New Wildfires in California

I’m up north, currently no fires. Past years we’ve had forest fires at a distance of more than a mile. The smoke was bad. Remember opening the door one morning. Everything was orange. Not real healthy, but no visible fires. Fingers crossed for the future.
 

wisenior said:
Seeing all the video of the destruction in California
is exactly like the destruction of my home and neighborhood
in Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian 2 years ago.

The feelings and emotions are all coming back.

I can't watch it.
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Am sorry. I too can't watch any destruction since 9/11. My heart goes out to anyone who has or is losing a home, the familiar like this. So heart wrenching.
 
ElCastor said:
I’m up north, currently no fires. Past years we’ve had forest fires at a distance of more than a mile. The smoke was bad. Remember opening the door one morning. Everything was orange. Not real healthy, but no visible fires. Fingers crossed for the future.
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We get all the smoke from CA fires here in southern AZ...know it must be hellish in CA during these fires. Hugs to all.
 
Twostep said:
And fire fighting multi million airplanes were reduced to watering cans are now without water.
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Canada sent planes that can literally scoop water from the ocean and drop it on fires.

The problem with both US and Canadian firefighting planes has been the wind. Helicopters are a bit better at navigating the wind, and they drop fire-retardant, which is also better because a good portion of the water dropped by planes vaporizes before it hits target.

I assume the wind is dying down, but I haven't checked yet. The Santa Ana wind usually lasts only a few days.
 
jimintoronto said:
This morning the Premier of the Province of Ontario Doug Ford stated that ALL of the DE Havilland water bomber aircraft owned by the Province are on their way to Los Angles. That is 17 water bombers from Ontario, to add to the other water bombers from British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec which are all ready in Los Angles.
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I just posted about them....the water-scooping planes.

Now that the winds have died down, they'll be even more effective.

 
Murrmurr said:
Calif state prisons have job training programs, and the most popular of them is the CalFire program. Prisoners who are "used" to fight Calif fires are CalFire trainees who volunteer, are paid by the hour, and get free catered meals.
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What a great program! Good civilian work skills! gives thema way to pay off victims of their crimes! My DH was paid back, but it took 15 years by the thief who stole $5,000. of property.
 
https://www.turlockjournal.com/opin...y-74-cents-an-hour-voters-say-absolutely-not/

There are 39,000 out of 94,600 prison inmates statewide with jobs such as construction, maintenance, food service, laundry, and custodial.​
​
There are 1,100 inmates on a different scale of $5.80 to $10.24 a day as firefighters. That’s twice the amount as it was prior to April 16.​
​
An additional $1 per hour is paid to inmate firefighters when they are battling active fires.​
 
dilettante said:
https://www.turlockjournal.com/opin...y-74-cents-an-hour-voters-say-absolutely-not/

There are 39,000 out of 94,600 prison inmates statewide with jobs such as construction, maintenance, food service, laundry, and custodial.​
​
There are 1,100 inmates on a different scale of $5.80 to $10.24 a day as firefighters. That’s twice the amount as it was prior to April 16.​
​
An additional $1 per hour is paid to inmate firefighters when they are battling active fires.​
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Importantly, the prisoners volunteer for the training and to work actively. It's also important to remember they are paid with people's taxes. Non-prison firefighters are, too, but they don't owe a debt to society for committing a crime. While incarcerated, prisoners have tax-funded meals, education, skills training, therapies, and medical care. Some have tax-funded ipads, a recreation room, and a library, and they all get to watch TV and make phone calls on devices paid for by taxpayers.

By the time they are incarcerated, most Calif state prisoners already have an "IOU" for taxes that covered their defense attorney and all court costs, and many personally owe for loss and/or damages and/or injury of a victim.

And, as far as I know, they aren't complaining about their wages.
 
squatting dog said:
Stunning factoid. 😮

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has stated that 95% of wildfires are caused by human activities.
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Thing is, California's forests are over protected, incorrectly maintained, and the surrounding residential areas are poorly planned.

If not for all that, we would see way more natural forest fires (which are good for forests), way less structural damage, and far fewer fatalities (human and animal).

For being one of the states with the most forests, you'd think Calif wouldn't totally suck at forestry, but it does.
 
Remy said:
...I heard the on the news the hills have dead brush under the green from the long drought. Pay people or get prisoners out there to clear this stuff. I don't know how the terrain is but I did some of that kind of work in the summer in the hills around Santa Cruz.
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Unlike mountain forests, that is not really an option in coastal chaparral areas. Unlike areas with trees, there isn't any dead plant debris to clear but rather the chamise-chaparral species root sprout after fires as live above ground shrubs. Such shrubs like chamise aka greasewood, contain very flammable oils that function to intensely burn all other adjacent types of plants every few decades during natural fires and they also contain natural herbicides that prevent most other species from being able to grow in those thin acidic soil zones. There are some species of grass that can be grown in those soils but on such usual steep terrain, those grasses won't reduce severe soil erosion like chaparral roots

To remove the often pure stands of chamise so it doesn't grow back requires herbicides and difficult control methods over years to kill the underground roots. Also such chaparral contains a whole biosystem of value of small mammals, birds, and invertebrates. So although small zones with chaparral can be replaced, it isn't practical over large areas. So the only real wise choice is to NEVER build structures with combustible materials in such zones regardless of what some myopic real estate bean counters and their bankers want to build. And if urban areas are at the base of such chaparral zone canyons, they also need to be wind firestorm aerial ember proof.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/psw/publications/documents/misc/ah328.pdf
 

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