CA. Fires - What's wrong with the inspectors?

Yep. We're talking 40, 50, 60MPH winds.

Still, I saw two guys with water hoses, buckets of water, shovels and hoes save their two house while the rest on the street burned down.

Another interesting little tidbit; people loaded up their cars with their important stuff, but didn't have enough family members to drive all the cars.

House gone, cars full of stuff (mostly) untouched.

One doesn't normally thing of an automobile as a fire-proof vault. But it is.

Reply to
HeyBub
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I'm sure upstate New York is a lovely place.

But turn the question around: Why is upstate New York so ghastly that people would rather live in the New Orleans 9th Ward?

Reply to
HeyBub

Why would you use mechanical means when fire is the ecologically and historic way of holding down the fuel. It leaves most of the nutrients in the soil so you get fresh growth to stop erosion but not enough to keep much of a fire going. "Smokey Bear" was probably the worst idea in forest management we ever had. People started thinking all fire was bad and put them all out so we ended up with bad fires that we couldn't put out.

Reply to
gfretwell

As long as the water holds and you're successful, that works. If water should happen to fail or an ember gets ahead of you, you're likely toast along w/ the house. Pretty major risk although just how much depends greatly on whether there is or isn't a reliable escape route. As one of the silly network reporters learned on a piece of film I saw, a road down one of those canyons can turn from a windy drive to sheer terror real quick...

Saw lots of cars that were crispy meltdowns, too. All depends on what surrounds them.

Folks around here in the KS/TX/OK grass fires a winter ago couldn't outrun flame front in automobiles/jeeps in flat mostly flat open pastures, what more up and down mountainous terrain.

We're just waiting for the next doofus to throw a cigarette out a car window and the whole county around here is ready to go up too. To top it off, pheasant season starts next weekend w/ no sign of any moisture which will bring all the city slickers out who have _no_ clue what a grass fire will/can do... :(

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Reply to
dpb

You must have missed this little detail from all the news: with 100MPH winds you can't clear enough land around every house to prevent the fire from spreading so quick.

I have just returned from a trip to San Diego, interrupted by the fire of course, and I can say that people live there because it's a beautiful place. The weather is just right, the scenery is perfect and there is no reason Southern CA should be less livable than the NE. They will rebuild the houses like they always do.

Well, I guess next time the landscapers should probably go little easier on eucalypt trees. The peeling bark looks like paper and I'm pretty sure catches on fire just as quick as paper. Then there might be other benefits (like drought resistance) that might outweigh the fire risk, but it seem a bit scary to have a tree like that next to your house in a fire like that.

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Reply to
DA

Mainly because of the massive hectares of chapperal that would go off like fireworks if a homeowner, burning his land, happened to to have a loose spark touch-off the unmanaged public parcels.

If you read the post I originally responded to, it wasn't referring to public lands management. It was talking about homeowner's land management and the protection of private homes. Mechanical management is an effective means to protect homes.

Reply to
Dave Bugg

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Nope, didn't miss that at all.

Prolly.

If you think birch bark is a good fire starter, eucalyptus is absolutely volcanic. And the oils in the tree really keep things flaming, too.

Reply to
Dave Bugg

If I knew there was a fire storm coming toward my house, I'd rent a bulldozer and rip down all the trees and brush for a mile in all directions.

Reply to
savethebeer4me

all new and or replacement homes should be mandated built of concrete. steel reinforced, very sttrong, good for 300 MPH winds, excellent energy efficency, foam inside concrete.

concrete homes wouldnt burn, at least not the outside. with storm shutters many homes could of survived.

concrete homes look just like wood stick built ones, and will last forever

Reply to
hallerb

Swimming pool, generator, pump?

Agreed. Still, there were cars parked on the street virtually untouched while all around was gone.

Don't worry about that. Cigarette smokers are some of the most responsible people on the planet. Be worried about arson.

Hunters, too, are much more aware of their surroundings and consequences than your ordinary doofus. For example there's Dick Cheney...

Wait. Never mind...

Reply to
HeyBub

??? ALL roads everywhere are fixed by the gubmint, not just in NY. The last time we lost a tree during a blizzard we chopped it up for firewood. But to answer your question, the HOMEOWNER is responsible for downed trees. Idiot. Plonk.

Reply to
<h>

With a fire that is not all that contained by multiple 1500 gpm pumpers using tanker shuttles? Good luck.

But it only takes one. The big three in wildfires last time I looked around were lightening, cigs, and arsons.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Huh? I was born in New Orleans and I happen to live in NY now. LA is hot, humid, and really great. NY is hot, humid and really great, but NY is hot and humid for MUCH less of the year, so I don&#39;t live in LA anymore. Most people tend to stay where they are born. People with brains make a choice. Some choose to stay, many choose to go to more livable places. Plonk.

Reply to
<h>

...

Certainly not in my experience. Their second behind the even dumber doofus&#39;es who drive down the road waving Roman candles out the car windows over the Fourth weekend... :(

"Cheney"-type incidents are _far_ less of an issue than the ones who cut fences, leave gates open, drive across tinderbox-dry tall grass, etc., etc., etc., ...

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Reply to
dpb

Right. Smokers think the world is their ashtray. If I had a dollar for every lit cigarette I&#39;ve seen tossed out the window of a car in front of me, I could retire. Smoking is disgusting, stinky, expensive, and fatal, yet these idiots persist. Smokers are stupid, and ya can&#39;t fix stupid.

Reply to
<h>

Fran Liebowitz, a fellow New Yorker, opined "The outdoors is something through which I pass on my way from my apartment to my car."

Any place is "livable" if you stay inside.

The "Great Outdoors" is for beavers and ducks.

And those who like to fondle beavers and ducks.

Reply to
HeyBub

Right, but the pumper trucks are for BIG fires. This guy said he and his neighbor scurried about dousing little fires so they never became big ones. Put out hundreds and hundreds of embers, they did.

Reply to
HeyBub

According to :

Because fire isn&#39;t very safe in built-up areas. It has a tendancy to do things you don&#39;t want it to. Controlled burns sometimes get out of hand.

Yes. But it&#39;s not an option in built-up areas.

Reply to
Chris Lewis

Cigarette smokers generally only light up to cover the smell.

When some officious granny-lady whacks me with her umbrella and demands that I extinguish my smoke, I politely respond:

"I am a grenade and this cigarette is the pin. Now you have to ask yourself one question: &#39;Do I feel lucky?&#39; Well, do you, punk?"

Reply to
HeyBub

It&#39;s all right. They&#39;re French.

Reply to
HeyBub

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