Telegraph Fire: Day 5

“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For reasons unknown to Moderators, Google has blocked this post.

Telegraph Fire Rages On!

The following are highlights of the Telegraph Fire which is now burning for fifth straight day!

• Nearly 4,000 firefighters have been assigned to the fire.
• Heat and bone-dry vegetation are helping the fire.
• About 30,000 acres and 25 homes have already been consumed by the fire.
• At least 4,000 homes are still threatened.
• The fire’s cost to date is more than $9 million. That is more than $300 per acre.
• About 300 people have been evacuated and another 1,000 are on standby.

Retardant from a helicopter showers down ahead of a hotspot along the Merced River as the Telegraph Fire burns out of control 10 miles out side Yosemite Valley National Park, California, USA, 29 July 2008. The Telegraph Fire has burned about 30,000 acres, destroyed 25 residents, forced the evacuations of some 300 residents, with 1,000 more on standby, and threatens another 4,000 residences. EPA/Peter DaSilva

“The Telegraph Fire is said to still pose a threat to the communities of Mariposa, Midpines, Greeley Hill, Coulterville, El Portal, Morman Bar, and Boot Jack. Mt Bullion Conservation Camp, the Mariposa Utility District water supply, as well as a 70 kv transmission line supporting Yosemite Valley, and Yosemite National Park’s numerous communication/repeater towers are also said to be threatened.” (Source)

Next >> California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!

Related Links:

• And Now, The Telegraph Fire!
• What Next After The Telegraph Fire?
• Nature Must Be Punished, Look at the Mess in California!
• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?

What Next After The Telegraph Fire?

“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For reasons unknown to Moderators, Google has blocked this post [it only shows up via Technorati.com and examiner.com]  – Aug 14, 2008

The Telegraph Fire rages on, but what would the next fire be called, the Internet Fire?

The figures are astronomical. The frequency, magnitude, acreage and cost of wildfires are growing each year. Like the Internet statistics, the costs are clocking 9-digit figures.

Agent Orange over Vietnam? No, an air tanker dropping its load of fire retardant on the slopes of Mt Bullion near Mariposa. Photo by Michael Maloney / The Chronicle. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Big Fires: Big Business!

In the 1990s the Forest Service spent just over $300 million a year fighting wildfires. In 2007 the cost jumped up to nearly $1.4 billion, a 4.7-fold rise (466 percent).

In California the rise was more “modest,” only 152 percent.

In the 1990s the wildfires consumed an average of about 3.6 million acres a year. Since 2000, the average was more than doubled to about 7.3 million acres. Last year, the figure nearly tripled to more than 9 million acres. The charred acreage this year is on track to break 2007 record.

Is this a thermonuclear explosion? A volcanic eruption? No, It’s a massive convection column of smoke rising above Los Padres National Forest during the $141million Zaca fire. Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

The Zaca Fire, which began burning northeast of Buellton in Santa Barbara County, California, started on July 4, 2007 and by August 31 it had burned about 240,210 acres (972.1 km²). The fire was declared controlled on October 29, 2007, at a cost of $141million.

Help Make Wildfires Fun (!)

Build your home at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a million homeowners can’t be wrong! Right? More than 1 million homes (about 61% of all new housing) built in California, Oregon and Washington between 1990 to 2000 were erected at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a University of Wisconsin study reported.

Tell You What…

Let’s uproot all the trees, shrubs and bushes, pave over the mountains and cement the wildlands … till there’s nothing more left for fire to consume!

Related New Links:

• As wildfires get wilder, the costs of fighting them are untamed
• Fire near Yosemite closes Highway 140

Related Links:

• And Now, The Telegraph Fire!

• Wildfires
  
• Stop Nature! She Is Ruining Our Lifestyles
• California Fires

• Nature Must Be Punished, Look at the Mess in California!
• California Inferno Rages On
• The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California!

• Images of the Day: California Fires
• Lightning Safety Awareness Week: June 22-28
• A Few Extreme Events Away

• 2008: Year of the Fire
• Raging Wildfires: Mother Nature ensuring the cycle of life?
• Nature’s Defense Mechanisms

• UPDATE #2 – California Fires
• UPDATE: California Fires
• Early Halloween
• Images of the Day: California Fires
• Climate-enhanced catastrophes in the US

.

Update >> Telegraph Fire: Day 5
See Also >> California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!