The Taming of California Wildfire

California: No Money, No Fire!

In July 2008, while touring wildfires in N. California, the Governator declared:

“There is no more fire season as we know it — the fire season is now all year-round.”

“That means that we don’t have enough resources.” Added Mr  Schwarzenegger.

He needn’t have worried! As it transpires, and this blog has always maintained, Calif wildfires are no ordinary fires; they are intelligent fires. When the state runs out of money, seriously out of cash, the fires disappear—or at least the firebugs do!

It’s pretty curios this relationship between the state bank account (including its ability to borrow) and the intensity of fire!

“Lucky” [Luciano?]

The Mercury News called it “lucky.”

“The economy struggled, unemployment was sky-high and swine flu raged across the landscape. But California actually got lucky in 2009 in one big area: fires.” They said.

But instead of putting two and two together…

“Despite enduring a third year of drought and some major blazes in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties, California experienced a surprisingly mild wildfire year last year, according to final tallies this week by the state’s leading fire fighting agencies.”

If only the Internet mafia didn’t filter, block and bury about 98 percent of the critical information and analysis posted on this blog, perhaps Mercury News would have been all the wiser.

The final Toll:

Total acreage charred in 2009 was 402,181  (on lands under Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service watch) . [Cf, 1.3 million acres consumed by fires in 2008. Also wildfire destroyed 490 structures in 2009, down from 2,219 in 2008. ]

They have gone as asserting reasons: “The reason: the weather. There was less dry lightning, fewer bursts of Santa Ana winds, and generally cooler summer temperatures than normal.”

Mercury quoted Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services in Saratoga as saying: “Some years are just luckier than others. It’s like going to the craps tables. A lot of this is the luck of the draw.”

Aha, so it’s to do with Las Vegas science.

It was the best fire year since 2005, with little more than half as many acres burning as the state’s annual average of 711,060 acres over the prior five years.

“Our expectations were for another big fire season,” said Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in Vallejo. “We’re in a drought and we had a lot of dry conditions out there.”

“A lot of people thought that was going to set the tone for the season,” said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. “But as the season continued, we didn’t have the same large growth of fires that we were seeing in other years.”

The fact is, as the fire season was about to continue, the State ran out of money!

Related Links:

• Calif Fires 2009
• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires

Corporate Arsonists Just Doing their Job (!)

SoCal Corporate Arson Good for GDP

This UPDATE was posted on September 8, 2009 at 5:23 PM PDT (September 9, 2009 at 00:23 UTC)

Between them, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the state of California, are  offering a total rewards of $150,000 for information leading to the conviction of the arsonists.

“Sheriff’s homicide detectives searching for the arsonist who set the deadly Station fire are appealing for anyone who travelled on the Angeles Crest Highway just above La Cañada Flintridge around 3:30 p.m. on August 25.” LA Times reported.

“Obviously if someone saw something that day we would like them to come forward and speak to investigators. But even if they didn’t see anything we would also like them to contact detectives if they traveled past there around that time,” said Steve Whitmore, sheriff’s spokesman.

Guess what folks, FEWW said who would be responsible for the 2008 SoCal fires (as well as all other expensive fires in the previous years) as early as a year ago. As for the rewards, please give it to the family of the fire personnel who unwittingly lost their lives playing against the corporate arsonists. [BTW, are you  serious about catching the fire bogs? A $100million fire, and only $150,000 reward?]

What part of what FEWW said about the Fire Industry being the Arsonists you don’t understand?

Meanwhile, Station fire, which has consumed  more than 160,000 acres (649 km²/ 251 sq miles) in 15 days, is now 56% contained, however, the winds are picking up again, causing concern for the fire crews.

Fires in Los Angeles County [NASA Earth Observatory – Posted September 9, 2009]
Two weeks after [one or more] arsonist[s] ignited the drought-dry forest north of Los Angeles, the Station fire had become the ninth largest fire in California since 1933. On the morning of September 8, 2009, the fire had burned more than 250 square miles (about 650 square kilometers) of land, according to the Station Fire Incident Report from September 8. This image, captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on September 6, shows the extent of the burned area. The newly charred land is black in this false-color image, which was made with near infrared light. Plants are dark red, and man-made surfaces, particularly the dense urban centers of Pasadena and Burbank, are blue and white. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Holli Riebeek. [Edited by FEWW.]

