California Burning

[Broughden]

So yeah California is on fire again. Does anyone live their? It seems like this is becoming a monthly fucking event out there or something. What gives?

Seriously. Everytime I turn on the TV something is burning in California or around Los Angeles.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/13/huge-wildfires-force-fran_n_134387.html

[Bstaz]

In the woods you have fires to clear out the old growth, same thing in California but we use it to clean out old suburbs.  Bonus this year as it helps with the housing mess.

[schild]

oh wow

[Selby]

It did this last year, the year before that, and the year before that.  Just another fire.  The other half is freaking out about how it's going to burn the entire county down, but I doubt it.

[DraconianOne]

If any of you have an ounce of entrepreneurial sense, you'd get right to it and develop a range of "California Burning" greeting cards before Hallmark stumble on the idea.

[Paelos]

I can't decide if the California Forestry service is incompetant, underfunded, or just hog-tied by stupid policies. Hell, it might be a combination of all three, but whatever the cause it doesn't explain why they can't get their shit together and stop having a gigantic fire every year near a major city.

[Nebu]

Fires keep unemployment down and give wealthy homeowners something to do with their money? 

just a guess.

[Yegolev]

The wizards have snuck in a moneysink?

[Moosehands]

iscaliforniaonfire.com

[Grimwell]

I can't decide if the California Forestry service is incompetant, underfunded, or just hog-tied by stupid policies. Hell, it might be a combination of all three, but whatever the cause it doesn't explain why they can't get their shit together and stop having a gigantic fire every year near a major city.

Forests aren't burning. This isn't like where I grew up in the midwest where you have homes, farms, and woods -- out here anything remotely level or properly terraced has homes on it. Everything else is foothills and mountains covered in desert scrub plants -- and greener things near the coast. The spots that are burning are dead zones for growth (can't build there, or they would) and aren't in the national parks so the forest service isn't hanging about to cut the underbrush.

So you get these nice and steep draws up a foothill that are too steep to work, but are soft enough for the plants to take root and grow. Then they dry up over the summer that never ends and burn very fast, throwing large amounts of flaming debris up into the air. When it comes down it starts new fires and you wash/rinse/repeat.

Mostly though /yawn

This is the local tornado season and I'm just as concerned. 

[Ingmar]

There's nothing particularly incompetent about our fire service. Shit out here in the West is *supposed* to burn. The incompetents are the people who buy houses right in the middle of fire country. They cost the rest of us rather a lot of money, actually.

[Merusk]

There's nothing particularly incompetent about our fire service. Shit out here in the West is *supposed* to burn. The incompetents are the people who buy houses right in the middle of fire country. They cost the rest of us rather a lot of money, actually.

This.  The forestry service issues advisement, fines and other shit in high-risk areas from the few specials I've seen on this.  Things like, Keep at least 200 feet around your house clear.  Don't let underbrush grow around any treed areas, clear out any tree that looks dead or is dying, and don't leave your damn windows open during fire season. (Embers cause most fires)  Homeowners, however, ignore it because "My yard looks so lush with all these plants and trees on it!"   

Compound that with "But those fire safety changes are so expensive, I'd much rather have this TV" and voila.  Instant flaming suburb.

There's a number of homes that follow the recommendations and don't burn.. The ones I feel bad for are the folks who do, but the asshats around them don't and so their house goes up, too.

[Samwise]

Angel Island caught fire yesterday, and more than half of it got scorched before they were able to put it out.  Luckily no buildings or people were lost.  I'm looking forward to seeing it in spring; quick burns are supposed to really bring out the native wildflowers.

[Paelos]

There's nothing particularly incompetent about our fire service. Shit out here in the West is *supposed* to burn. The incompetents are the people who buy houses right in the middle of fire country. They cost the rest of us rather a lot of money, actually.

This.  The forestry service issues advisement, fines and other shit in high-risk areas from the few specials I've seen on this.  Things like, Keep at least 200 feet around your house clear.  Don't let underbrush grow around any treed areas, clear out any tree that looks dead or is dying, and don't leave your damn windows open during fire season. (Embers cause most fires)  Homeowners, however, ignore it because "My yard looks so lush with all these plants and trees on it!"   

Compound that with "But those fire safety changes are so expensive, I'd much rather have this TV" and voila.  Instant flaming suburb.

There's a number of homes that follow the recommendations and don't burn.. The ones I feel bad for are the folks who do, but the asshats around them don't and so their house goes up, too.

That makes sense. I'll just put them in with the group of people that keep trying to rebuild New Orleans.

[ClydeJr]

I'm just surprised there's anything left to burn. I'm always hearing on the news that "50 kagillion acres of lands has been burned this week". I know California is a big state but aren't they running out of stuff to burn?

[Samwise]

As long as the burn was quick, trees and larger shrubs will still be alive, and will be putting out new leaves the next time it rains.  Smaller plants like grasses will just grow back from seed (in fact, some species won't sprout until the seeds are exposed to heat and smoke).  So after one growing season and one dry season the land is back where it started, minus the stuff that was already dead and dry.

[wirespeed]

Wikipedia has a good writeup on the chaparral biome with a large reference to it's relation to wildfires here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaparral

In short, wildfires are a normal occurrence in chaparral due to lightning, but with people moving more and more toward the outskirts where there's a lot of undeveloped land covered in the dry plants and brush common to chaparral in the summer and early fall, the number of wildfires is increasing.

Even shorter: increase in stupid irresponsible people + chaparral + seasonal 'Santa Ana' winds = more and more fires that are almost impossible to quickly control once started

[Jobu]

I'm looking forward to seeing it in spring; quick burns are supposed to really bring out the native wildflowers.

This spring, here in San Diego, the wildflower bloom was stunning because of the combination of perfect late-winter showers and the fires scorching everything down. It was a very pretty and cathartic to see all the brown and black hills transform into orange, purple, and green carpets. Especially cool because the fires also trigger growth of "wildfire flowers" whose seeds will lay dormant for decades waiting for a fire to get them going. All the botanists from UCSD and stuff were out in the foothills grabbing samples and studying them.

[Ingmar]

I'm just surprised there's anything left to burn. I'm always hearing on the news that "50 kagillion acres of lands has been burned this week". I know California is a big state but aren't they running out of stuff to burn?

We have lots of things left to burn! I drove through Big Sur last week and didn't even see any signs of the massive fire they had there. I thought it had burned down to the highway, but apparently not.

[Hoax]

Angel Island caught fire yesterday, and more than half of it got scorched before they were able to put it out.  Luckily no buildings or people were lost.  I'm looking forward to seeing it in spring; quick burns are supposed to really bring out the native wildflowers.

I totally missed this until I came into work and heard about it, I need to go camping out there on one of the sites that can see the City, I hear its a long turn around from when you make your reservation though.

[Samwise]

I went camping on Angel Island every summer when I was a kid.  I think we'd generally aim to make reservations about four months in advance.  If you're going in the summer, I'd recommend getting a site that has shade rather than a site with a view.  (Noplace on Angel Island is more than a five minute walk from an amazing view.)

[Sky]

HOW DARE NATURE DO WHAT IT DID BEFORE PEOPLE MOVED THERE