The terrible fires in Los Angeles are part of a pattern. I don’t mean the latest in a series of weather-related disasters, although that’s true. The number of billion-dollar disasters each year is steadily rising, reaching an annual average of 23 over the last five years.

No, I’m thinking more about the mindset of people watching the disasters from far away. Most of the disasters — fires, hurricanes — are happening in the southern part of the U.S., which you could expect would heat up. I was feeling the same way — those poor people out there in far-off California. Then I remembered the Gazette reporting the fire at Fitzgerald Lake in late October, burning 55 acres. That same article reported 200 fires in Massachusetts during the previous month.

I decided to check some numbers on Mass.gov. Their data shows that the frequency of droughts in our area is increasing. After a drought in 2002, 15 years passed before the next one, so people in Massachusetts could be forgiven for thinking that drought was not much of an issue for us.

But since 2017, the picture has changed. We’ve had droughts every year or two, taking a toll on farmers and leaving us much more vulnerable to wildfires. This is exactly the future that climate scientists have long predicted for New England: heavier rainstorms with more flooding but also hotter, drier summers.

The 2024 dry spell had consequences. Last year, 1,250 sizable brush fires in Massachusetts burned more than 4,500 acres. October in particular experienced a 1,200% increase above the monthly average of fires. A few weeks after the Lake Fitzgerald fire, the Butternut fire in Great Barrington consumed more than 1,700 acres.

My point is, climate change doesn’t only happen somewhere far away anymore. What about us? What happens when the next drought comes along? Like so many people around here, I live 100 feet from a pocket of woods. That’s a reason I bought the house. But back then I never considered that climate change might make the trees dangerous.

Now I wonder how well-prepared local fire departments will be when that next drought comes. Will we see another record-setting month of wildfires? What if, like in L.A., we face an unholy combination of factors, an extended drought plus especially fierce winds? If 2025 brings us unprecedented conditions, that pocket of woods near my house may become a tinderbox. Will there be helicopters at the ready to scoop up water from Nashawannuck Pond?

It seems smarter to think of the fires in Los Angeles as pieces of a larger puzzle that includes us. So what are we supposed to do about it?

I recently joined Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), which keeps the need to preserve a livable planet front and center for our elected representatives in Washington. We don’t wait until the next election rolls around to make your views known. We can speak up about what matters to us.

Anyone can go up on CCL’s website and find emails already written that you can personalize or simply send as is to your senators and representatives. If you feel as I do, that Congress should take meaningful action to reduce wildfire risk, then say so. CCL already has an email about the Los Angeles fires at citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action/address-wildfire-risk/. It doesn’t take much to add a signature.

John Paine lives in Easthampton.