then please follow along because we're about to begin.
Before we begin, I want to remind you to look at the description of this podcast episode.
There, you will find links, like links to, take lessons with me, and you'll also find the vocabulary list. This is the list of words and phrases that I use during the episode, so that way you can take them, study them, and use them to build your English vocabulary.
Let's talk about California and why wildfires occur so often here.
Now, of course, California was in the news recently because of the damage that was occurring in the Los Angeles area because of how many people lost their homes during these wildfires, but wildfires are not uncommon in California.
They happen every single year.
Usually, they don't cause as much damage as the ones a few months ago did, but as someone who has lived in this state for my entire life I can say that we have to deal with wildfires every year.
There are fires that happen every year and it's just one of the hazards that you have to deal with when you live here.
Hazard is something that could possibly cause damage or harm, wildfires are definitely a hazard here in California.
Now we're going to talk about the basic geography of the state to just get an idea about why it is so common here in California, why we have to deal with them all of the time.
I did an episode on the history and some unique facts on California, I'll leave a link.
I am so proud to be from my state, I love living here but there are definitely some bad parts about living here, some cons of living here and wildfires is definitely one.
One thing to know about my home state is that California is very large in terms of size.
It is one of the largest States in the United States and it is the most populated state in the United States in terms of size it's actually roughly the same size of some countries it's a little bit smaller than Sweden I think it's a little bit larger than Japan Germany Zimbabwe or Paraguay if you live in those parts of the world that gives you a rough idea of how large my state is now California is known to have this beautiful coastline.
The entire state borders the Pacific Ocean so we do have that coastline across our state.
However, not every city is right on the coast or even close to the Pacific Ocean.
I live in California but it probably would take me about an hour and a half to two hours to get to the beach. There is not a beautiful shoreline where I live.
I live it more towards the desert part of California and that is along the Eastern part of the state.
So there are parts of our state that border desert states like Arizona and Nevada, and that's more towards where I live.
So when we're talking about the state of California, one of my students thought, well, if we live along the beach, why is it so common that we have wildfires?
and I just have to remind people that of course not everyone lives right next to the beach. Most people in the in the state of California do not live right next to the beach and some people just live in the desert even though they are in the state of California.
When it comes to the climate of California it is a very hot and dry climate.
It is similar to having the climate of certain parts of the Mediterranean in that we have very mild winters here.
It usually only rains for a few days a year and the rest of the time the sun is out and there is a lot of sunshine.
During the summer it gets extremely hot here.
Where I am it is not uncommon for it to hit 40 degrees celsius during the summer now of course i am an american we don't use celsius we say fahrenheit but it is common for it to be a hundred 110 115 degrees fahrenheit during the summer which would be 40 or even more during the summer when we're talking about celsius during the winter it's more around maybe 20 degrees Celsius.
Extremely cold, like the coldest it ever gets in the winter is around 12 to 14 degrees Celsius.
So that gives you an idea of the type of climate.
When we think of California and we talk about California, there is always a stereotype that we have beautiful beaches and sunshine and palm trees and that is kind of true.
Like I said, winters tend to be mild.
It does not snow unless you live in the mountainous parts of the state.
And that can contribute a lot to the fire hazards here.
Because we have these very mild winters with not a lot of rain, and because we have these really hot and dry summers, the vegetation, which is the plants that are in our state, the vegetation tends to be very very dry.
and of course when you get plants that are very dry you get temperatures that are very hot you have the risk of wildfires.
that's why we do have to deal with these wildfires.
that's why every year at least somewhere in their state there is a wildfire because we do have these type of conditions.
now one thing that makes it really worse is something called the santa anowitz.
because I am in California and because we are close to the Mexico border, a lot of things have names that come from Spanish.
If you are a Spanish speaker, you are going to want to say Santa Ana reminder.
We're trying to speak with an American accent.
so we're going to pronounce it like an American would even though I know it's not correct but we are going to say Santa Ana.
So these are called the Santa Ana And these are winds that are offshore winds.
Now on shore winds are different.
When we talk about shore, again we're talking about the coastline with that Pacific Ocean going around the California coast. And when you have an on shore wind, you have wind that is starting over the Pacific Ocean that is going onto the land and it's just cooling everything off.
Think of that nice sea breeze is when you go to the ocean, how lovely that is, that is an onshore wind or an onshore flow.
When we talk about the Santa Ana winds, we're talking about an offshore wind.
These are winds that go in the opposite direction.
So instead of coming from the ocean and going over the land, they start over the land and go towards the ocean.
So these are starting in the desert on the eastern part of the state and then flowing across towards the west. And these winds happen every year, the Santa Ana winds occur from September until April but they're usually strongest around October to December, maybe January.
And that's one of the things that made those wildfires in Los Angeles recently so much worse.
These winds are hot, they're dry, because they're coming from the desert.
