[NYTr] Class, Race and the California Wildfires

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)

Reuters - Oct 25, 2007

Charred bodies of migrants found in path of California fires

By Dan Whitcomb

Border patrol agents discovered four charred bodies in rugged 
mountains near the Mexican border on Thursday, bringing the probable 
death toll from California's wildfires to 12, even as firefighters 
gained the upper hand in their five-day battle.

Agents found the badly burned remains, thought to be three males and 
a female, at the bottom of a rocky ravine in the mountains east of 
San Diego, about 3 miles from the Mexican border.

Together with two other burned bodies found earlier Thursday in a 
house in San Diego county, the discovery doubled the probable death 
toll from the fires. At least 60 people have been injured.

As crews used a break in the weather to bring most of the fires under 
control, President George W. Bush surveyed the devastated areas and 
met with a few of the estimated 500,000 people who fled their homes 
in California's largest mass evacuation.

Bush, who was roundly criticized for his handling of Hurricane 
Katrina in 2005, flew over hard-hit San Diego in a helicopter with 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and visited charred 
neighborhoods.

"It really is important for me to come out here and see first hand 
the situation, and there's no question a lot of people are suffering, 
and there's no question there's been terrible losses," Bush said.

The four bodies found near the Mexican border were likely illegal 
immigrants who were overrun by flames as they walked through the 
rugged terrain. The remote area is often used by coyotes -- guides 
who smuggle people into the United States for profit.

They appeared to have died in the Harris fire, U.S. Border Patrol 
spokesman Matthew Johnson said.

"It seems fire related. The Harris fire at the border was out there," 
Johnson said.

2,000 HOMES GONE

About 2,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged since Sunday, when 
wildfires began breaking out across the southern half of the state.

"These fires are among the worst disasters in California history, and 
the president and I just had a heartbreaking tour of the disaster," 
Schwarzenegger said.

The wildfires broke out during the weekend after the winds began to 
blow in from the desert at more than 80 mph (130 kph). They have 
blackened more than 800 square miles in a parched region that 
suffered its driest summer on record.

San Diego County has suffered some $1 billion in losses, and three of 
the largest fires were still burning there, mostly in the eastern, 
less populated part of the county.

But most evacuees were allowed to return home and Qualcomm Stadium, 
which had provided shelter for some 10,000 people at the height of 
the disaster, was closed.

Steve Conner, 62, whose home was one of 30 reduced to ruins on his 
block in suburban San Diego, described the moment he confronted the 
loss of his house and neighborhood as a "total breakdown."

"Emotionally, it was just beyond belief," the Vietnam War infantry 
veteran said, his voice shaking. "It's just totally wiped out. All 
the trees are black. ... it just reminded me of Vietnam. It just 
reminded me of a war zone."

One of the last major battles was in Orange County, where 
firefighters were trying to stop the 25,000-acre Santiago fire.

The blaze, which has destroyed 14 homes and was burning into the 
Cleveland National Forest, was being investigated by local 
authorities as well as the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and 
Firearms as an arson. A $150,000 reward had been offered for 
information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

A risk firm said insured losses from the fires would likely cost 
between $900 million and $1.6 billion.

(Additional Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited

                              ***

Workers World - Nov 1, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/us/calif-fires-1101/

Class, race and the California wildfires

By Teresa Gutierrez

On the East Coast, an unprecedented warm October reminds us all about
the crisis in climate change. It is fall, but the trees are still
green, flowers are still blooming, birds still sing and, troublingly,
there is no need for a jacket.

But on the West Coast, the burning fires of Southern California are a
stark and painful reminder that the times they are a-changing—and not
for the good.

As of this writing, almost half a million people have had to flee their
homes in Southern California as a result of wildfires that started Oct.
21. An estimated 700 houses and businesses as well as 260,000 acres
have been destroyed.

