The California Wildfires that started a few weeks ago have impacted many people by destroying their property, killing their loved ones, and getting rid of their morale.
In an interview with IMS civics teacher, David DeGraw, he made many statements about these catastrophic fires.
“People that could be most affected by these fires would be people that would not have another place to go. People with a lot of money and assets might be able to move though,” DeGraw said. “First, the state has to remove debris and rebuild which could take a long time, and those people need a place to live while the rebuilding process goes on.”
The American Red Cross has provided as many as 9,400 overnight shelters and many meals and snacks to displaced people in California.
“I can’t tell what the federal government and American Red Cross are giving aid,” DeGraw said. “I don’t know exactly what they are doing.”
Due to extremely dry conditions in southern California, mixed with hurricane-force winds is the worst-case scenario since fires with dry weather and high winds will speed up the process of spreading the fires. Due to this, the next victims of the wildfire was San Diego.
The fires spread to San Diego on Tuesday, January 21st. San Diego is around 120 miles south of Los Angeles.
However, one of the only reasons that the people of California still have hope is because of first responders.
“If there is a house fire, people are running out of the house. However, firefighters are running into the house,” DeGraw said. “If there is a robber in your house, you are going to hide from the robber while the police run towards the bad guy. Just like that, first responders run into danger.”
Not only first responders but the people of California may be traumatized by this catastrophe.
“I think it could scare people,” DeGraw said.
Although many people have said that these fires have been started intentionally, there is no solid evidence for people to be arrested or tracked down by federal authorities. Firefighters and police officers are on the ground investigating possible traces to who could have started these fires. Prayers are with the victims of the fires.
