California fires

[Jedi Master Carr]

These fires are horrible. I feel awful for those in Southern California that have to suffer it. Is there any posters here who are in any danger?

[CMJ]

About an hour or so away from here. Not headed towards Los Angeles exactly however.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well thats good, glad to here you are safe :)

[Marcus Telcontar]

Reminds me a lot of Australian fires. Big, fast, brutal and nearly impossible to put out. A 80km fire line is indesribeable, as also the sound of one of these monsters roaring up a gully.....

Actually, isnt one of the problems that Aust Ecalypt trees are taking over a lot of the tree areas? If that's true, I understand exactly why the fires are so bad. The oils in those trees tend to turn them into torches.

[Sanis Prent]

No, the fires are a natural occurrence. Its pretty much cyclic all across the country, except for areas like Louisiana.

[Princess Sunflower]

It's really sad all the destruction that has been caused due to these fires. I pray for the safety of the firefighters and hope the fires are quickly brought under control so no more homes and lives will be lost.

I heard at one point the Reagan Presidental Library was being threatened but is now safe. I also heard that part of the sets of "Little House on The Prairie" and "Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman were destroyed and production of Martin Scorcese's next movie
was halted due to the smoke.

Word is these will be the most costly fires in history for the state of California.

[Darth Viscera]

Is the fire heading towards LAX?

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
No, the fires are a natural occurrence. Its pretty much cyclic all across the country, except for areas like Louisiana.



You know, I do understand how fires occur naturally, considering that Sydney tends to suffer from huge ones every summer and as large as these Calf ones are, they are quite small compared to what was here last summer. My question, if you will RCP for a moment, was IF the situation was made worse by Aust Eucalypt trees, being they are quasi firebombs in dry weather.

[Sanis Prent]

Considering what a statistical outlier the eucalyptus is compared to the native flora, does your question even need an answer?

[Jedi Master Carr]

I heard talk that arson was involved not sure how true that is.

[Sorreessa Tarrineezi]

*is fine* fires have been moving away from my area....basically the eucalyptus is used here a lot since the folks seem to like it, the problem though is just like the shake shingle roofs made of cedar, eucalyptus goes up like it's doused in gasoline....

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
Considering what a statistical outlier the eucalyptus is compared to the native flora, does your question even need an answer?


Yes, because in the last huge Calf fires about 8 years ago, some of the blame for the fast and violent propogation of the fires were placed directly on Aust native plants which at that time I believe were certainly not a statistical abbreation. They encourage fire for germination and seed distribution. Aust natives AFAIK were introduced in the 1870's and are an active problem. And they just happen to love the same type of enviroment South Califoria is and are one of the few trees that will actually grow well in such a dry and hot area.

[quote] eucalyptus goes up like it's doused in gasoline.... [/quote

How true

[Darth Viscera]

So why do people keep planting these horrible trees? Sounds like someone should burn them all down. Is it really such a bright idea to surround the highest concentration of wealth on Earth with exploding trees?

And I still have no idea if LAX is safe or not. My LA vacation starts November 2nd, and I'd like it if my plane didn't descend into the 7th layer of hell at 2pm.

[Ace McCloud]

How fast do these fires actually spread? I've never really payed attention to a forest fire until now.


And I still have no idea if LAX is safe or not. My LA vacation starts November 2nd, and I'd like it if my plane didn't descend into the 7th layer of hell at 2pm.

No, that wouldn't be good. But I don't think theyd send the flight off without knowing.

[General Tohmahawk]

Originally posted by Ace McCloud
How fast do these fires actually spread? I've never really payed attention to a forest fire until now.


A proper bush fire can range from 1 or 2 km to literally 100 if there is a firestorm condition. It also depends if it's going downhill or uphill. A fire can also literally jump 10 - 20 km with hot embers, causing more problems.

http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/2003/week01/160.htm

From the Hansard report linked above -


Let's look at our processes and our procedures; let's look at how well emergency services performed on the day. But let's do it with a genuine view to finding the answers that need to be found and with a genuine desire to learn from the experience, remaining mindful of the nature of the disaster that befell us. It was a firestorm which, anecdotally, officers of the CSIRO and the ANU are suggesting reached a wind force of up to 200 kilometres per hour-a tornado which, by itself, wreaked enormous havoc, particularly on Chapman and Kambah, let alone the force and nature of the fire, which was part and parcel of the tornado.

Let's keep some perspective on what we faced on the day, and not slip into thinking that it was some sort of zephyr that we could have rushed out and faced with broken branches and wet potato bags. It was not like that at all.

We had 120 fire trucks on the ground that day, and this fire swamped all of them. It ran over the top of all of them. That was the experience all the way, from the Brindabella range to the streets of Duffy. As everyone knows, it burnt a fire tender in Waragamba Avenue. It burnt the tyres to the ground and then it went over the top of that fire tender, from which officers just escaped, and wreaked the havoc that I know it wreaked. I fear, as we rush into this political phase of the disaster, that we tend to forget the nature of the disaster that befell us.

[CMJ]

Originally posted by Darth Viscera

And I still have no idea if LAX is safe or not. My LA vacation starts November 2nd, and I'd like it if my plane didn't descend into the 7th layer of hell at 2pm.

The city of LA is safe right now. So LAX is free and clear.

[Darth Viscera]

But they're saying LAX has cancelled dozens of flights.

[CMJ]

That's true...because the air traffic control center in San Diego(which apparently is the big on in Southern California) was being threatened by fire a few days ago.

Also they're delaying alot of flights because of smoke. I mean the fires are miles away from here, but there's a strange reddish glow to the sky.

[darth_mcbain]

Hopefully they will get this out soon. I live pretty close to where the Hayman fire was in CO, and it was so nerve-wracking. My place wasn't in any real danger, but my parents were evacuated. Everything smelled like a campfire for weeks, and you could see all the plumes of smoke... Scary stuff...

[Jinn Fizz]

Anybody here seen any of the satellite photos of the fires? They're absolutely mindboggling. Here's a link to one of the color photos:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=3&u=/031027/241/5owcd.html

As CMJ pointed out, LAX is just fine. There are no fires within miles of there, and the area around the airport will remain safe. So you should have no trouble getting in to the airport on this weekend, Darth Viscera.

The fire closest to where I live is the one in Simi Valley...although it's a hundred miles or so away, we still have tons of drift smoke in our air, and it's causing lots of coughing, sore throats, and allergy flare-ups. And it was really weird, the sunlight today was actually a dark orange...never seen anything quite like that before.

When I was listening to the news on the radio on the way home from work, they said there was a back-up of 30 to 35 miles of traffic trying to get out of the San Bernardino mountains, from places like Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, because of the mandatory evacuations.

What makes this whole situation just all the more tragic and infuriating is that a good portion of these fires were set by human beings. Especially the San Diego fire, the one where there's been the highest death toll so far...it all started because some numbnut hunter got separated from his friend and thought it would be a nifty idea to start a signal fire to get his friend's attention. :rolleyes

And one of the fires in San Bernardino was allegedly started by 2 guys in a van...someone said they saw these guys in the van, one jumped out, set the fire, jumped back in the van, and they took off. If this is true, heaven only knows if they'll be able to track these guys down and hold them responsible. :\

[Jedi Master Carr]

They need to locate those jerks, and charge them with arson and murder. What they did was horrible.

[CMJ]

Yeah, perhaps so...but these fires were destined to occur with the years of drought conditions - and people moving into densley forrested(and areas that are basically sage brush) regions.

I mean you hate to see stuff like this happen, and the alleged arsonists should be charged, BUT this was going to happen eventually anyways.