Lessons from a wildfire

[Weldor]

My brother inlaw’s house survived the fire that torched the McKenzie river canyon in Oregon. Several neighbors house’s burnt to the ground. He had a “green space” 75 yards deep surrounding his home and no wood decks. I think this and a little luck saved his home.
On another note, every gun safe, in a house the burned, failed.

Most safes are rated for minutes not a total burn down.

 

[mt terry d]

The Plan?

 

[.204smokechaser]

Here's on of the L.A. fire fighters
View attachment 821823

You got that mixed up for someone in the south.

 

[Elk97]

Yep. Out of state fire apparatus is exempt from any special emissions, I’ve never been checked for it. Now if you got a check engine light and it comes back to emissions, you’ll get placed out of service until the cal fire mechanics fix it.

I Wanted to write that additional info as there’s a lot of uproar on why apparatus is stopped from immediately going to incidents and I know some people on here didn’t know that maintenance is a big deal on fires. The contractors try to get every single dollar out of the federal and state government they can, not so much the counties and cities themselves. The contract game is big big money.

I hope these incidents in a slow news time in the country starts serving as a wake up call that public information officers have a lot more educating to do and there needs to be a crack down on fact checking with what any news source spews… for example, the media saying water was being carried with purses to douse flames as most people didn’t know engines carry collapsible pales. I’m glad Fox News out of anyone is bringing some highly educated fire folks on to talk.

Do all states require out of state emergency vehicles to go through the same type of inspection before deploying, or just CA? I've driven trucks all over the west and the only state that required any inspections of out of state highway trucks was CA. They'd write you up for even the smallest oil leak.

 

[mt terry d]

I was an over the road Owner Operator in the late 70's early 80's.
Made a couple runs to California and that was enough.
The LE and scales was ridiculous even then. Can't imagine
what it's like now.

 

[JustABritCrazy]

I’ve done 30 plus western fire deployments over the years as part of what’s called the militia. Equipment is checked on every fire in every state not just CA when there is an incident management team running the fire. Sounds like they parceled out the equipment check to take something off the plate of the teams handling that mess. I’m just a dumb forester. I do have a slight understanding on how water pressure works. I’m the last house on a dead end road halfway up a hill on a public water system. We have to coordinate our water usage ie don’t take a shower while the washer is running. If the 70 plus other houses below me started running their garden hoses anll ant the same time and then the fire company opened all 5 hydrants guess how much water pressure I would have. And I live next door to the 100,000 gallon tank. Could probably pee with more pressure. Given those wind conditions my only surprise is wasn’t worse.

 

[Yoder]

You got that mixed up for someone in the south.

She's a DEI hire.

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

She's a DEI hire.

@.204smokechaser is right. Your pic is in fact an “LA FFTR”. As in Louisiana.

All CA FFTRs can easily be identified by what is commonly called “the R5 Stash”, otherwise known as a…

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Here, I thought this was about wildfires. Silly me.

 

[Billinsd]

Fire got to a street away from my aunt’s rental property in South Pasadena yesterday and got stopped. I remember when it was getting built in mid sixties, I was a little kid. Looks like my relatives are safe.

 

[Yoder]

@.204smokechaser is right. Your pic is in fact an “LA FFTR”. As in Louisiana.

All CA FFTRs can easily be identified by what is commonly called “the R5 Stash”, otherwise known as a…
View attachment 822075

After seeing all the interviews, I thought they were all lesbians.

 

[Billinsd]

Looks like light onshore winds this Friday, will push the fires back towards the way they came!!!!! However, will switch direction again, offshore to the NE Sunday, with another set of Santa Ana winds. The fireman probably won’t get this handled until the Santa Ana’s stop and the winds flip back 180 degrees to offshore. San Diego looks visibly dryer and dryer everyday.

 

[Beendare]

I believe it’s BLINDING INCOMPETENCE. People are exploiting it.

Exactly

Newsom is too busy being in front of a microphone lying about his colossal failures and spending time and money to undermine incoming conservative policy and accountability to actually do the job of running the state.

