How Climate Change Affected My Life

By: Victoria Price

I have been effected personally by climate change. I am from a small town in San Diego County
called Fallbrook. No one has really heard of it unless you are a local. I have lived there my whole life and
there isnt much to do. Fallbrook is known for its avocado farms, but for the last 10 years or so the trees
have been dying because of the drought and changing of warm weather. The farms have been becoming
very dry which leaves lots of brush. Fallbrook is right on the border of a military base called Camp
Penelton and there are always bombing or some loud shenanigans going on there. It may be boring at
times, but I still love it and it will always be my home. Now, after you know a little about my town I am
going to tell you about the day that my town was almost burn down. October 21, 2007 was a Monday.
The Santa Ana winds were kicking up and blowing through San Diego. It started out as a normal day, I
was in class at Potter Jr. High as a seventh grader. As the day went on the sky started to get smoky and the
air smelt like burning brush. I was released from school early around 12 o clock because we were told to
go home and start packing our things if the fires got worse. It was a persuasion. The fires started not too
far away just across the 15 freeway that runs along our town about 10 minutes east. My family and I
thought that the firefighters had it under control, but we still started to gather some things just in case the
fire progressed. Well we started packing up more stuff when ash started to blow through the air. My sister
and I have asthma so it was not good for us to be breathing in ash and other smoke particles. Ash from the
fire started to spread due to the Santa Annas. Fires started up in different areas from the blowing ash and
the first fire across the 15 freeway jumped to the other side. At this point we didnt know that the fires
were becoming so severe until we got a call from our sheriffs department telling us to effectuate which
was around 3 oclock in the afternoon. I was terrified. We threw everything we could fit in our car and left
our house around 4 pm. The roads were backed up with other families who were trying to leave also. We
couldnt see the road too far in front of us because the smoke was so severe. We tried to get on the
freeway because we figured that would be the quickest way to get out of town, but it was closed due to

the wildfires. Firefighters were blocking the on ramp. We could see flames across the way and we quickly
turned around. The only way to get out of town fast was to go west which was up in flames too. As we
drove down mission, this is a road that leads to highway 76 which goes all the way to the coast, we see
hundreds of cars stopped in traffic trying to head the other direction. My family and I knew that we were
making the right decision to head west and take a different route. We eventually hit traffic and had to use
side roads to get out quick. The town south of us, Vista, was experiencing wildfires as well. We had to go
through thick clouds of fog like smoke until we finally reached the Oceanside which is the coast around 6
oclock pm. It normally only takes about 25 minutes to drive to Oceanside from Fallbrook, but it took us
almost 3 hours because of the evacuation. We headed north up I-5 and continued to my Grandmothers
house in Santa Clarita county. We arrived around 9 pm. We stayed at my grandmothers for about a week
until we got the OK that we could head back home. That whole week I was so afraid that my house would
be gone when I came back home. My dad tried to come back to our house to get some important things
we left behind including my asthma medication, but my town was completely blocked off with police and
concrete barriers at every entrance. Luckily they understood that my dad needed to get my medication,
but if not they would not have let him back in because the fires were so out of control. The fires were
contained and almost gone around Friday. We came home on Saturday and we could see the devastation
that the fires had brought upon our town. Hills were black and houses were piles of burnt ash. The fire
burnt more on the outskirts of town so most of our central town was still standing. I was lucky that my
house was still standing, but others not so much. One of my friends, at the time, came back to house that
was completely gone. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to have everything you had just gone. Ever
since that October 2007 year we have experienced many more wildfires. We almost had to evacuate last
year around March. Climate change is a definite factor in the wildfires that my town has and is
experiencing. Warmer weather means drier land which is perfect for a fire to burn through. Climate
change is not going to stop it is just going to get progressively worse unless we as a state a country do
something about it.