CHAPTER 1: KINDLING
“…the worst in more than a millennium…”
Griffin, Daniel, and Kevin J Anchukaitis. “How Unusual Is the 2012–2014 California Drought?” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 41, no. 24, 28 Dec. 2014, p. 9017–9023., doi:10.1002/2014GL062433.
Annual rainfall in the Owens Valley town of Bishop averages five inches…
“Comparative Climatic Data, 2015.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ghcn/comparative-climatic-data.
…and in drought years measures closer to zero.
Historic weather data compiled from weatherunderground.com
Before that Friday, Swall Meadows consisted of about 120 houses and two hundred people…
2010 official US Census, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2010_place_list_06.txt
In Owens Valley the wind gusted to seventy miles per hour, to ninety, to one hundred…
Vane , Katie. “Miracle Saves Paradise; No Miracle for Swall.” The Sheet, 12 Feb. 2015, http://thesheetnews.com/2015/02/12/miracle-saves-paradise-no-miracle-for-swall/.
(Article quotes CalFire Public Information Officer Bennet Milloy)
...into the lungs of the people who live near the old shoreline.
Roderick , Kevin. “Owens Lake's Dust: Airborne Health Hazard.” Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 1989, http://articles.latimes.com/1989-04-02/news/mn-1380_1_owens-lake-dust
When a cold front moves off the Pacific, wind hurtles over the crest of the Sierra Nevada…
Powell, D.R., and H.E. Klieforth. Natural History of the White-Inyo Range, Chapter 1, “Weather and Climate". Edited by C.A. Hall, University of California Press, 1991
At 7 p.m…. past retirement.
Atleework, Kendra, and Rosanne Higley. “Talks with a volunteer firefighter for the Wheeler Crest Fire Department,” multiple conversations, 2015-2018
…wandered west from Illinois…
Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Facsimile of Original 1932 Edition. Sunstone Press, 2007, p. 176
…in 1888…
ibid.
“…beauty and madness and death and God…”
Austin, Mary Hunter. The Land of Little Rain. Modern Library, 2003, p.71
Mary Austin came to the Eastern Sierra in 1892.
Lanigan, Esther F. Mary Austin: Song of a Maverick. University of Arizona Press, 1997, p. 48
“…leaped suddenly and fastened on your vitals.”
Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Facsimile of Original 1932 Edition. Sunstone Press, 2007, p. 187
…wrote the poet Robinson Jeffers in 1926.
Jeffers, Robinson. “Apology for Bad Dreams.” The New Masses, 1926, p. 10, https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1926/v01n01-may-1926-New%20Masses-2nd-rev.pdf
…been threatened by fire three times…
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection online records for fires in Inyo County; confirmed with Big Pine Volunteer Fire Department
The fire that burned Swall Meadows swallowed seven thousand acres in all.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection incident records
…including its unincorporated areas and the Paiute reservation.
2010 official US Census and Bishop Paiute Tribe website, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2010_place_list_06.txt, http://www.bishoppaiutetribe.com/about-us.html
…at what might have been fifteen miles per hour.
Grassfires in extreme conditions (dryness, wind) can travel faster than 20 km/h = faster than 12.4 mph.
From:
“Grassfires - Rural.” Country Fire Authority, http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/grassfires-rural/
and:
Cheney, Richard B., and Andrew Sullivan. Grassfires: Fuel, Weather and Fire Behaviour. CSIRO Publishing, 2008.