Collegiate Times

California is burning and it could use our help. While these fires may not have captured our attention with the immediate trauma that Hurricane Katrina brought us, with its sudden onslaught of rain and flooding, the fires in Southern California are just as damaging as the hurricane.

Reports of people leaving their homes in the hundreds of thousands keep coming in, and many evacuees have left the state or are in shelters. Sadly, these fires won't be subsiding soon, and President Bush will be going to the affected areas today to show solidarity and pledge funding and support for fighting the fires and for rebuilding after they are contained.

Red Cross and other charitable organizations are in the area and are asking for help, and it would be great to see the Virginia Tech community unite for this worthy cause.

Luckily, the number of deaths and injuries thus far are far fewer than we saw in New Orleans, and the destruction has mostly been kept to property, which unlike lives, can be replaced. But this will be a massive undertaking for California and the country to replace and rebuild.

Johnny Kilroy, a member of Virginia Tech's Wildfire Crew, said that while wildfires are natural and seasonal, sometimes fires can get out of control. The Virginia Tech Wildfire Crew responds to local wildfires, typically those that occur in Montgomery and Pulaski counties, and have been dispatched three times to work with the Pulaski Fire Department.

Kilroy said that in the summer, several members volunteered out west on an individual basis, but was not sure if the Wildfire Crew would go as a group to help the patchwork of fire departments, forest services and state and local crews fighting the California fires.

Kilroy also pointed out that after these fires die out, "there won't be a big fire like that for a while, because all of the excess fuel, like dry grasses and weeds, will all be gone."

Let us hope that he is right and that California will not have more fires in the near future. Most wildfires do happen away from urban areas, but as the environment and ecosystem may change and urban areas sprawl out, they do hit closer to home than we would like.

The rebuilding process will be long and painful. Homes will need to be rebuilt, rail and highway systems will need to be reconnected to San Diego and other urban centers. California needs the nation's support, and let us not fail them in sending donations and other needed items, just like we rallied around those affected by Katrina.