After I published my recent piece on the Los Angeles infernos (The Fire This Time), I received — in addition to kind words on the piece — many questions as to whether I was okay.
I am, if a bit stressed, and so is my house. I live in Laurel Canyon and was only 1.5 miles from the Sunset Fire (Runyon Canyon), which threatened Hollywood Blvd. but as I watched from my deck, that fire was suppressed from what you see below to invisibility in about a half hour. That rapid success was possible because the winds weren’t severe enough to ground air assets, unlike the tragic first day of the Palisades and Eaton fires. I was 3/4 mile outside the mandatory evacuation zone and did not evacuate.
Shortly after the fire was controlled, I appeared live on Spectrum News 1 regarding what I had witnessed. It was my 1600th media appearance to date, and was not what I had anticipated that a milestone interview would be about. A heartfelt thanks to all the firefighters, law enforcement and other responders who worked the blazes over the last two weeks, and my condolences to those who lost neighborhoods, homes, pets, property or worse in these fires.
Glad to hear you're OK! And congrats on your 1600th media appearance! My younger daughter is at UCLA, about 1 evacuation zone out from the boundaries of evacuation zone warnings. She evacuated proactively w/ her cats, for a calmer evacuation and better air. It was nice having them for a few days, but wow, not like that, and she still had to teach remotely. (She's a grad student studying disease ecology).
I haven't seen your writing in a while, but I'm discovering that substack has evolved to be a worthwhile place to frequent frequently, so now I know how to fix that!