One person has been reported dead and more than 20 people have been
injured. [Note: this figure is climbing; it's now at least 10 dead,
including four Mexican migrants found burned on a hillside. See
Reuters story above. -NYTr]

The fire is being called one of the worst in California’s history, a
“perfect storm,” prompting both Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and
President George Bush to declare the area a national emergency.
Schwarzenegger is deploying National Guard soldiers to help support the
6,000 firefighters who are fighting the flames.

Within two days, there were at least 14 separate fires raging
throughout Southern California, covering a region from north of Los
Angeles to south of the Mexican border.

More than 316 fire engines, 19 air tankers, 15 bulldozers and eight
helicopters are being used to fight the infernos. Help is being
requested from Northern California, Arizona and Nevada.

The Associated Press reports that the fires are so extensive that
several of them could be seen from space. Due to strong winds, which
are erratic and unpredictable, there is no telling where other fires
will move or start up.

It remains to be seen if the fires will rival the record wildfires of
2003 that killed 22 people, destroyed more than 3,300 structures and
caused more than $2 billion in damages.

What really caused the fire?

One of the firefighters on the site stated that “strong winds, totally
dry” led to perfect storm conditions.

But Mike Davis, an academic who writes prolifically about California,
takes another view. His writings have been labeled as fringe leftist
ranting by the right wing. However, his book, “Ecology of Fear: Los
Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster,” was on the Los Angeles Times
bestseller list for weeks. His views about the fires of Southern
California should be noted.

Are the fires burning in Southern California, and the destruction they
bring, inevitable? Or are they avoidable?

Davis documents that fires in the Southern California region of Malibu
are part and parcel of California history. Spanish conquistadors could
see vast blazes along the coast when they arrived.

Back then, due to a healthy respect for the earth by Indigenous people,
the Native Chumash and Tongva peoples annually burned brush in that
area. These fires, it turns out, were ultimately beneficial in
recycling nutrients in the earth and ensuring seed germination.

It is therefore natural that this region burns. What is unnatural and
avoidable is building in areas that should not be built in. But the
rich have to have their ocean views, don’t they?

What is unnatural is the drier climate, possibly resulting in more
wildfires, as a result of capitalist polluters who have ruined the
environment. And what is unnatural are the racist and class divisions
that result in the allotting of resources when disaster strikes.

Malibu, Westlake & New Orleans: lesson in racism & class oppression

Davis compares the wealthy and star-studded neighborhood of Malibu with
that of Westlake, an area in Los Angeles where many immigrants and
Latin at s live.

It is commonly known that August through October is California’s
wildfire season. It is then, Davis writes, “when Westlake and Malibu
suffer a common lot: catastrophic fire.”

But there the similarity stops.

Westlake, it turns out, has the “highest urban fire incidence in the
nation: one of its two fire stations was inundated by an incredible
20,000 emergency calls in 1993,” Davis notes. Many of the sites of
these fires are in tenements and apartment hotels.

Malibu is the “wildfire capital” possibly for the world, Davis
contends. A large fire in the area occurs every two and half years.

“The two species of conflagration (between Malibu and Westlake) are
inverse images of each other. Defended in 1993 by the largest army of
firefighters in (U.S.) history, wealthy Malibu homeowners benefited as
well from an extraordinary range of insurance, land use and disaster
relief subsidies. Yet as most experts will readily concede, periodic
firestorms of this magnitude are inevitable as long as residential
development is tolerated in the fire ecology of the Santa Monicas.”

A film executive protected his home against the current blaze with his
own private firefighting team that has been on his payroll.

In Westlake, on the other hand, most of the “119 fatalities from
tenement fires in the Westlake and Downtown areas might have been
prevented had slumlords been held to even minimal standards of building
safety.”

The differences between the growing rich and the poor, between the
working class and the bourgeoisie are becoming more evident everyday.

This obscene difference in class society will result in tumultuous
struggles. The victims of Katrina and Rita will unite with the
immigrants of Westlake and all decent minded people will rise up to
reclaim justice. What will burn to a crisp then is not Southern
California but capitalism.

“Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster” is
available at www.Leftbooks.com

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww at workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net

                        ***

sent by Steven Robinson

AP Via San Jose Mercury News - Oct 26, 2007
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7292148?nclick_check=1

[Gulag - California style. SR]

Inmates brought in to help fight Southern California wildfires

By Garance Burke
Associated Press

Lake Arrowhead, Calif.-They've stolen cars, used drugs and forged
checks. When California is burning, they fight fires. About a quarter
of the 14,000 firefighters defending homes and businesses in Southern
California from wildfires this week have been prisoners, officials
said. Of the 4,400 inmates trained to battle fires in the state, 3,091
were on the front lines Friday from Lake Arrowhead south to San Diego.

"It's very close to the most we've ever used," said Seth Unger, a
spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation. About 3,000 inmates were used in 2003 during the Cedar
Fire north of San Diego.

"We have to keep some of them back. We can't deploy every one of them."

Not every inmate qualifies to be a firefighter. Those who do-male or
female-must be physically fit, have no history of violent crime and have
four to 36 months remaining on their sentences, Unger said.

Once chosen, inmates undergo a grueling, four-week program that includes
training in fire safety and suppression. The program has been in
existence since the 1940s and makes inmates available for other natural
disasters such as earthquakes and flooding.

Inmates earn only $1 an hour for their work so officials estimate the
savings to California taxpayers every year is about $80 million. That's
based on 3 million hours for firefighting and other emergencies, and
another 7 million hours in community service. Inmates earn two days of
credit for every day on the fire lines.

"The program provides great benefits to both the state and the inmate,"
Unger said. "The inmate not only gets to be outside, but gives back to
the community, in some cases the same communities they may have
victimized before."

Inmates are often sent to cut fire breaks in locations that can't be
reached by heavy machinery. They also help protect homes and businesses.

In Lake Arrowhead, where the stubborn Slide Fire scorched has burned
more than 13,000 acres and destroyed at least 200 homes, more than 220
inmate firefighters were on the lines, said Lt. William Mock, who runs
Fenner Canyon, a prison inmate camp in Valyermo.

They stood in line Friday evening filling their plates with turkey,
peas and mashed potatoes in a makeshift kitchen in Snow Valley, a ski
resort serving as a base camp. All wore orange jumpsuits marked "CDC
PRISONER," instead of the canary yellow suits worn by most fire crews.

"Everybody's just hanging in there, trying to get through this," said
Jose Robert Rosales, 23, of Norwalk. "We got axes, we got tools, we cut
lines, we make sure none of the houses get burnt."

Rosales said being on the fire lines had helped him to think ahead to
what he wanted to do after completing his prison sentence: get back to
work at his father-in-law's body shop.

"The program has helped me a lot physically and mentally," said
Rosales, who was convicted of great bodily injury and terrorist threats
four years ago. "There's less stress, and you get to go out more and
make more money, which will help me when I get out."

The work is grueling.

"These guys here are working hard on 24 hour-shifts," said Kaliko
Johansen, 35, an inmate crew supervisor from Las Vegas, Nev.

"It's like working with anyone else, you've got good guys and bad guys
out there, the majority of them just want to fight the fire," he said.

Johansen was working alongside an inmate crew using axes, shovels and
chainsaws to cut a fire break in an effort to stop the advance of the
fire.

"Those crews are a doing a lot of the grunt work," said Adam Shay, an
engineer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"They're gonna have some work ahead of them for a while."

At least one inmate has died in the line of duty. In July 1999, a male
inmate died in Ventura County when he fell from a hillside.

Some firefighters said without the help of inmates, the blazes may have
caused more destruction.

"I think it would be very hard without them. It would really impact us,"
said Breck Wright, a state firefighter who said he has worked side by
side with inmates on dozens of occasions. "They are very effective,
hard-working and are well-trained. They know what they are doing."

Associated Press Writer Greg Risling in Los Angeles contributed to this
report.