And they can also be very intense.
The winds can reach speeds of 40 to 60 miles per hour which is about 64 to 97 kilometers per hour which is a very strong wind.
However, they can have gusts of wind.
So a wind gust is a really strong burst of wind.
It doesn't last very long but it's very intense when it occurs.
When you have a gust of wind with the Santa Ana winds they can be over 80 miles per hour which is over 129 kilometers per hour.
The strongest Santa Ana guest was actually over 160 kilometers per hour.
So these Santa Ana winds were occurring when those wildfires broke out in Los Angeles and that's why they were so much worse.
Any fire that starts can grow so rapidly can grow so quickly because that wind is just pushing the flames everywhere and that's really what can cause it to spread so quickly.
In addition to just spreading the fire, the winds can actually make it a lot worse to fight a fire.
Think about having to be out fighting fires when the wind is pushing you and is moving around you at 100 kilometers per hour.
That is extremely difficult.
So there were a lot of firefighters in California fighting those wildfires that were occurring.
Of course, we are extremely grateful for the work that they do but it was a really difficult job just trying to put out a fire when the winds are so strong is really difficult.
You're trying to use a fire hose you're trying to use a hose to spray water and that water could really be going anywhere when the winds are so strong.
Also because we are used to having fires here in California there are a lot of helicopters and airplanes that dump fire repellent and try to put out the fires that way.
However, when the winds are that strong, it is really difficult.
Those helicopters cannot fly in that wind.
It would be extremely dangerous for whomever is in the helicopter.
And that really limits the ability to put out a fire.
We really need those helicopters to dump that fire retardant really put out those fires and if they're unable to do it, it makes the fire last longer.
That's definitely what occurred at some points during those Los Angeles fires.
They were not able to use the helicopters and that made it a lot more difficult, that hindered the process of putting out the fire.
So hinder means to slow down to make it more challenging and those high winds hindered the firefighter's ability to put out the fire.
And the winds can also knock down power lines.
There are a lot of power lines that are above ground in California, in my area.
There are a lot of power lines around and when the winds are so strong, it is common for those power lines to be knocked over.
I have a friend who lives in this city next to me who lives maybe 15 minutes away from where I live and that's what happened in his neighborhood.
the winds were so strong that they knocked over a power line and he did not have electricity for over a day because the power lines were knocked down.
So when a power line is knocked over when the wires break from a power line, of course that's very dangerous.
Someone could get hurt but that can also start a fire.
If a power line breaks and lands in some type of vegetation in a brush, in a bush, then you can have a fire get started from the sparks that are coming out of that power line.
So that is another reason why those Santa Ana winds are so dangerous.
Another one of the challenges is the drought conditions here in the state.
Now this isn't recent, but over the past decade there has been a lot more drought in my state.
Sometimes we do get winters where we just don't get a lot of rain.
There are two things that you will hear Californians talk about a lot when they talk about the winter and that is el nino or la nina.
There are two different types of weather patterns, we would say.
One is when it rains a lot and you have rain almost every single day of the winter.
This is not very common. It only happens every maybe 10 years, but when it does happen, It is really really intense and that is called El Nino Now the opposite of that is when it doesn't really rain and you only have a few days of rain the entire winter And that is called La Nina You will hear it on the news at the beginning of winter you're here Californians talking about it and talking about if it's an El Nino year or if it's a La Nina year It has been a La Nina year this year I think it has only rained here maybe five days this entire winter.
I am recording in March right now of 2025 and I think it really has only rained about five days in my area.
Now this isn't actually considered a drought yet.
There are actually years where it has been even worse, where we have had less rain than this.
And when you have a drought that also makes it more You don't have as much water around, the vegetation in the area has less water, it is more dry, and of course, that all leads to a higher fire risk.
This is made worse by the types of plants that we have that are living here in the state.
There are certain types of plants that have evolved to live in this type of drought and wildfire cycle.
If you know anything about science and biology, you know that life adapts to whatever conditions are around it.
Animals, organisms, plants, everything adapts and gets better at surviving in its environment.
And that's what happened here in California as well.
There are some native plants like chaparral and pine trees that are actually highly flammable.
So highly flammable means that they are very likely to catch on fire and these plants Spread the fire very quickly if you have a lot of these plants together especially when a fire does occur and These plants catch on fire They will spread and they will cause that fire to grow very very rapidly That is very challenging because here in California and of course in other parts of the United States There are a lot of newer neighborhoods that are being built into previously wild areas.
When we talk about rural areas, what we're talking about is farmland or places where people don't tend to live where there's very few people in that area.
When we talk about urban areas, we're talking about cities, and think of New York and Miami and Los Angeles, places where people definitely live.
When we talk about the areas in between those two, we're talking about suburban areas.
These are your stereotypical American neighborhoods.
The ones that have individual houses that are all in a row, and they have a front yard and are in these nice, neat blocks.
