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wood

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by wood

  1. NM. Much better explanations from Herbie & BillyGoatHill above!
  2. Absolutely 100% guaranteed.
  3. So before there's another freak-out - over them not having hoses on the engine - there are several possible reasons for that. - they had to leave them behind at another fire because they were in use by other crews/apparatus and they still wanted to keep this engine in service as a manpower unit, doing whatever it could do - they had to drop lines and leave a fire scene quickly to escape with their own lives - it could be a reserve engine that simply wasn't even ready for front line service but they took it out anyway (pretty likely imho, since it's an 'all hands on deck' situation where you wouldn't have enough apparatus for everyone who's coming in to work), or other reasons.
  4. Thanks for taking that one on, Herbie. Nobody's missing any time on the end of a handline because they decided to go do pressers instead. I understand the emotional response from that poster, but it's only that - an emotional, malformed response. And nobody's just letting a school burn because they don't feel like putting it out. In situations like these, as you're well aware and I mentioned earlier, it's a case of triaging the fires just as you would do at a mass-casualty incident.
  5. For a comparison, 32,000 acres burned in the Bastrop fire. So, superimpose the Bastrop fire on SoCal, and this is the result.
  6. Yeah I was referring to rural wildlands. In WUI areas fuel removal helps, but not by burning it. They aren't going to do that near residential areas. Removal helps. It's not going to prevent the incident, but it can lessen the severity.
  7. That's nuts. Wow. Takes some big swinging cojones to pick up water out there imho.
  8. Yep. That's what I was telling y'all about a couple of weeks ago (per my 'friend who knows F1 things'. Hasn't failed me yet). Seems like Flav really likes him, and now he's apparently been confirmed with a multi-year deal, starting as a reserve in 2025: https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/43345899/alpine-adds-franco-colapinto-f1-reserve-driver-2025 This article also suggests that Doohan's contract is only confirmed through 6 races next year: https://www.planetf1.com/news/franco-colapinto-alpine-rumours-deleted-social-media-post
  9. Yep, we haven't talked about it, but controlled burns help a lot. But environmental regs aren't the only things keeping those things from happening. It's also about funding. There's a whole lot of acreage all over the country that really needs maintenance in the form of controlled burning, but isn't getting it.
  10. wood

    Landman

    Yeah the suspension of reality failed its final test when I looked up and saw them trying to pass off Jerruh as some kind of family man LOFL. What in the actual fuck?
  11. Oh, and just one more thing before I shut up for a while, re: the dry hydrants. Just working large structure fires like, for example, an apartment fire with a whole building or multiple buildings involved, you can have water supply issues if you have too many hydrants flowing in that area. In very general terms, the more hydrants you open up, the less volume and pressure you'll end up with on each hydrant. Now imagine maybe hundreds or maybe even thousands of hydrants opened up all over the place over a broader area, with numerous firefighting agencies all working with them at the same time, literal chaos as you try to chase current fires and new fires popping up all over the place, triaging the fires so as not to waste resources on lost causes, trying to make sure everyone is out and evacuating and at the same time rescuing those who need it, dispatch absolutely swamped with radio and telephone traffic, not enough radio channels so they're all jammed with radio traffic making it very difficult for even the most basic comms, etc ... I don't envy those folks at all. They're going through the wringer.
  12. Yep. Those canyons around there aren't places where you can do much to stop the fires, esp once they start going vertical up the chutes and chimneys, where the flame spread rate increases dramatically. Homes at the top? Fuggedaboutit.
  13. She's probably not wrong imho. We've already had Bastrop, and the big residential fires in Oak Hill & Steiner Ranch. If there hadn't have been - just by chance - multiple firefighting aircraft nearby while just passing through, that Oak Hill Pinnacle fire might still be burning. Those guys saved Oak Hill. Between the Pinnacle Fire and the Steiner Ranch Fire, iirc around 40 homes were lost. If we'd had sustained winds like they have out in SoCal, it would have been much, much worse.
  14. You don't have to remove it all to that level. Just create a buffer around structures. Still no guarantees, but it tends to help your odds significantly.
  15. Yep. It is. It gets windy around here too, but the biggest difference in our favor is that we don't have regular Santa Anas and eucalyptus trees all over the place. We're lucky compared to them, but yeah, when the conditions are bad here, we all know we're walking a knife edge.
  16. This. But most people won't do it if it compromises (in their mind) the 'look' of their property.
  17. I'm sure they did everything they could. None of those men and women want to fight fires like these any more than they have to. Just like here in Austin, they do extensive public education, teaching people (who bother to listen) how to better protect their homes from wildfires, especially those in the Wildland-Urban Interface. Think Cat Mountain/Jester-ish. In So-Cal, given their conditions, they go hard on this stuff, but just like here, they can only do so much, and they can't make people do what they should do - cutting trees and vegetation back from their houses, etc, to improve their chances of minimizing damage.
  18. Nobody does. And if they did, they'd be massively overstaffed for everyday work and everyone would complain about how 'easy' their jobs are and what a waste of money they are. Hell, they already do. I ran into it on this board not long ago. ETA: And tbh, it would be near impossible to even assemble a firefighting force and resources, equipment, etc etc to be able to effectively combat something like this - much less sustain it. It's simply going to require help from the weather. Anyone who suggests otherwise or that this is the result of anyone 'fucking up' is a moron and a despicable human being not worth anyone ever listening to about anything. No cr. IMHO there is no realistic policy that would prevent something like this, short of keeping people from living in areas like that.
  19. Yeah it was amazing how many fires were started exactly those ways during our drought years. Smokers throwing out their butts, trucks hauling trailer, dragging chains on the ground, setting fires all along I-35 from San Marcos to GT & beyond, etc. There is just no end to the idiocy.
  20. wood

    Landman

    JFC this show. Nice premise, cast, etc. Could be awesome, but it's 1 minute of plot development for every 15 minutes of annoying daughter, incredibly annoying wife, fellating cowboys, Tech, and other assorted football bs - IF we're lucky. Seems like Sheridan thinks he's remaking Friday Night Lights or something.
  21. *most costly. And got damn. That looks like Hiroshoma.
  22. Yet another reason I'm rapidly losing interest in F1 during the LM ownership era. No Spa in 2028 & 2030.
  23. Dude. Just stfu. As usual, you don't know wtf you're talking about. This isn't a huge scandal, and it's not uncommon. It happens fairly often in much less extreme conditions than the ones they're facing. It happens in other places. It's happened at multiple fires I've worked in Austin over the years. Dry hydrants happen. Grow up, dumbass.
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