Fires and Fame

I doubt that too many people in New York City would be concerned if a rural community in Central California was threatened by a wildfire. If fire threatens a town named Mariposa or Midpines or Mount Bullion, well, so be it. But if you add the tag “Yosemite” it becomes big news.

Off and on all day I have been listening to KCBS, a news radio station from San Francisco, and our little fire leads off the national news every hour. Again, because of Yosemite. (Our fire got demoted to second place when some nut-case blasted nine people in a Tennessee church with a shotgun.)

Perhaps what’s happening here is that news organizations tailor their product to only those things that people can relate to. If something happens in an area that most people never heard of it simply doesn’t become “news.” So far this fire is tiny compared to the enormous blazes that threatened Big Sur, and the town of Goleta near Santa Barbara, but it has the potential to threaten access to one of America’s iconic National Parks.

So that’s why it’s making news.

As of now it has grown to 18,150 acres and threatens 2,000 residences in the communities of Midpines, Briceburg, Mariposa, Greenley Hill, Coulterville, Bear Valley, and Mt. Bullion Camp. Containment so far: zero.