New Wildfires in California

In my reply #131, I mistakenly wrote that the fire spanned 45 square blocks when it was actually 45 square miles! Now, it's grown of course. This is all so unbelievable. Some of the firefighters have lost their own homes while trying to save others. 😪 This video includes an evacuation center that only accommodates 200 or so people, a mere fraction of those who had to flea their homes. I wonder how many more shelters are available or even accessible.

 
David777 said:
Each fire season California has a few news articles like the below motivating people to fireproof new homes and retrofit older homes that tends to fall on deaf ears while building and construction materials corporations under pressure from their $$$ bean counter masters work to pressure those responsible for enacting building codes to ignore or water down expert advice. And individual home owners in high risk areas are more likely to gamble firestorms won't happen to them than performing even less expensive retrofits. That is why we will soon be reading stories about those homes and buildings that didn't burn right next to many that are now ash and tears.

Build to Survive: Homes in California’s burn zones must adopt fire-safe code

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article229425004.html

...Unfortunately, short-term thinking can triumph over common sense. Cities facing severe fire risks can avoid compliance with the fire-resistant building codes, or choose to avoid their obvious advantages, despite the fact that “a new home built to wild-fire-resistant codes can be constructed for roughly the same cost as a typical home,” according to a report by Headwaters Economics. Take Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood, where the Tubbs Fire killed five people and destroyed 1,321 homes in 2017. The neighborhood wasn’t considered a fire hazard zone, unlike some other areas of Santa Rosa. The Tubbs Fire proved otherwise, but Coffey Park still isn’t designated as a “very high fire hazard zone” by Cal Fire.

“City officials are OK with that,” according to The Bee. “Although developers rebuilding Coffey Park are being urged to consider fire-resistant materials, city spokeswoman Adriane Mertens said the city doesn’t see any reason to impose the 7A code in the neighborhood.” Mertens suggested high winds on the night of the fire meant officials have no reason to require fire-safe construction as Coffey Park is rebuilt. One fire scientist called Santa Rosa’s stance “an error in judgment.”

Folsom also appears to have its head in the sand with regards to fire risk. It’s allowing the Folsom Ranch development to be built without adherence to the fire-safe code. The parcel of land south of Highway 50 was formerly managed by Cal Fire and designated as a moderate fire risk zone, which would trigger the fire-safe building requirements. Once Folsom annexed the land for the new development, the city decided to opt out of the 7A code because the area was never considered a “very high” fire hazard zone...

This article below from October 2023 describes exactly what just happened in adjacent Pacific Palisades and fell on deaf ears due to expense and human nature avoidance.

A Fast-Moving Wildfire In Topanga Canyon Is A Nightmare Scenario. How To Get Ready

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/topanga-canyon-wildfire-risk

...Smith estimates that it'd take one of these worst case scenario fires about four hours to sweep westward, from the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean, destroying communities along the way. Just as we saw during the Woolsey Fire in 2018, which made its way 17 miles across L.A. to Malibu in less than 24 hours, destroying 1,600 structures and killing killing three...
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This home owner thinks the stucco exterior and fire proof roof saved his home after all around him burned down.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/10/us-ne...als-why-he-thinks-house-survived-raging-fire/
 
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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Please do not disparage prisoners. They work hard under strenuous conditions to fight fires,

VOJUNTEER = of course because it gets them outside prison walls

PAID BY THE HOUR =About $5 per hour

FREE CATERED MEALS = lol you make it sound like they are dining on lobster at the Ritz!
They eat the same food as everyone else at the fire camp
BTW they sleep in paper sleeping bags on the ground out in the open.
 
This whole fire mess is just absolutely amazing to me...don't
understand how it got so bad out there...maybe it is seriously
time to close down the state, I mean what the hell can they
do to change this pattern? ANYTHING??
 
hawkdon said:
This whole fire mess is just absolutely amazing to me...don't
understand how it got so bad out there...maybe it is seriously
time to close down the state, I mean what the hell can they
do to change this pattern? ANYTHING??
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That's my feeling too. All these years of fighting wildfires and there's no progress in the technology for doing so.
A lot like cancer research.