That is a suburban neighborhood and there are a lot of suburban neighborhoods here in the state.
Like I said before, California is the most populous state in the country.
there's about 40 million people living here.
Because the population has increased so much, new houses have to be built, and these houses tend to be built in areas where there was not housing before, places like canyons and hillsides where there just used to be plants and animals, now there are neighborhoods.
Because you are building neighborhoods in these areas that have these plants that can spread a fire, you can cause a situation to occur that if a fire starts, it spreads really rapidly and it can damage a lot of houses at a time.
When a fire breaks out in a neighborhood that's when you get that really rapid loss of housing and that's what occurred in the Los Angeles area like in Altadena, for example, you have this neighborhood that's burned down because the fire spread so rapidly.
Because the winds were pushing it so much. You have houses around this vegetation that's very dry.
You have firefighters who aren't able to keep up with how fast the fire is moving.
All of that caused that great amount of damage.
Now, there are some things that people can do to reduce the risk.
On the news, you hear a lot, Firefighters will ask people to try to get rid of the vegetation that's around their house.
This is called a firebreak when you remove the dead plant from the area that's around your house.
If you remove that dead brush and the dead vegetation from the area around your house, that means that it's less likely to catch on fire.
If a fire was to occur, maybe it will burn the area around your house but because you have that area that does not have any vegetation that's maybe just dirt, maybe your house doesn't catch on fire, and that would be okay, right?
Not ideal, but better than having your house burned down.
So you'll hear this a lot on the news if you live in California, and I'm sure in other states as well, firefighters will ask people to remove the brush to make a fire break especially before those Santa Ana winds start, because that can help keep your protected in case something does occur.
And the last reason that we have so many fires in the state is partially due to human activity.
Like I said, drought has become worse in my lifetime, there has definitely been more drought in the state of California.
That is due to human activity.
We know the climate is changing, we know that the planet is becoming warmer, that summers are becoming more intense, that winters are becoming shorter.
And that's definitely making the fire risk worse here in the state.
The power lines were put up by people, so when power lines fall down and cause a fire that is definitely another thing that is caused by humans.
But of course there's other things that occur as well.
Sometimes people light a fire by accident.
Let's say someone is maybe smoking a cigarette and throws it on the ground.
If they throw it into a pile of dead leaves, there could be a fire that starts.
If you throw a cigarette somewhere where there is dry vegetation, you could cause a fire.
Now, they might not be wanting to do it, but it could happen.
Another thing could be fireworks.
So, we have the big holiday here in the United States, Fourth of July, which is the celebration of our Independence Day, and sometimes when those fireworks go off, there is a fire that occurs.
Sometimes they fall to the ground and start a fire that's something that happened in my area a few years ago we had really really bad fires and it turned out that it was a family who was at a park who accidentally started this fire and houses burned down the air was really terrible you could see the particles in the air which we call ash you could see this ash falling down and raining down and the sky was really orange because of how much smoke was in the air.
The family didn't mean to do it.
It was an accident but because of what they did they caused a lot of damage and I think they didn't end up getting arrested or got charged with something.
I think maybe they had to pay a fine and that was an accident but it definitely led to a fire that did cause a lot of damage.
Of course there are also when people try to light a fire on purpose.
This is called arson when someone lights a fire on purpose because they're trying to start one and the person who does that is called an arsonist. When those fires were occurring recently in Los Angeles, sadly, there were people who were arrested for trying to start a fire or starting a fire.
There were multiple people who were arrested and when there are a of fires that start in an area really quickly really soon one right after the other.
As a native Californian I can say that I start wondering if there's an arsonist. Decades ago now when I was in high school we actually had our school closed for I think three days.
Because there were so many fires in our area there was a new one every single day.
It was dangerous to go outside because of how much ash and smoke was in the air so we had to stay inside all day and the person who did that was an arsonist there was someone who was going around our area purposely trying to light fires so fires can definitely be man -made whether it's by accident or sadly on purpose with an arsonist of course I do feel bad for the people who lost their houses in those recent fires my cousin was one of them she ended up losing her house in the Los Angeles area fires and it's really difficult, it's a really horrible thing to go through.
Of course, I know that wildfires don't just occur in California, that occur all over the United States and in other countries as well.
But I really just wanted to talk about why it is so common here.
As a native Californian, it is something we have to deal with every year, every year there's going to be a fire we know that's going to happen.
And hopefully in the future, we do get better at preventing them and at fighting them because of course it does do a lot of damage to the state to people's lives when they do occur.
I hope you learned something about California and about why we have these wildfires, so when you see them in the news in the future, you understand why they are so common here.
I also hope you learned some new vocabulary terms. A reminder to look at the description of the podcast episode for that vocabulary list so you can see the words and phrases that I used.
so you can study them and use them hopefully soon in conversation yourself.
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