UPDATE: California Fires
Posted by feww on July 10, 2008
submitted by a member
15,000 residents of Paradise, California, ordered to leave their homes!
The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California!
Californians Lack a ‘Life Policy’ and Will Pay Dearly!
A firefighter watches over a backfire set in a redwood forest along Pacific Coast Highway 1 during a massive wildfire in Big Sur, California July 6, 2008. REUTERS/ Robert Galbraith. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
Up to 15,000 residents of Paradise, California, were ordered to leave their homes on Wednesday as fire threatened to spread into town where it consumed nearly 80 homes in June.
The ‘Butte Lightning Complex’ fire near Paradise, about 140 km north of Sacramento, is one of nearly 350 lightening-started wildfires still burning across California. The Butte fire has consumed about 20,000 hectares since June, destroying as many as 60 structures including 45 residences and now threatens up to 4,000 residences.
In the Big Sur area 2,300 firefighters and volunteers have contained about a quarter of the Basin Complex fire, which has burned up to 40,000 hectares of land along California’s pacific coast. Further south, about a half of the Gap Fire in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, which has consumed about 4,000 hectares, has been contained.
About a quarter of a million hectares of scenic land have been scorched in California in the past two weeks. Meanwhile California temperatures rise in what is considered to be “the first significant heat wave of the summer,” according to the California Independent System Operator.
In October 2007, California Wildfires left eight people dead, burned about 200,000 hectares and consumed 2,000 homes displacing about 700,000 people.
The National Weather Service has issued the following alerts throughout California:
- Red Flag Warning
- Excessive heat warning
- Air Quality Alert
- Hazardous Weather Outlook
- UPDATE #2 – California Fires [July 12, 2008] AND
- Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires [Aug 14, 2008]
- Gov. Schwarzenegger signs 10 wildfire-related bills, 104 others (September 26, 2008)
For more information go to: National Weather Service link
Fire Earth 
Nature Must Be Punished, Look at California! « PRO said
[…] The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California! […]
UPDATE #2 - California Fires « Fire Earth said
[…] on More Whaling? No F**king …globalina on More Whaling? No F**king …feww on UPDATE: California Fireskurt kamm on UPDATE: California FiresJohnny B on UPDATE: […]
feww said
Kurt Kamm
Your comment is very revealing and confirms our headline.
– Why do each year fires come earlier, get worse, and last longer?
– Why will CA have a full 12 month fire season soon?
– Why do we hear each year, “unusually dry season, low rainfall, etc.”
– Why should that be the “norm!”
– Why is California being “Mojavefied?”
For an insight, you may be interested to visit our member blog:
http://edro.wordpress.com/butterfly-effect/
As for the “lunatics who think it would be fun to set something on fire,” the moderators believe the major wildfires in June were started by more than 8,000 lightnings. See: https://feww.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/lightning-safety-awareness-week-june-22-28/
BTW, how does one become “a wildland fire expert?” Is UCLA doing a course on wildland fire? Were you previously a firefighter?
kurt kamm said
What’s not to understand about the fires in CA? I live in Malibu and am a wildland fire expert. Each year the fires are coming earlier, getting worse, and lasting longer. Soon CA will have a full 12 month fire season. Each year we hear, “unusually dry season, low rainfall, etc.” That’s the norm! The fire services are doing all they can, but there is still a terrible loss of property. There are several basic issues-
>Accumulated brush which hasn’t burned in 20 years
> Increased development on the urban-wildland interface
> Power poles over weighted with fiber-optic cable
>Everyone everywhere expecting full fire protection at no cost
>Climate changes
>Lunatics who think it would be fun to set something on fire.
Congress has finally taken a tentative step with the FLAME legislation. Hooray
If you have any interest, I have written novel about wildland firefighters in CA
http://www.kurtkamm.com
kurt@OneFootInTheBlack.com
Johnny B said
[Message edited, surname was truncated by Moderator: FEWW]