Then you see a video like I posted and the guy's house is still standing because he stayed and fought it. WTF?
 
hawkdon said:
This whole fire mess is just absolutely amazing to me...don't
understand how it got so bad out there...maybe it is seriously
time to close down the state, I mean what the hell can they
do to change this pattern? ANYTHING??
Click to expand...
So many little things went wrong or not done. Throw in the weather/hurricane force winds and humans this would come one day. Can probably happen elsewhere too.
 
My son is a firefighter paramedic in LA and he’s been deployed for a week straight fighting these fires…12 hours on, 6-8 hours off, round the clock.

There is no control of Mother Nature which produces seasonal Santa Ana winds, which can blow the tiniest ember a great distance. 85-100MPH winds were recorded during these events.

Steep fines also don’t prevent a random individual from throwing a lit cigarette away, being negligent in tending their grill, walking away from a lit candle or any of the thousand other scenarios that can start a fire.

When a fire rages a firefighter’s primary mandates are saving lives and containing the fire to keep it from spreading. Because of the conditions, containment of the LA fires was impossible for several days.

The most sophisticated technology available can’t possibly negate 85 MPH winds or careless people.
 
Ronni said:
My son is a firefighter paramedic in LA and he’s been deployed for a week straight fighting these fires…12 hours on, 6-8 hours off, round the clock.

There is no control of Mother Nature which produces seasonal Santa Ana winds, which can blow the tiniest ember a great distance. 85-100MPH winds were recorded during these events.

Steep fines also don’t prevent a random individual from throwing a lit cigarette away, being negligent in tending their grill, walking away from a lit candle or any of the thousand other scenarios that can start a fire.

When a fire rages a firefighter’s primary mandates are saving lives and containing the fire to keep it from spreading. Because of the conditions, containment of the LA fires was impossible for several days.

The most sophisticated technology available can’t possibly negate 85 MPH winds or careless people.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of your son, @Ronni . Hoping he'll remain safe while he fights.
 
Ronni said:
My son is a firefighter paramedic in LA and he’s been deployed for a week straight fighting these fires…12 hours on, 6-8 hours off, round the clock.

There is no control of Mother Nature which produces seasonal Santa Ana winds, which can blow the tiniest ember a great distance. 85-100MPH winds were recorded during these events.

Steep fines also don’t prevent a random individual from throwing a lit cigarette away, being negligent in tending their grill, walking away from a lit candle or any of the thousand other scenarios that can start a fire.

When a fire rages a firefighter’s primary mandates are saving lives and containing the fire to keep it from spreading. Because of the conditions, containment of the LA fires was impossible for several days.

The most sophisticated technology available can’t possibly negate 85 MPH winds or careless people.
Click to expand...
Let's get NASA on this. Tell them to stop putting helicopters on Mars and start solving real problems here on Earth.
 
Pepper said:
Any proof of this racist, sexist charge? Or just prejudicial speculation?
Click to expand...

I just read an article this morning that was a pretty bad example of DEI in the LAFD. The second video in the article is about halfway down is an actual DEI promo and it's pretty bad.

The LAFD deputy starts with a spiel about people feeling more comfortable with emergency personnel who look like them and ends with: "Is she strong enough to do this? Or, you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire. Which my response is, he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire."

I'm not a POC but am guessing that most people of any color care much more about the ability of emergency personnel to be physically capable of rescuing them and this woman does not inspire confidence. She as much as admitted that she's not capable. If I were a black female and it mattered to me as my husband burned what the firefigher's sex and race was, I'd much prefer Brittany Griner.

LAFD Deputy Chief Faces Backlash for Past Remarks on Fire Victims
 
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