SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There is no fire season any more, there are just fires — a recently popularized adage that’s becoming more true every year. Yet summer remains the most dangerous time for wildfires in California and surrounding western states. In just the last few days, Sacramento’s air quality has been affected by fires viewable from Highway 50 as well as from smoky air wafting in from Napa and Solano Counties.
I saw one recent fire up close. As I pulled onto the freeway Memorial Day morning, there was a familiar, blackened hillside with tufts of gray smoke rising. Red sirens flashed behind the smoke and cars slowed to rubberneck.
But I already knew there was a fire nearby the second I stepped outside. From my first breath out the front door, the hair on the back of my neck raised. I stopped — inhaled again — and confirmed: There was a fire nearby.
Once you know the smell of wildfire smoke, it never leaves you. It is, simply put, a trauma response. Mine stems from a year spent sifting through the ruins of Paradise, Concow and Magalia after the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County.
While numerous studies have explored the respiratory and physical effects of smoke inhalation — particularly in pregnant women, children, the elderly and the immunocompromised — there have been relatively few studies that focus on the emotional distress caused by mass smoke events.
“Even when wildfire is not a direct threat to life, associated wildfire smoke events take physical, psychological and economic tolls on residents,” according to one of them, a 2022 study recently published in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal, BMC Public Health. “Projected increases in wildfire events may result in an additional 25 million people exposed to multi-day wildfire smoke events in the Western United States by the middle of the 21st century.”
The very nature of wildfires are uncertain — a simple shift in the wind can suddenly cause mass evacuations and emergencies. So it’s natural to feel anxious or upset when there’s smoke in the air. In extreme cases, mental health can begin to affect physical health via headaches, nausea and chest pain. Survivors of wildfires also report higher cases of depression and anxiety.
Long-term exposure to air pollution can make people more susceptible to airborne infections like COVID, while hotter and drier summers increase the frequency and intensity of large wildfires that contribute to smoke inhalation, according to a 2021 report by the American Psychological Association (APA), Climate for Health and EcoAmerica.
When you live in a western state, everything from ash in the air to the sound of fire sirens down the street may trigger a traumatic response. So how do you escape it?
The APA suggests joining an existing community group working on climate solutions to alleviate climate anxiety.
“Getting involved with a group or organization already working on climate change, whether it is a non-profit, a professional association, a faith group or another entity, not only adds further energy to their efforts, but also enhances individual and community resilience through enhanced social networks,” the APA states.
Personally, I keep a go-bag in my car every summer. It makes me feel better knowing I’m ready to leave in case of an emergency.
It’s a practice born out of experience. I’ve talked with too many people who survived the Camp Fire with nothing but the clothes on their back and the gas left in their tank. Their stories of driving through smoke and flames sound like a horror movie. And yet it’s all too real — the scene replays itself year after year all over our state.
Facing a wildfire on your front steps is a dangerous position I never want to find myself in; so even though I no longer live in a rural county, I keep a list tucked in my wallet of important things to grab. My roommate knows what three things to grab for me if I’m not home, and, in the summer, my car’s gas tank is always at least half-filled.
Every summer, thousands of people in California learn what it’s like to live through another fire season. We must begin to create a culture of care for survivors of repeat wildfire events. And, at the very least, it’s time to start talking about the emotional toll exacted by climate change.
____
