Brian Fies is a cartoonist from Santa Rosa, California. On October 9, 2017 wildfires burned through Northern California, resulting in 44 fatalities. In addition, 6,200 homes and 8,900 structures were destroyed. He wrote an 18-page webcomic to describe and deal with the fire and the losses it brought to his family and community. Fies later expanded on the webcomic and ink-penned an account of the catastrophe – A Fire Story.
Unfortunately it seems Brian Fies graphic novel A Fire Story will be an ongoing
empathetic experience for people around the world for some time to come.
But I think communities that have been through disasters like ours take decades to recover, not months or years. I often think of kids whose childhoods are defined by the event, whose big memory of being five years old will be the night their house burned down and they ran for their lives.
As fires rage once again (still?), CounterPunch interviewed Brian.
The fact is, I don’t miss 95 percent of the stuff I lost. The catch is that the other 5 percent breaks my heart. We left a car in the garage that melted into a puddle that I haven’t spent even a minute thinking about, but I will always miss the first sonogram showing that my wife was going to have twins.
Thanks, D.D.!