California wildfire

This looks pretty horrific, again. Are our Californians doing OK?

I remember a story about the great SF writer Jack Vance in his very last years. One of the California wildfires was spreading fast and getting near his home. Jack's son evacuated his father and stayed behind with a loaded rife because Jack had many years worth of collected valuables in his house. Looters were all over the place during that time waiting to prey.

Luckily I live on the east coast and we never get these things, ever. Hope eveyone's okay too.

Originally Posted by Ripper
This looks pretty horrific, again. Are our Californians doing OK?

Happens every year it's become normal mostly in the summer..

As lack of rain and warm temps make very dry ground.

I saw a video the other evening of the wild fire jumping parts of the PCH, even with fireman on the other side prepared, the fires quickly overwhelmed them and continued burning right down to the ocean. Scary enough to just watch, let alone be involved with, I'm sure.

Sadly Trump opened his big mouth again and blamed the fire on California inept mismanagement. Talk about tossing fuel into the the flame.

I didn't hear or see what Trump might have been rambling about, but the undergrowth that can accumulate in a forest that is prone to fires does need to be culled every so often. I learned that much from all my time in Alberta, a forest that close to where people live has to be maintained. Not that I'm blaming anyone or any particular service, but perhaps something to learn from.

There's logging companies (and the loggers that work for them) that want to harvest the undergrowth - particularly redwoods. There's environmentalists that want nothing touched, ever. That's what that is all about.

I'm safe but its smoggy out, the air smells like burning leaves and some people are having respiratory problems - its especially bad in Sacramento I hear where people are wearing masks. Yesterday in church the smoke got to the ceiling and you could see it get smoggy in the distant. I'll get you a picture of the smoke later.

This is an annual event in SoCal where they have the dry Santa Ana winds this close to winter. People and unscrupulous real estate companies live and build houses in areas they shouldn't like the mountains outside Los Angeles and come spring time they are hit by mudslides. But in this case its hitting Malibu.

But as Carnifax said, this is a big problem in Canada where it never makes the national news. The Pacific Northwest this summer got hit pretty bad and Vancouver and Seattle were affected pretty hard.

The undergrowth is part of the problem; and the fact that the weather has become more favorable for large fires is another factor. I guess the real question (and I am no expert here) is what should be done going forward.

flooding the deserts I hear is an option

https://theoldgnews.com/news/more?nc…ff6dabe2b60ab8

I'm about 45 miles away. You'd notice the change in air quality but it doesn't seem as bad as last year, probably because the fires are not focused/centralized this time around.

That is one thing I won't miss about Alberta, breathing in smoke from forest fires for 4-5 months of the year. Often we had to run the air conditioning just to clear out the haze and such.

Originally Posted by you
The undergrowth is part of the problem; and the fact that the weather has become more favorable for large fires is another factor.

Actually, check the map of the Camp Fire: https://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-camp-fire

The spot it started is in the upper right. Santa Ana winds blow down the valley. Along the valley to the south, there's a big forest to the east but the fire didn't spread there very well into the forest. It went west over mountains with far fewer trees and a lot more scrub, by the looks of Google's 3D map. Looks to me like the forest management is working very well.

What you need is more rain & snow. The way you get that is, well, California knows very well how to do that. That's why they lead the country in environmental laws.

Unfortunately environment is a global issue and not a local one so they will need more support than local legislator can supply. Sadly while most of the world realizes there is a problem; one particular ape is blind to the issue.

Originally Posted by Zloth
What you need is more rain & snow. The way you get that is, well, California knows very well how to do that. That's why they lead the country in environmental laws.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
That is one thing I won't miss about Alberta, breathing in smoke from forest fires for 4-5 months of the year. Often we had to run the air conditioning just to clear out the haze and such.

Last year I had a purifier running for the entirety of the Thomas Fire. It really was a massive help. Any time I stepped out of the room, I felt like I crossed a barrier.

I'm not needing to do the same this year, but neither fires (Camp, Woolsey) are as close as Thomas was last year.

Unfortunately, they've certainly taken their toll this time around - 48 deaths from the Camp fire alone.