LA Politicos didn’t allow the fire mitigation plan to go forward last year because some “environmentalist” found a rare shrub in those hills- so no clearing, or cutting more firebreaks, instead they catered to the hack environmentalists that think they are helping. Wouldn’t it be nice if the people of Pacific Palisades sued those environmentalist into oblivion.

Newsoms first claim was “reservoirs were full” until he was caught in his lie by reports of one bone dry. This clown ruined SF, now the state of CA…. in one of his latest speeches, he said “As your future president……”. god help us all.

 

[WeiserBucks]

“As your future president……”

This is going to happen one day.

 

[TaperPin]

Many seem to put on aluminum foil hats and become experts at every natural disaster. Lol

Everything becomes political, even if water systems have been in place since before Reagan, and why does someone who lives somewhere else care how LA manages its water supply?

Everyone bitches about paying any taxes before a fire, and they live in a different state.

Everyone bitches not enough money was spent on their flavor of fire prevention, no matter how expensive their solution is, and they don’t even live in the state.

I guess natural disasters are a release for some people who feel it’s ok to say anything if it makes any sense or not. *chuckle*

 

[Alpine4x4]

Many seem to put on aluminum foil hats and become experts at every natural disaster. Lol

Everything becomes political, even if water systems have been in place since before Reagan, and why does someone who lives somewhere else care how LA manages its water supply?

Everyone bitches about paying any taxes before a fire, and they live in a different state.

Everyone bitches not enough money was spent on their flavor of fire prevention, no matter how expensive their solution is, and they don’t even live in the state.

I guess natural disasters are a release for some people who feel it’s ok to say anything if it makes any sense or not. *chuckle*

It matters because failures in the infrastructure can create sweeping regulations that impact homeowners directly, even if their local infrastructure is sound. Lack of preparedness due to environmental regulations is hard to curtail and if it is glossed over then it is not fixed in other states.

It also affects homeowners in other states. Whole communities in California are being wiped off the map by fire. The same is NOT happening in Washington. That said insurance companies are treating WA like CA and cancelling policies for communities in fire prone areas. They are doing the same in other states too.

What happens in one state in this country has broad affects on other states, regardless of whos side you're on when it comes to the politics.

 

[Billinsd]

Newsom’s first claim was “reservoirs were full” until he was caught in his lie by reports of one bone dry. This clown ruined SF, now the state of CA…. in one of your latest speeches, he said “As your future president……”

He always talks out his ass. He’s an outdated sleezy politician who went around kissing babies and got by on his charm and looks. Since all eyes are on him, especially those not covering for him, he’s caught smirking, and lying, which he does all the time. All these incompetent lying politicians have been caught, because when you are a public figure you are being recorded all the time. We will find out about the dry reservoir….hopefully. Reservoirs are routinely taken out of service for repairs for long periods. The question is, was the reservoir scheduled to be off line for a long time and now? What was the backup plan to provide adequate water while the reservoir was down and was it adequate? Did LA Water and Power communicate any deficiencies or alterations in their system? What did the fire department do if they got this information?

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I can't wait to see my homeowners policy bill next year.

 

[Billinsd]

What happens in one state in this country has broad affects on other states, regardless of who's side you're on when it comes to the politics.

As California goes, so does the nation. That used to be a great thing, until California set out to destroy itself.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

If not for Ca. heavy regulation there would be many more desalinations plants in the state which can make millions of gallons of fresh water per day. There are currently only 12 plants all with far lower capacity as that of Carlsbad plant. The largest plant in the western hemisphere is in Carlsbad Ca. in northern San Diego county. It has an output capacity of 50 million gallons per day, at a. cost of .07 cents per gal. by using reverse osmosis. By comparison there is a plant in France with the capacity of 75 million gals. per day. The reservoir which was drained for repairs had a capacity of 117 million gals. which means it would have taken just over two day to fill it if all the output of a plant the size of the Carlsbad plant went to filling the reservoir. Another thing I have always wonder about is why there is not a system in place to capture some of the trillions of gallons of rainwater that run into the ocean every year. The reason is two fold, first nobody wants the plants or the storage reservoirs in their back yard, second is the cost of the projects, well the last I heard, the cost of the current fires may run as highs 250 billion$. It's all a bunch of political BS.