- The author is a California native who grew up witnessing reoccurring wildfires.
- She moved to Indiana due to rampant West Coast wildfires and climate change concerns.
- She’s urged her friends and family to leave California as well and doesn’t plan on returning.
When I graduated from high school in 2004, there were over 8,000 wildfires across California.
I was born and raised in Southern California, and I’ve experienced more than my fair share of wildfires. In fact, it’s one of the major reasons I left and continue to call Indiana home. I’ve toyed with the idea of returning someday, but the constant fires — and larger climate change and land mismanagement problems — keep me from buying property there.
I’ve urged my family and friends from high school to leave, but California can be a bubble. When life is good, no one sees the problems: the increase in homelessness, traffic, etc.
California wildfires have always been a part of my adult life
In 2009, when I graduated from UCLA, over 9,000 wildfires burned across the region from February through November, well beyond the typical fire season. It was worsened by years of drought.
That summer, I watched billows of smoke rise above the skyscrapers in the deadliest fire of the season, the Station Fire, north of LA, before we were all urged to hop into gridlock to evacuate. It was hellish: choking smoke and nowhere to go on the 110 freeway.
In 2018, wildfires struck again. This time my family had moved to Irvine, California, and I was on a date at a Barnes and Noble in Aliso Viejo. My date and I were suddenly urged to drop everything. Fleeing the parking lot, I snapped a quick picture of smoke in the distance, burning dangerously close to Soka University, where I used to teach.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Mastro
That evening, lying in bed, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My family members felt the same, and later, we installed the highest-quality HEPA filters we could find and portable ones we could move throughout the house.
I left California and moved to Indiana
I moved to Southern Indiana a year prior, in 2017, and still live here now. As a freelance writer of home tours, I encounter many ex-Californians living here and in the Midwest more generally. Concerns about climate change and the fires that result from it are at the top of our list for moving away.
Californians seem to be moving to Indiana and Michigan for access to clean water at the Great Lakes — but that’s just my pet theory.
The cost of living is much lower here than in California, and I really feel like I’m a part of a community. People tend to know their neighbors, and there’s much less sprawl, so there are plenty of green spaces and state forests to wander in.
Still, Indiana is a more rural state, so everyday conveniences can be difficult to find outside the major cities like Indianapolis and Fort Wayne — there’s no Starbucks on every corner.
I love visiting California, but I’d never buy property there
This year, the Palisades fire was projected to be the costliest in California’s history. I’m frustrated with the state’s wildfire strategy, which has prioritized fire suppression over prevention for years.
Though millions of dollars are spent on California fire prevention, efforts like removing dead and felled trees aren’t enough in the face of climate change, which has lengthened the state’s dry season.
What’s more, places like LA are experiencing budget cuts that impact emergency responses to natural disasters, and it’s unclear if fire insurance requirements will hold in urban areas that have been densified to meet housing demands.
Based on my experiences, I believe California’s fire season will only grow and worsen
I’m not surprised to hear about the fire hydrants running dry in Los Angeles. SoCal gets much of its water from the Colorado River — which has been drying up of late. Every year SoCal experiences more water cuts.
In the early 2000s, we were asked not to water our lawns, and starting in 2022, businesses were forbidden from watering decorative grasses. The lack of fresh water is a real problem making the fire season worse.
I miss seeing my family, but for all these reasons and more, I’m hesitant to move back to California.
If you moved away from your hometown and would like to share your story, please email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.
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