Cali Fires 2018

[Wolfman]

Maybe they can conscript the caravan and send them up to put out the fires.

[Mikey]

Nothing anywhere near here but the conditions this morning were eerily similar to when we had the Lilac Fire last December. The Santa Ana is supposed to die down by tomorrow, though.

If anything does break out, though, I'm counting on our blue wave to drown it in a flood of love and good intentions.

[Mikey]

One thing about the Santa Ana conditions is that they bring very clear skies, at least until the smoke arrives.

This is dawn from my front porch this morning. Notice Venus in the U&L...

[Mikey]

Notice Penus in the U&L...

Sorry bud. Too easy.

You talking about Duhron, or Dinsdale?

[Mikey]

Shit getting serious now.

Rich folks' homes gettin' burned in Malibu.

Caitlyn Jenner’s Malibu Home Burns Down In Southern California’s Raging Wildfires

Caitlyn Jenner’s Malibu home has unfortunately burned down in the horrific Woolsey fire raging through Southern California. We have more details here.

Caitlyn Jenner has unfortunately become a victim of the horrific fire in Los Angeles, according to TMZ. The reality star’s beautiful home in the Malibu Hills was destroyed in the Woolsey fire, which is burning out of control. The house, which was featured in her show, I Am Cait, sat on top of a ridge overlooking the Malibu beach area; it was engulfed in flames as the wildfire moved through the area. Luckily, Caitlyn is safe (watch the video below). This isn’t the first time a natural disaster threatened her home. High powered winds tore the roof off her home in 2017.

https://hollywoodlife.com/2018/11/09/ca ... re-malibu/

[Derron]

Fuck Malibu. That is urban renewal.

The Camp Fire in Butte County burned a town of 30,000 people out. Over 6,000 homes burned and many commercial buildings. Listening to that day on the radio was some crazy shit.

[Mikey]

Gov Brown vetoed a bi-partisan bill last year that would have allowed local municipalities to manage their area to help keep these fires from becoming so massive because Brown wanted to be able to blame these fires on President Trump and Global Warming

Link?

As usualm you have no idea what you’re talking about.

[smackaholic]

Gov Brown vetoed a bi-partisan bill last year that would have allowed local municipalities to manage their area to help keep these fires from becoming so massive because Brown wanted to be able to blame these fires on President Trump and Global Warming

Link?

As usualm you have no idea what you’re talking about.

No idea if moonbeam vetoes anything, BUT, there is no excuse for out of control fires in developed areas.

You fukking idiots need to take measures to prevent it and stop blaming AGW.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[smackaholic]

All of Cali has been prone to such fires forever. Why did these areas not burn down years ago?

I suspect they didn’t because they used to take preventive measures. But when you have a massive underclass and high speed rail to build, things like this get pushed aside.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kierland]

Gov Brown vetoed a bi-partisan bill last year that would have allowed local municipalities to manage their area to help keep these fires from becoming so massive because Brown wanted to be able to blame these fires on President Trump and Global Warming

Link?

As usualm you have no idea what you’re talking about.

He is probably taking about SB 1463.

[Mikey]

Gov Brown vetoed a bi-partisan bill last year that would have allowed local municipalities to manage their area to help keep these fires from becoming so massive because Brown wanted to be able to blame these fires on President Trump and Global Warming

Link?

As usualm you have no idea what you’re talking about.

He is probably taking about SB 1463.

That's what I assume. But it had nothing to do with what he's saying it was, except that it was related to fires.

[Mikey]

All of Cali has been prone to such fires forever. Why did these areas not burn down years ago?

I suspect they didn’t because they used to take preventive measures. But when you have a massive underclass and high speed rail to build, things like this get pushed aside.

You're about as well informed as Shitdick from Riverside.

[Kierland]

Nothing he ever says relates to facts or real life or anything of the sort.

[Diego in Seattle]

All of Cali has been prone to such fires forever. Why did these areas not burn down years ago?

I suspect they didn’t because they used to take preventive measures. But when you have a massive underclass and high speed rail to build, things like this get pushed aside.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"Preventative measures?"

Would that be like seeding clouds to rain so that they would get as much precipitation as they used to?

You know as much about the California environment & forest management as you do about landscaping.

[Left Seater]

What was in SB1463? Was it actually supported by both parties?

[Goober McTuber]

Meteorologist pushes back on Trump idiocy.

[Mikey]

This sucks. And it looks like the suck is going to continue for a while. Good luck, Cali trolls.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/09/ ... nksgiving/

Not looking good. The wind picked up today around here and now we are under a red flag warning, at least until Wednesday night. If the wind picks up more than it already has I'll probably be staying home from work tomorrow to monitor the situation.

SB1463, while it did involve cities managing some aspects of fire prevention, was mainly about the utilities and their overhead power lines, which seem to be the immediate cause of a lot of these fires starting. What they really need to do is force the utilities to put their lines underground.

http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilo ... story.html

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday vetoed a bill spearheaded by Laguna Beach Councilman Bob Whalen that would have required the state to identify areas most at risk of wildfires caused by overhead utility wires.

