By Mary O’KEEFE

May is Wildfire Awareness Month – nationwide – and Wildfire Preparedness Week in California. 

Fire is something we all think about. We are watching the recovery from the Jan. 7 wildfire that devastated our neighboring communities of Altadena, Pasadena, Arcadia and Sierra Madre. The wind-driven fire was something we were all warned about but, for most of us, never in our wildest nightmares did we think it would happen like it did. 

Winds were clocked at well over 120 mph in the mountains and the winds just didn’t seem to let up. 

This will not be the last wildfire we will be facing, regardless of prescribed burns and new technology to help fight fires. Wildfires for a very long time have been a way of life for Californians and will be a part of the landscape long after we are all gone. 

We need to harden our homes. We need to do whatever we can to make sure we are reducing our fire danger. We need to do this for our houses, our neighborhoods and our safety but what I would like to focus on is something we don’t often talk about: hardening our homes to reduce the dangers our firefighters will be facing. 

My grandpa was a volunteer firefighter in my small hometown in Iowa. I have the photo of Grandpa and fellow firefighters in front of their fire engine. They had one at the time and they were all so proud. 

Grandpa died when my mom was 14 years old; in fact he was buried on her birthday. The story I have heard my entire life is about a fire that occurred at a city building. There were official records in the basement of the building and a volunteer was asked to go down to get them. As was his practice, my grandpa stepped up. Grandpa was lowered by a rope tied around his chest into a hole that had been cut in the floor. My uncle witnessed him being lowered into the smoke-filled basement. Apparently he was down in the basement for a while; all the time the other firefighters were working on extinguishing the fire in the rest of the building. My uncle said it seemed like it took forever but Grandpa was finally pulled up through the floor. He had an armful of paperwork but was unconscious. 

His cough started that next day and never let up. This wasn’t the first time Grandpa had gone into the smoke and fire. There wasn’t breathing apparatus back then, just a cloth over the nose and mouth. His cough got so bad he had to stop working. My grandpa did what a lot of people did back then – he self medicated with liquor. Finally he passed away from what we now know was black lung, also known as coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. He also ended up having lung cancer. He didn’t have a chance. 

I know what the loss of Grandpa did to my mom’s family. I know how tough it was for them but I also know how proud my uncle was for the bravery displayed by Grandpa. 

Every time I see firefighters my thoughts go to their families and to their safety. So when we begin to think about our fire awareness and preparedness, we need to remember that our families and communities are not the only ones we are supporting when we harden our homes.

The forecast on Thursday is sunny with a high near 82 and a low of 62. On Friday and Saturday, the temperatures climb with an expected high of about 87 on Friday (low around 67) and sunny on Saturday with highs approaching 90 degrees/low of 66. Patchy fog is expected Sunday throughout Tuesday.