California Fires

[Honda]

This is becoming an all to common occurrence in California. This time it seems really bad and deadly. I know wildfires are common out west but I do not remember so many large deadly fires occurring in such close intervals. Is it because of population growing in areas, is it because of the weather, or because of poor management or a combination of all of it. I feel terrible for the pain these folks are enduring. Fires like these eradicate the entire lives of these folks. How much is homeowner insurance in these areas it much cost a fortune. I don't know if I could live in an area like this I would be scared of my own shadow if I saw a puff of smoke. Hope they get it out with no more deaths.......

[TxMusky]

It is certainly weird that Cali seems to be burning all of the time. I know Eric has told us several times why it is happening, but you would think they could fix at least some of the reason why it keeps happening.

[Mike]

I see it as a combination of all the factors you listed. It is a sad thing to see and I'm damn glad that I don't have to live facing that every year. I hope everyone there has adequate insurance and the good sense to get the hell out before being killed by fire.

[Wannabe]

Seems like I've seen something recently that ties the fires to seismic activity a little before or as the activity occurs. I'll get the source for you when I get time.

[FredK]

Tri has more of a handle on this than anyone.

I suspect it's the I want to get out of town and have a place in the woods for some. Once there they bought or built in an area surrounded by trees.

Homes built before the codes that required some fire protection in wilderness areas could have open roof vents and other openings which they now recognize as not a good idea. As to homes in subdivisions the old code allowed smaller separation, but as we have seen fires like this can destroy that in a matter of minutes. Thinking the old way a fire in a suburban home doesn't usually burn the next door units. Here clearly they were overrun and didn't have the fire department on site.

I'll go farther out on a limb and suspect the fire and building codes will change to help mitigate these types of events. The driving force will be the insurance industry for those changes. Happened after the Great Chicago Fire.

Today most of us have some kind of code we have to build to. However some areas still refuse to adopt anything but the basic. MT comes to mind as only a few major cities have any code and the rest follow some sort of relaxed code.

Rest would be land management and not sure who to blame for that.

As for Southern Cali, if you haven't lived there you would never know how strong the Santa Ana winds are. Brush and hills and wanting to live there are no match for mother nature in fire or rain.

[TriGuy]

the winds hit both northern and southern California with speeds of over 50mph. fallen power lines seen to be the cause of both big fires. as for the terrain. Southern California is chapparal all scrub brush and scrub oak. in the north it was grasslands and scrub. Trump has no clue, there is very little harvest able timber in the "Brush" Fire burn zone and none in the south. oh and the majority of the areas burning are US Forest Service lands "Managed by the Feds, California has very little to do with it. As far as the towns, most of them were settled in the gold rush. lots of wood frame construction and people like to have streets and yards full of plants and trees. You add in the ravages of 5 years of drought, high temps, high winds fuel load, and once a fire gets going it will keep going until either the wind stops or it runs out of stuff to burn. 50-100 foot high flame fronts will just consume everything in their path.

[TxMusky]

Sorry, I am no expert but in most of the pics I see, there are many tall pine trees smoking in the neighborhoods and the houses are burned to a crisp. Everything else in Cali is regulated, why can't they put in some regulations to clear brush or to deny permits to build in many areas. Also I know the cost is high, but putting in underground power lines, in areas where the winds are strong would help cut down on the accidental fires. The homeowners who build in those areas would carry the cost of that or not build.


Other places have droughts, other places have scrub and west texas has miles of it. We also have high temps and power lines and the wind blows much of the time. Yes I also know 20/20 hindsight means nothing but this is getting ridiculous. It seems that that State is always burning to the ground, timber can not be cleared or brush removed because it might disturb the habitat of some particular bug or animal. I also say that having a huge fire that burns faster than any animal or bug can move also wipes out that family of things from the face of the earth. Pretty soon somebody will have to figure out that simple fact and do something about it. Sure there will still be some fires and big ones at that, but having the entire State burn to the ground, while the politicians are worried about illegals and protecting the wildlife, is doing nothing for the folks who have been there for decades.


New building codes, like nothing flammable at all, concrete or steel only, could help. Making it mandatory to have buried lines in areas that have to be rebuilt, and then replacing all of the other lines at a certain pace, say x amount of miles per year, would also help. You have the largest ocean on the planet that runs from the top of the State to the bottom of it, desal plants could be built and used to provide water for some areas, and that would lessen the pull of water from natural storage areas. Otherwise if the area burns down, make it illegal to build there ever again.



I hear about the costs for such remedies, but what is the cost to insurance companies, to businesses, to people and to the animals, by not doing anything. What is the cost to fuel those huge tankers and to pump water to put the fires out? How about the firefighters coming in from all over, Texas just sent a bunch out there to help, they are getting paid from somebody? SO much money spent to keep that place up so it can just burn down again a few years later.