After the fire had retreated and the evacuation orders were lifted, my mother took me on a walk through our backyard. The pale dust of the southern California landscape had turned black with soot, and the desert creatures — quails and rattlesnakes — were frozen, ash-coated, in Pompeian tableaus. My family was lucky: While other homes on the block were reduced to rubble, we just had to contend with melted window panes.
I was 5 years old when the 2003 Cedar Fire tore through San Diego County. At the time, it was the largest wildfire in modern California history, burning more than 270,000 acres, destroying 2,820 buildings and killing 15 people. It now stands as only the 10th-largest fire on California’s record. It was surpassed first in 2012, and then again and again, eight more times — all in the last seven years.
Not long after the Cedar Fire, my mom and I packed up and moved across the country to Raleigh, North Carolina. The fire wasn’t the main reason we moved, but North Carolina’s mild climate certainly had its appeal. California had long been the land of earthquakes, infernos and droughts. North Carolina, on the other hand, was known for its temperate weather, leafy green trees and houses affordable enough for a single mom like mine to buy.
I’ve now called North Carolina home for more than 20 years. Even after I moved away for work and school, North Carolina has remained the center of my gravity, where my mom still lives, and where so many of my loved ones and memories are rooted. Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of others have relocated to North Carolina, too, making it one of the fastest growing states in the U.S. Raleigh’s population has nearly doubled since 2000, and dozens of other cities have surged in popularity.
One of those booming areas is Asheville, located about four hours west of Raleigh in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I visited Asheville often growing up, watching firsthand as it grew in size and blossomed into a national destination. But I spent most of my time in Boone, the mountain town where Appalachian State University is located. A family friend owned a cabin there, and in the summer, we’d lug our orange kayaks to the New River and paddle downstream, winding past cow fields and fly fishermen casting their lines. In the winter, we’d pile chopped........