Princetonians feel impact of California wildfires

While Princeton has been witnessing an Indian Summer these past few days, California has been rescued from its blazes by firefighters and the rain and snow.

Princeton alumni were among the 80,000 Californian residents evacuated who are now trickling home as the Santa Ana winds ease and attention is refocused on disaster relief.

Kevin Staley '75 and his wife left their home in Bell Canyon north of Los Angeles for a local hotel under a voluntary evacuation.

"During the bleak moments just before we left our home," he said by email, "it appeared as if the [Simi Valley] fire was just over a nearby hill."

The winds shifted, however, saving his home and his belongings aside from the necessities he had managed to pack — photos, financial records and his senior thesis. And the mailman who fixed the flat tire Staley attempted to hide from his wife while escaping the fire will, Staley said, "be enjoying a very fine local meal at our expense!"

Others were not so fortunate, and still others have not yet seen the damage done.

Rupert Macnee '69's cabin five miles from the Julian area had been the center of his life for 20 years.

"It was pure oxygen, an antidote to the smog of L.A.," he said in an email.

He watched as the fire ripped through the San Diego back country, sparing Julian itself but wreaking havoc on much of its surroundings.

"I will not be down to Julian until next weekend, and am dreading what I will," Macnee said from his home in Seattle. "It is the 'Cycle of Life' we are telling ourselves. It has been a brutal experience."

Even on campus, some students are feeling the impact.

"It was scary because my step-dad is an L.A. County fireman," said Michael Gallagher '06, who calls the Newport Beach area his home. "He was called in overtime. Every day there would be more and more stories about the fires, so we were worried."

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Those Californian students whose families were not directly affected had friends who were.

"A couple friends were forced to evacuate, and for a while had no idea whether they still had a house or not," said Julian Rachlin '06, who hails from Claremont. "It's tough to imagine having to face that uncertainty."

As the wildfires have been contained, different figurative fires have been fueled — anger at the denial of an earlier request for federal funds for dead tree removal, and anger at the arsonists that sparked the flames.

"It's pretty messed up for somebody to start a fire — causing billions of dollars of damage," said Michael Malacek '07, who lives in Northern California.