Cw. Body horror. Description of CA wildfires.

Idk why im posting this here. Maybe it's because I feel safest screaming into a void. I'm from Santa Cruz. Among many other places in California, Santa Cruz is experiencing a major crisis right now. The mountains are engulfed in flames that are nowhere near being contained. My college, from which I graduated and with which I have a complicated almost familial relationship, is threatened by these flames. The flora and fauna of Santa Cruz and UCSC are as much my home as my fucking house, and though my house is currently still safe from the fire, I mourn and will continue to mourn the loss of the rest of my home. I moved here almost 7 years ago when I was 17, and in those 7 years I've grown to love and hate this place as much as any other home I've had. It hurts to see it burn like this. The smoke is incredible. The skies are dull orange and clouded with soot. Cars are layered with ash. The sun is red. We are socially distancing during a pandemic while cases are still on the rise in this county, and now we not only wear masks outside of our homes to protect each other from virus, but we wear them inside our homes to limit the black soot and invisible pollution we breathe. Enslaved prison people are typically among the first responders to fires in this state--a predicament so inhumane that it's impossible to claim this state and this country has ever supported the people living in it--and what's also enraging is that due to COVID lockdowns in prisons this year, there are far fewer available hands fighting these fires. It's as if the only way this state can afford survive is by exploiting those who it incarcerates, as if the state's plan every year--every fucking 'fire season' but dont get me started on that--has been to douse uncontainable flames with the bodies of those it actively chooses to ignore. Not to mention this 'fire season' is entirely the result of climate change. This is shameful. It's only fitting that we're getting absolutely annihilated by fires in the same year we are least equipped to assuage them. Life is burning. This feels like the climax of an endless nightmare.