The Woolsey Fire

Text and Photos © Steven Cohen

I woke up one morning around the end of November of 2018 and the fire smell was in the air. The Woolsey Fire had reached its most western point and the Pacific Coast Highway was closed. That afternoon I went to Palisades Park along Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica to enjoy the sunset, but the sky was so smoky from the Woolsey fire there almost was no sunset.

I made some images of the sun peeking through the smoke and when the sun finally went down I went home. The air was full of smoke and my chest was hurting. A few days later the fire was contained and finally out. I waited a few more days, and then my curiosity got the better of me. I took my camera, and when the Coast Highway finally opened I headed up to see for myself how bad the fire really had been. As I got to the area of the devastation along the highway right down to the beach. I decided to go inland to see what it was like, and I found a road that went into the heart of the burn area.

My heart sank as I started to drive around. I could see for myself what happened. There were burned trees everywhere, and the houses that were destroyed were one after the other. I turned a corner and I met a man that had managed to save his house. He was sitting dazedly in his front yard. He had sent his family away and stayed to try to save his house with the fire raging around him. How he did this even he could not explain, but he managed to keep the flames away. He was quiet as he related what happened and I got the feeling that he was amazed at what he had done. He asked me to not make any photographs of his house and I agreed, but I felt that he wanted to talk about his scary adventure, and I could see the pride through all the fear he must have experienced. After talking with him for about an hour I set off to make images of the area. It was a shock to see the effects of the fire. Everywhere I went there were houses burned to the foundations. What really surprised me was that in many instances the trees around the houses were completely untouched.

I was struck by the stillness and how quiet it was in this area. There were no birds chirping or dogs barking. I did not see any flying insects, just the stillness and the quiet. Every so often I would hear a chainsaw in the distance, and once in a while I saw someone working to clean up an area. I felt as if I was in a war zone of destruction. I spent a whole day wandering around the area of the houses, and there were a couple of places where I almost laughed to myself. The wheel barrow on a burned tree trunk was one of those places.

Many driveways leading up to houses burned to the ground were seemingly invitations to go visit, but of course nobody was there: no welcome, no house, and no people to say hello. A very lonely and sad feeling overcame me. So I continued making images throughout the day. It was cloudy, fitting the mood I was in, with the sun almost peeking through the clouds. I went home that evening and decided that I would return the next day to continue my documenting.

The next day I returned to concentrate on a few other areas. I spent a lot of time in the back areas looking at trees I knew well, having photographed them many times in the past. It was sad to see them completely naked and burned. Of course these fires are a natural part of the area and I cannot imagine what it was like before people came to live in the area.

I ended up at the beach area on the second day. I was amazed to see how brick bathrooms were completely destroyed, and I could not imagine how hot the fire was to do the damage there. I saw a sign that said “No fires or dogs allowed on the beach” and I laughed at the irony. I would have wanted dogs on the beach instead of the fire. I also found areas on the beach that drained water from the fire, where a lot of ashes were flowing down into the sea. There were dark clouds in the ocean where the refuse piled up, and in many places under bridges and in streams that were completely full of blackened matter flowing into the ocean water. I found these places strangely beautiful.

I finished my shooting and slowly drove home to think about what I saw over the two days. It was interesting to revisit a few months later. In some areas the regrowth of plants was already under way and in some instances houses were already being rebuilt.