California Fires: Fiction and Reality

Map Overview

This StoryMap documents fires described in Parable across the fictional years 2024 to 2027, as well as a selection of actual California fires from 2024 to 2025. The Map is in chronological order, meaning events from the novel and actual fires are combined, to allow the viewer to see any overlapping details. The aim of this digital project is to compare Butler's vision of the future to actual events and to comment on the theme of environmental change and resulting effects that Butler emphasized in her work. 

About the Mapping Process

My project draws inspiration from previous projects on Butler's work, such as a project by Loyola Marymount University students (Mapping Parable of the Sower). However, my focus is specific to fire events and in this manner differs from a retelling of the novel. This timely project offers a direct comparison to events that occurred within the same period that Butler projected in the novel. The viewer is able to see which regions the largest fires of 2024 and 2025 were in and consider how Parable fires matched up, if at all. The viewer can also consider how the fires are described, particularly the causes behind them if they are speculated or confirmed.

The process of choosing fires from the novel itself was rather simple — since the novel is largely focused on Lauren’s journey, there is a small selection of fires mentioned throughout the novel. This small selection worked best with the digital representation of the fires, since the goal is to inform the viewer of themes and trends rather than provide all the data available. In this case, I could include all the fires in the novel. Only two fires which Lauren mentions occurred in 2024. In 2025, the only fire mentioned is the fire caused by Amy Dunn in February. The other four fires in the novel occur from 2026-2027, years which have not yet occurred at the time this project has been compiled. The decision to include these fires is based on the hope that this project will continue to be added to in the future, and these fires can be analyzed and compared in a similar manner.

Actual fires were harder to compile since California’s yearly count of fires usually fall in the thousands, with varying degrees of severity. In order to best showcase the storytelling element of Knight Lab StoryMaps, I needed to select a small percentage of those fires to represent — at least 10 but no more than 15. The measure I went with was fires that covered the most acreage between July 2024 and August 2025, drawing from the top 10 fires according to CAL FIRE data. Fires that did not occur within the timeframe were excluded. After considering the data, I selected the six largest fires in 2024 and the seven largest fires in 2025. This was close to an even selection that also allowed me to include the smaller but well-known Palisades and Eaton fires of the most recent year. 

The selection of quotes from the novel were chosen for their description of the fires and Lauren’s situation as she describes the fires. The selection of quotes from news articles were chosen for their description of the fires, including whether there were other fires going on at the same time, and potential causes, and damages. Some visuals were taken from the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy and John Jennings. Visuals for actual fires were drawn from WikiCommons public domain or open access images.  

Observations

With the goal of offering a simplified and clear map connected to Parable, only very few fires were included in this project. According to CAL Fire and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California had over 8,000 fires in 2024 alone. CAL Fire's 2025 documentation is showing a similar trend, with over 7,000 fires as of November 2025. Due to being limited to 13 fires, this map cannot account for the trends that would be more present if the many, even thousands, of fires from both 2024 and 2025. With this in mind, my selection of the largest (or largest so far for 2025) of these fires conveys where the most acreage was burned and whether there is any similarity to the regions affected that are also found in the novel Parable of the Sower.  

There was no region with the most fires on this map; this was not expected but understandable given the limited selection of fires. Los Angeles county had Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, with some overlap on the Bridge Fire. San Bernardino county had the Bridge Fire and the Line Fire. San Luis Obispo county had the Gifford Fire and the Madre Fire; Santa Barbara county shares the Gifford Fire with the aforementioned county, and the Lake Fire. Kern and Tulare, Butte and Tehama, Fresno, Del Norte and Siskiyou, and Shasta county each have one fire attributed to them for this map. However, the slight majority that the LA county claims for this map is similar to what is found in Parable; the fires mentioned in Parable are centralized in the LA county (only one of the fires plotted occurs outside of this region). An expanded version of this map could include significantly more fires — data which could make it easier to find trends in regions with the most fires.