SB 1463, authored by state Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa), also would have required the California Public Utilities Commission and the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, to identify steps that cities must take to prevent fires from overhead electrical equipment, according to the bill.

In a written statement explaining his decision, Brown said a process that began in May 2015 with the utilities commission and Cal Fire is already in place for addressing issues present in SB 1463. The two groups examine fire-threat maps and fire safety regulations on areas with overhead utilities facilities, he wrote.

"This deliberative process should continue, and the issues this bill seeks to address should be raised in that forum," Brown said.

"Clearly, this is a major disappointment to the city and the other cities and counties that had stepped forward to endorse the bill," Whalen said in a statement. "This bill would have provided important direction to the [commission] in its current regulatory process concerning fire safety and overhead utility lines."

Whalen said he remains undeterred.

"We will continue to press the [commission] to hold the utilities accountable for fire safety in areas like Laguna Beach," he said.

Laguna Beach has experienced four fires sparked by utility lines in the last 10 years, the most recent on July3, 2015, in Laguna Canyon.

The entire regulated utility structure in this state is completely fucked up. The three major IOUs (investor owned utilities) are PG&E, SCE and SDG&E. There are also a number of Municipal (Publicly Owned) Utilities, the largest of which are Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), plus dozens of smaller ones.

The IOUs, being "investor owned" are profit oriented and naturally averse to spending any more than they have to on safety or reliability. Lately, though, they've been hit with a lot of damages because of their poor maintenance of their infrastructure, including power lines and in SCE's case the failure of San Onofre. They constantly lobby to pass all of these liabilities to the rate payers, while protecting their shareholders from any loss of equity or profit. One of the reasons we have the highest rates in the lower 48. Costs that arise due to management ineptitude should be covered by the shareholders, not the ratepayers who have no say in company policy.

[Kierland]

What was in SB1463? Was it actually supported by both parties?

The only person that “voted” against it was Gov Moonbeam.

[Derron]

All of Cali has been prone to such fires forever. Why did these areas not burn down years ago?

Because there is now years of floor fuels, flash fuels and 1 hour fuels that have built up since the last time the area burned, and those combined with extreme fire behavior due to wind, humidity and terrain. When all those combine you have what happened in Paradise CA. You build in the forest, shrub / scrub and savannas areas that is the chance you take. People need to be responsible and have their own defensive space in place. But when the wind hits 50, humidity is 10% and the power lines get together nothing is going to stop it.

[Kierland]

Some fires (and floods for that matter) are caused by humans, at least according to Smokey the Bear.

[Derron]

The IOUs, being "investor owned" are profit oriented and naturally averse to spending any more than they have to on safety or reliability. Lately, though, they've been hit with a lot of damages because of their poor maintenance of their infrastructure, including power lines and in SCE's case the failure of San Onofre. They constantly lobby to pass all of these liabilities to the rate payers, while protecting their shareholders from any loss of equity or profit. One of the reasons we have the highest rates in the lower 48. Costs that arise due to management ineptitude should be covered by the shareholders, not the ratepayers who have no say in company policy.

I would think that the insurance companies would want to stop the utilities from causing these fires. In Paradise they lost 6,435 homes at this count and 260 commercial buildings. Well over 2 billion in property lost. Because the utilities did not want to maintain the lines.

I am on a public utility and they have excellent infrastructure and my rates are lower than a bunch of the other houses in this rural residential area. By about 35% lower. And the fucking power only goes off if they have to do work or a major feeder lines goes bad. The private utility on the other hand, has complete shit for lines and infrastructure and the power goes off all the time. Hell, I had to set battery alarm backups years ago and still do to this day because the fucking power would go off 2 times a day sometimes.

How many insurance adjusters do they have to get into an area to handle that ? They give you stated value for your place, and they have to hope they have some equity and good enough FICO to buy a new house or build there again ?? How long to restore utilities to even build again ?? Take the money and run to Oregon where you can afford to rebuild in some areas anyway ? Great.

[Mikey]

As much as I like to bitch about our local utility, I do have to give them credit for this:

https://www.sdgeweather.com/

They've deployed something like 177 remote weather stations around the county and share the data (temperature, RH, wind speed) on this interactive map. Plus detailed data from each station available by cruising down to the "more data" link.

The Engineer's Motto:
You can never have too much data.

[Goober McTuber]

As much as I like to bitch about our local utility, I do have to give them credit for this:

https://www.sdgeweather.com/

They've deployed something like 177 remote weather stations around the county and share the data (temperature, RH, wind speed) on this interactive map. Plus detailed data from each station available by cruising down to the "more data" link.

The Engineer's Motto:
You can never have too much data.

The wind speeds are all made up.

