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MURRIETA, Calif. — It's not Africa-hot yet in southern California, but it's coming. Now, in mid-May, if you factor in the heat from the multiple out of control fires that have been ravaging the southland, you'd get temperatures that would make July in Phoenix feel like an Arctic breeze.

Non-native Californians sometimes joke that we have only one big season out here: a 12-month summer. True, but if you pay close attention to the weather chatter, you'll hear lots of discussion about the state's fire season.

Having lived in this state for 20 years, I hardly consider myself a tried-and-true Californian. I believe you'd have to personally experience a certain unfortunate rite of passage in order to win the right to call yourself a Californian.

For years I've witnessed (via the television set) the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes due to out of control fires. Those homes ranged from apartments to Malibu mansions. At times, even those escaping to safety shelters have had to pick up again to run as flames flicked at their heels. When the rolling mountains and hillsides of Southern California (and a few absolutely devastating incidents in Northern California as well) get so out of control, they certainly top the local evening news and newspaper headlines.

I thought I'd seen it all as the ActionNewsTeam rudely interviewed homeowners as they were frantically packing their loved ones, pets, livestock and of course, the irreplaceable family photos, then jumped into the family van and left the reporters in the dust.

This past week, a bright red wall of flame came close to ravaging two popular tourist communities.

Had the winds not changed direction on May 11, the entire city of Avalon, on Santa Catalina Island, could have been demolished. Luckily, the 4,000-acre fire claimed only one home and a few businesses. The 76-square-mile island is home to about 3,200 people, although that swells to as many as 10,000 people during the summer vacation season.

The Santa Catalina Island fire is the second major blaze to force evacuations in Southern California this past week. An earlier fire in the heart of Los Angeles burned hundreds of acres in the city's sprawling Griffith Park.

Fire season for the region doesn't officially start until next month. But a lack of rain, hot weather and strong winds have created perfect conditions for wildfires. Santa Catalina, which normally receives 13 inches of rain a annually, has recorded 2 inches of rain so far in 2007.

Catalina Island is an absolutely beautiful place to visit. To live there, I think would be a dream. It's only a half-hour boat ride from Long Beach, yet once you start walking around, you feel like you're on Vacation Island, thousands of miles from home.

But as a tourist or a homeowner, if the island catches on fire, your best bet would be to take a speedboat to the mainland and wait it out.

How bizarre it must be for your island to catch on fire.