Fires in Southern California

It's not truly annoyance, though it may come out sounding like that. What I said was more a reaction to the tone of the article---than to the individual, himself. (That was why I'd asked the question about useful suggestions.) As I'm not obviously a CA resident, I'd have no way to know about Davis' high standing and expertise, beforehand.

Can't we all just get along?

Davis quite rightly points out a the class differences in civic services that occurred during the 1993 Malibu fire when the fire trucks rolled to protect the multi-million dollar homes, but did nothing to protect the poorer areas. Obviously there's only so many resources to go around, and you can't protect everything but still...

Lastly developers STILL build houses with wood shake shingle roofs out here which is just fucking insane. My mom's place has always had a rock roof and we were very meticulous about keeping the brush around our house clear and planting ice plant on the hillside below. Not to get all smug about it, but when the 1993 firestorm came through Laguna, we were fine while half of the houses on our street burned to the foundations.

I'd say! Do the developers consider that to be more cost effective? If so, I can't see how....

My mom's place has always had a rock roof and we were very meticulous about keeping the brush around our house clear and planting ice plant on the hillside below. Not to get all smug about it, but when the 1993 firestorm came through Laguna, we were fine while half of the houses on our street burned to the foundations.

Yeah, those pics of yours spoke volumes. Afterward, did the neighbors rebuild with rock roofs?

at 12 pm i went home for lunch and the smoke had rolled in so thick that you could stare straight at the sun - our visibility was down to maybe 500m. everything looks like you're looking through brown-tinted sunglasses. you park your car and when you come back it's covered in fine white ash. the air is so bad it makes your head spin just walking around in it.

and i live a mile from the beach, about twenty miles west of the fires.

It just makes me sad to think of the flames enveloping my city...sigh

http://www.impawards.com/1989/posters/miracle_mile.jpg

http://abclocal.go.com/images/102803_Satellite_View_map.jpg

Crazy stuff.

(x-post)

an argument in favor of high density living. it's okay to hear your neighbors before you get to know them or after you know them. or have fewer possessions and move around a lot. jess's ideal city - anonymity.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0310/gallery.fires.space/4.nasa.seawifs.jpg

Yeesh.

I'll tell you who I'm glad I'm not -- the hunter in San Diego County who, apparently being lost, set a small fire to summon help. This is a perfectly understandable move in the case of distress and if you need to get attention, but a few VERY basic precautions on the hunter's part in terms of setting up such a fire -- and even then it would have to have been an incredibly calculated risk since the dry weather and miles upon miles of ready to burn fuel in all the parched plants and the winds are, as noted earlier, the ultimate conditions for a blaze to burn in -- and nothing might have happened. If he followed those precautions as best he could -- well, he rolled the dice and we've seen the result. The hunter in question has been arrested and will face felony charges, but besides all the lost homes the blaze he sparked up has claimed the bulk of deaths so far -- not something I would want on my conscience at all.

More on the guy who maybe started the big San Diego fire. Looks like the story is more complicated than it first appeared -- it's not positive if he actually started it yet, and it seems he was suffering from a major lack of food and water. Hrm.

"I asked him what he started it with, and he wouldn't comment," Weldon added. "He just remained quiet."

Perhaps, some part of his consciousness realised he started off something major (even in his delirium)?

Can't help feeling sorry for him on some level: if karma truly exists, his line has just gotten screwed for generations.

At least with hurricanes, earthquakes, or tornadoes, you know it would be quite difficult for bored 23-year-old shitheads to just "start" them.

Indeed it is striking to what extent the current fire map (Rancho Cucamonga, north Fontana, La Verne, Simi Valley, Vista, Ramona, Eucalyptus Hills, Scripps Ranch, and so on) recapitulates geographic patterns of heaviest voter support for the recall.

I really, really, really do not want to gloat over a catastrophe that has killed a number of people and left many, many more homeless...but sometimes karma in action can be an astonishing thing. Still, once the fire has died down, what are the odds that people will take this issue seriously?

"Fire, as a result, is politically ironic. Right now, as I watch San Diego's wealthiest new suburb, Scripps Ranch, in flames, I recall the Schwarzenegger fund-raising parties hosted there a few weeks ago. This was an epicenter of the recent recall and gilded voices roared to the skies against the oppression of an out-of-control public sector. Now Arnold's wealthy supporters are screaming for fire engines, and "big government" is the only thing standing between their $3 million homes and the ash pile."

More than just an area of Arnold support, these are all areas that have traditionally and consistently have voted against property taxes which are used to fund things like more firefighting resources.