Sincerely,

Papa Willie, T1B Meltyologist

[Left Seater]

Hope the winds are down and Mikey is posting from the office.

[Mikey]

I was ready to stay home today but it was completely calm this morning at the homestead. Wind started coming up later in the morning at work but the gusts where I live are actually the lowest of any on the map. We might just make it through this without another major fire here.

Really sucks for those poor folks in Paradise, though. Apparently they had actually done a lot to prepare for something like this by creating detailed evacuation plans and doing a lot of awareness stuff. The town is in a logistically very difficult location with only a few ways out. The population apparently has grown from less than 10,000 to almost 30,000 in the past 30 years or so.

[Mikey]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

[atmdad]

Cool map Mikey.
It was blowing pretty good this morning at my place on the coast, relatively speaking. Cleaning out my Redwoods nicely. I'm sure the neighbors yards behind me look like crap

[Diego in Seattle]

Yesterday the orange imbecile opined that the reason for all the wildfires in CA is that the forests need to have all the leaves raked up.

He needs to STFU. He doesn't know shit about anything outside oa a skyscraper!

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Trump before visiting the CA fires: "California forest service is to blame, they will receive no federal aid."

Trump after visiting the CA fires: "Very sad, what horrible destruction. CA of course will receive full federal support."

Classic Trump. Ruling with pure emotional hand-wringing.

[Diego in Seattle]

He also said we should rake the "forest floors" because Finland does it & has few wildfires.

Who is going to tell him?

[Mikey]

What most people (including our President) probably don’t know is that 60% of the forest land in CA owned by the Federal Government. 37% is private and 3% state. The Trump administration already cut several hundred million $$ from the National Forest Service. So, if there’s a lack of preparation, whose fault is that?

[Mikey]

Also, the Camp fire was (is) mostly not a forest fire. It’s been burning in the foothills of the Sierra, which is mainly dry oak grassland and chaparral. Not forest.

[Rooster]

I was fighting fires by Paradise two summers ago where a wildfire sprang up from the river up to the edge of town. We were using a man made pond to dip out of which was located on the east side. If you'd asked me before this fire hit, I'd have answered that the burnable materials had been consumed, at least on the east side. Obviously there was plenty left to ignite.

It's unimaginable that by now those missing people wouldn't have contacted somebody-- anybody --to let them know they are alive. As it stands, that means over 300 people burnt to death. What a horrible way to go.

[Rooster]

So, FiveThirtyEight has put together some charts and graphs that attempt to explain why the California wildfires are so bad.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wh ... -5-charts/

The gist is this: People are building homes and living closer to and in wilderness areas and AGW is to blame. While we can agree to disagree on the AGW thing, can we at least gain consensus that people who chose to live in or next to untended forested areas are largely responsible for their own safety? That those who chose to reside near volatile and fire-prone land should accept the risk of losing everything, including their own lives, to fire? This applies to hurricane-prone areas, earthquake-prone areas, and everything else.

As to AGW, a one hundred year snapshot of temperatures and rain levels does not convince me of anything. After all, for as small a window as 100 years is, you might as well just make it easy on yourself and just use last year as your basis for jumping to conclusions. At least then the claims of calamity and apocalypse have truly end-of-the-world numbers. Look! The End Times are upon us! Fires are breaking out everywhere! Alas! Woe!

True climate change takes eons, not a mere century.

As for wildfires, just let them burn. It is its own solution.

[Kierland]

You add C02 to a plant’s environment and you get more plant. It’s pretty simple science and has nothing to do with MMCC being real or not you stupid fuckhole.

[Rooster]

So lemme get this straight. If AGW is real, that produces more rain, which in turn produces more vegetation, which then becomes fuel for wildfires. If AGW is a figment of an environmentalist’s fevered imagination, then the droughts in California produce more dry woods, which in turn catch fire.

Do I have that right? Kind of a “heads I win, tails you lose” proposition? You Lefties sure are clever!

[Mikey]

So lemme get this straight. If AGW is real, that produces more rain

You’re a fucking iodot.

[Kierland]

So lemme get this straight. If AGW is real, that produces more rain, which in turn produces more vegetation, which then becomes fuel for wildfires. If AGW is a figment of an environmentalist’s fevered imagination, then the droughts in California produce more dry woods, which in turn catch fire.

Do I have that right?

No you don’t. Like Mikey said, you are and iodiot.

[smackaholic]

Warming does mean more rain....globe wide. It does not necessarily mean more rain in particular areas, the left coast, obviously being one. At least not this year. I believe they did have a pretty wet winter recently though. And that is likely part of the current problem.

There was a retired climate guy on the radio last year. He was an MIT professor. His take was that yeah, things are warming overall and it will likely be a good thing in the long run as the resulting increase in water vapor, globe wide, will have a tempering effect. Areas near the equator might actually cool a bit, while the southern/northern extremes would warm. The result being an increase in arable land.

[Kierland]

Yeah nothing to see here, move along.