By Jeff Warren


Record temperatures were recorded all over Northern California on Friday, the 20th. As I write this, it is Monday the 23rd. There is a breeze in the air and the temperature is almost sweater weather-this--two days after the summer solstice when it is generally, mucho caliente.

Of course, this June 23rd is unlike other June 23rds over the past century (I think). Today, there is no blue sky. If one looks north towards Mt. St. Helena, he does not see the peak which Russian surveyors named in 1841. He sees soot, brown haze, and "particulate matter." Thanks to wild fires in the South County, our upper Valley looks a lot like the L.A. basin in the early 60's, before California got its act together and cleaned up the automotive pollution which was choking the state.

Those of us of a certain age remember how awful the air in California used to be. Back in the days when California public school education was the envy of the rest of the country, brown haze (not purple) surrounded most metropolitan areas-Sacramento, The Bay Area, L.A. and San Diego.

It kill one to say it, but government actually gets much credit for this. New emission standards, smog checks, and factory pollution protocols literally cleared the air. It's not perfect, but like racism in these United States, the air over the State of California is a lot better than it used to be. Occasionally, like World War II, the Apollo project, Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting--the Government gets it right.

Late this afternoon, The Goobs flew in from Europe and landed in Oakland. All she saw were fires-on both sides of the plane for the last hour of the flight.

The papers talk of some 800 fires--most started by lightening. Up here, we're only concerned about one--the one whose residue is blocking the view of Mt. St. Helena.

It is the fondest prayer of all who live here that no homes will be damaged and no life will be lost. St. Helenans are not unused to fires. We remember the one in '64 which went from Mt. St. Helena all the way to Santa Rosa (though urban legend says that the Cabs that year were extra-ordinary thanks to the unusually high temperatures due to the conflagration).

We have been suffering the effects of the Atlas Peak fire since 1981. Erosion anyone? Any studies about how that affected the salmon?

In '78 a fire started on Howell Mt. Rd., came up through the Faskin Ranch, the Daly's and surrounded the Lazy J. Jeff Streblow led Napa Valley's finest with 12 trucks, planes dropping orange fire retardant, and helicopters refilling their buckets in Nell McVeagh's lake.

Finally, after Maggie had dumped her mother's silver (it was a wedding present) in the pool and loaded the car with family albums, she told Jeff, "I think I'll take the dogs and drive down the road to town."

"Sorry, Mrs. Warren," Jeff said. " The fire's crossed the road and none of us can leave."

They saved the house, barn and most of the corrals. Yes. We know about fires.
But what is most interesting about this fire is the smoke. We're socked in. How many tons of particulate matter are in the air right now?

As you may be aware, the city wants to ban fireplaces, due to "particulate" matter. The Napa Supervisors want to do the same in the county.

Anyone care to guess how many family fires it would take to match the pollution which is so dense today it is literally "cooling the earth?"

We could probably burn fires in fire places for 100 years, and not match the dirt that has been in the sky for days, from this one fire.

But it's a health risk, they say. They're always looking out for us.

So here's the challenge: Currently no one can produce scientific evidence (I've asked) that we burn enough in St. Helena fire places to pose a health risk to anyone. So let's measure it.

Why not compare the number of respiratory related emergency room visits over the duration of the fire, to the same dates over the last five years.

Then compare those same five days to any five day period in any winter.

Clearly, the number of visits for cardiovascular, respiratory or asthmatic problems will be exponentially higher during this current fire period. How much more?

Someone knows how much smoke is put out when one acre burns. Multiply that by 4,000. They also know how much smoke comes from one chimney. Multiply the number of chimney's emitting smoke in St. Helena during, say five days in December. Figure out the "parts per million", compare it to the parts per million put out by this fire-and voila!

The same folks who want to ban fire places are on a tear to rip down "illegal" off stream dams, stop vineyards in the hills, and "de-commission" dirt roads. All of these are vital to fighting fires and preventing thousands of acres of erosion from washing into the river and tossing thousands of tons of dirt in the air.

Last year's Angora fire cost $23 million to fight. Think how much thinning of our western hills we could do with just $10 million?

Instead of spending dollars and man-hours in meetings trying to take freedoms away from individuals, wouldn't it be more constructive to develop policies which would encourage more vineyards, roads, dams and forest thinning in the hills?

Think about it. If we work together to incentivize land owners to do these things, perhaps we can avoid The Fire Next Time.