Meanwhile another fire in SoCal was reported by the NIFC

Oasis (Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit, Cal Fire), 400 acres at 15 percent contained. This fire is five miles southwest of Wilber Springs, NIFC reporetd.

For background information and logged entries go to:  Calif Fires 2009

Related Links:

• Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product [Links to Satellite Images]
• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires
  
• Thought for the Day: The Car Salesman & SoCal Fires
• Tell Schwarzenegger Damage from Fires Is Preventable!
• Shock and Awe Southland Fires Take No Prisoners
• California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!
• The War on Wildfire
• Links to FEWW SoCal Fires Entries

• The Problem with SoCal
• Socal Fire Crews: May the Force Be With You …
• SoCal Fires Rage On!
• SoCal Blazes Blacken More Scrubland
• FEWW Links to Calif Fires
• California Fire Fleecing Season Begins
• Calif Fires 2009

SoCal’s Godfather Brush Fire!

submitted by a reader

Sepulveda Pass brush fire closed 405 Freeway for several hours

400 firefighters and nine water-dropping helicopters took 8 hrs to extinguish 100-acre Sepulveda Pass brush fire

Sepulveda Pass brush fire was the mother of all brush fires of late. It  must have been. It took 32 firefighter-hours to extinguish each acre [one acre is about 4,047 m².] In other words, it took each firefighter an average of one hour to extinguish an area measuring about 11.25 x 11.25 meters (12.3 x 12.3 yards, or 1,361 ft²), about 7.7 full-size car spaces (20′ x 8′ parallel parking, one-way aisle – Off-Street Parking Design Standards, San Jose, California).

And of course nine water-dropping helicopters from the city and Los Angeles County helped douse the flames with their massive loads.

How long will a tumbleweed take to burn out?

A helicopter drops water as drivers make their way over the Sepulveda Pass on the 405 Freeway. An early-morning brush fire temporarily closed the interstate. Photo: Gus Ruelas/Associated Press. Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice.

Sepulveda Pass brush fire was also a very intelligent fire! It started at about 12.50 am trying to catch the  brave firefighters off guard. The fire started west of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles and crept toward the Getty Museum, a college, a cultural center as well as some of the most expensive homes in SoCal.

This was a fire to capture the attention of the well-heeled, grabbing their private parts so that their hearts and minds would follow, softening the attitude of anyone [without a wild imagination ] who might have doubted the seriousness and prevalence of California fires. This was a fire with a message for the wealthy elite [who didn’t strike it rich through the fire industry] and lawmakers alike: No amount of money, not even a zillion dollars, is too much to pay to fight the flames.

Can you imagine, god forbid, the Getty Museum going up in smoke because there wasn’t enough money to fight the flames?

Call it Sepulveda Pass brush fire, if you must, but this brush fire was no ordinary fire. It had blood from the severed head of Khartoum splashed all over it!

An excerpt from Brush Fire Burns 100 Acres near The Getty Center

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 12:51 AM,

• 69 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters,
• 7 LAFD Rescue Ambulances,
• 1 Heavy Rescue, 4 Arson Units,
• 3 Rehab Units,
• 8 Helicopters,
• 7 EMS Battalion Captains,
• 16 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams,
• 2 Division Chief Officer Command Teams,
• LAFD Dozers, [unspecified numbers]
• Water Tenders, [unspecified numbers]
• Mobile Command Post,
• 2 CERT Team Coordinators,

and companies from

• Los Angeles County,
• Orange County and
• State Office of Emergency Services Fire Departments

all under the direction of Assistant Chief Craig Fry responded to a Major Emergency Brush Fire at the South Bound 405 Freeway near Getty Center Dr. in Bel Air.

Related Links:

• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires
• Marek and Sesnon Fire Update
• The “F” word is back in SoCal

• Right on Track for 2009 Cost of Calif Fires Forecast
• California Wildfire Scam Continues
• California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!

• The War on Wildfire