When I got Julie Cart on the line, I asked her to look out her window for me.

Well, you know there's a fire.

Julie lives just outside of Los Angeles, a few miles from the Bobcat fire.

As of the time of this recording, it was zero percent contained and growing.

The sky is orange.

We live in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, which we can see normally.

Right now, I can't see anything.

It's very, very smoky.

Ash is kind of banked up in curbs and on cars and all over the place.

So there's a white paw on everything.

And if I were to step outside it here, helicopters and planes and, you know, the aerial firefighting aspect that's very common.

And are your neighbors around? Did most people leave?

It's not an order. Where we live, it is a warning. It's get yourself, they like to say,

ready, set go. so we're set.

Julie's got these big blue IKEA bags by her door,

filled with all the stuff she'd need to get out of town.

Her car is parked nose out in case she's got to peel out of there fast.

Living where she does, prepping for an evacuation has become routine.

So, yeah, you look at maps, you keep your ear to the ground or wherever you need to keep your ear to get information, but it's a full-time job now.

For most of Julie's neighbors, fire isn't a full-time job the way it is for her.

She's covered climate change and its impact on California's wildfires for more than a decade.

She had a Pulitzer Prize for her work.

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