The eyes of the nation turned to Santa Cruz County this weekend as the Lockheed Fire raged through the brush. CNN focused on the drought and winds, while USA Today described the rugged terrain that has complicated firefighting efforts. The Wall Street Journal discussed the cost of fighting wildfires in cash-strapped California, which approached almost $1 billion in 2007 alone (figures for 2008 are still being calculated). The paper added that in addition to a professional team of 26,000 firefighters, in an emergency the state could also call on 4,000 trained prison inmates, who would receive $1 an hour to fight the flames. Even when news stations in other cities lumped all of California’s eleven wildfires together, as KETV of Omaha did, the Lockheed Fire tended to climb to the top of the list, with dramatic shots of firefighters spraying the flames from the land and the air, while rescuing people, animals, and homes.
Until this morning, that is. With the 7,000-acre fire more than half contained, public attention wandered across the country to Pensacola, Florida, where the season’s first tropical storm has struck.
