Blub @ 127

yep.. and that’s not helped by anti-controlled burn policies and an almost total lack of underbrush clearance in areas historically cleared by smaller brush fires, away from historically populated areas. We’ve made all the mistakes needed for a perfect firestorm.

Even here in western Montana, where there are far fewer people and less danger to buildings, there is considerable resistance to controlled burns. AS to thinning, the local timber industry keeps trying to push for more logging, which actually makes the situation worse by taking out the larger, fire resistant tress and leaving behind mountains of highly combustible slash. People out here just do not want to recognize that our forests need small burns annually to maintain proper health.

But this really doesn’t reflect the reality of much of the So Cal chaparral landscape. There really isn’t a forest per se, except in the mountainous areas. Much of the chapparal IS low brush. The idea of “thinning it” ignores the fact that it is, essentially, the “undergrowth” where there are no longer any overstory. And the few trees in the chapparrel are not “fire-resistant” in the normal sense of the word, but are actually fire-stimulated. The leaves and branches are filled with volatile combustible oils, and the seeds require fire to germinate. The trunk of the tree may survive the fire but the leaves and most branches are consumed in the holocaust the trees and chapparal themselves contribute towards.

Regular small burns might help, as this was the system before in the pre-Spanish period. But people don’t want fires started in their neighborhoods that might get out of control.

Rush Limbaugh has been banned from entering the firezones because bringing buckets of lard and flammable gas into the area would pose an increased risk to the emergency crews.

Suzanne @ 115

CA has trained low risk offenders in custody into a highly trained crew of firefighters. They get called out a lot and many times have more experience fighting wildfires than the city fd crews also pulled into assist.

Well, in that case, the conclusions I jumped to on the previous thread were seriously wrong.

In addition several colleges also have fstudent ire crews that form in the Summer Fire Season that are on call for these disasters. Sadly they usually disband by October 1st. with only a handful serving in the campus fire departments. I wonder if they’ll reorganize these and if their schools will give them “leave”.

I’ve lived here for some 50 years and this happens every year in So. CA, just like clockwork. Next, the winter rains and mudslides will follow and wash some of the burnt Malibu mansions into the sea.

You can count on it every season, and yet every time they make it up to be something like never before.

Well…like last season or the one before it.

It’s like people who live in hurricane alley and act surprised and are unprepared when the next whopper comes along and levels the place, like it’s done so many times before.

Cufford
Fresno, CA

Well, Cufford, for a 50 year resident I’d think you would have some institutional memory. If you actually take a look at the history of California wildfires you’ll find that this “annual occurance” – just like clockwork…is much more a RECENT phenomenon…especially at this scale. Three of the top ten fires in terms of burnt acreage are either occuring NOW or happened this fire season.

#1 – Cedar Fire (280,278 acres) – Oct 2003
#2 Zaca Fire (240,207 acres) – July-Aug 2007
#3 – Witch Fire (196,420 acres) -current Oct. 2007
#4 – Laguna Fire (175,425 acres) – Sept. 1970 (at the time the largest by far in California’s recorded history)
#5 – Marble-Cone Fire (~178,000 acres) – Aug 1977
#6 – Day Fire (162,700 acres) – Sept. 2006
#7 – McNally Fire (150,670 acres) – July-Aug 2002
#8 – Old Fire (91,281 acres) – Oct. 2003
#9 – Harris Fire (72,000 acres)- current Oct 2007
#10 – Moonlight Fire (65,000 acres) Sept. 2007
#11 – Sawtooth Complex fire (61,700 acres) – July 2006
#12 – Ranch Fire (47,240 acres) – current Oct 2007

So of the top 12 fires, three are still burning and five have been in this fire season. The largest (Cedar) and the #8 fire occurred in the same fire season (Oct. 2003). Two of the top 12 fires ( Day and Sawtooth) occurred in Sept. 2006. Ten of the top fires have occurred since 2002!

These firestorms are getting MORE frequent and more of them are occurring each fire season. Historically this is a recent phenomenon. I lived through the Laguna fire. Hundreds of homes in my neighborhood (Crest) east of El Cajon were razed. Everyone at the time thought that fire was an absolute oddity. Nothing like it in scale had ever been experienced. Only in the last few years are fires like these “something to be expected”.

I would have expected that someone who was a long-term Californian not to be promulgating such nonsense.

Something has changed with the ecology, climate and/or resources needed to stop these fires. It’s not simply a matter of more development in these areas, since the total acreage of the burns are going up and up. And one would think that with more homes in these areas the ability of firefighters to reach these sites and use the hydrants in subvisions would go up.

Chandler was right about Santa Ana winds, in a fictional, pre-airconditioning way. Didion’s observations are pure hyperbole. The winds are a nuisance and create a fire threat, but they do not torment the human soul. That job falls to Bush/Cheney.

After all the posturing by Ahnold and Michael (”Katrina was Brownie’s fault!”) Chertoff, Brian Bilbray, and Duncan Hunter, Bush is coming here.

Haven’t we suffered enough?!

Unless he means to pitch in, like a pet goat, to clear the scrub brush that fuels the fires. Hey, something he’s good at. We could keep him busy until, say, January 2009.

larue, i dealt with it. no need to bring it up when i’ve already dealt with it.

Catching up slowly Suz, catching up slowly . . .

Happy now?

I realized after post . . . and said so . . . sorry to have added to your suffering . . . best to you and yours.

larue @ 335

I’ve been quietly keeping silent about that.

Never mind the Santa Ana’s are as predictable as the tides for the most part . . . still . . .

Seems it’s time to focus on the humans who need help, and then, we can hammer the Fed’s, Blackwater (when do THEY come in for matrial law after these firestorms are over?) and anyone else culpuble for neglience after wards.

Right now, victims need support . . . what can we do?

A million evac’d by dawn, likely . . . wow.

sorry, snark was inappropriate.

I’ve done the same . . . I shoulda let it go . . . sorry I singled you out . . . habit I have of slinging before thinking . . .