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Southern CA Fires- Extreme Santa Ana Winds


Wilcox Cummingtonite

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So what is the actual containment/mitigation + go-forward suppression plan at this point?  This is an honest question.

There is clearly no forecasted weather relief whatsoever, and the firefighter conditions on the ground have (and continue to) massively deteriorate given the apparent hydrant issues.  And everytime I open this thread there's seemingly another blaze brewing in heavy populated (and enormously/pricelessly culturally significant) areas.

Is it now just a sole reliance on air support (when wind conditions allow)?  Along with waiting for "70 Oregon Forest Service personnel" to arrive?  

I am not trying to be flippant, I truly am at a loss for why every surplus fire asset and emergency response team on the entire West Coast is not en route to the LA Basin right now.  Even if by some miracle the fire conditions improve, what about the thousands of overnight homeless people?  Wholesale destruction of public service infrastructure?  Decimation of schools?  Not to mention the rapidly increasing probability of civil unrest (or opportunistic havoc) once it becomes clearer that situation is officially apocalyptic?

I am admittedly very far from ground truth/real-world facts, and perhaps and being overly alarmist (pray to God I am)...but this is starting to give some pretty strong Katrina-like vibes right before the complete unraveling that did not stabilize until GEN Honore and the 82nd ABN arrived.  I just saw a PIVOTAL L.A.public figure literally petrified with befuddlement on broadcast television....are we sure this is team we want to go to war with?  And then lead the humanitarian response?

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14 minutes ago, faps said:

Any chance these are arson? How often do these happen close to the city like this?

I bet some are.  And some are probably negligence.  Idiots tossing cigarettes, or not fixing metal shit dragging on the road under their car.

Edited by ClubWhatever
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Arson perhaps.  But also these embers are flying in the wind like a sideways rain storm leap frogging across the mountains sunsey blvd sucks for traffic too. Winds are up a little too as the fires grow they produce their own damn wind. Shits wild 

Edited by Sgt Hulk
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27 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

I bet some are.  And some are probably negligence.  Idiots tossing cigarettes, or not fixing metal shit dragging on the road under their car.

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.

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3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

for july 4th, 2024, we went to a restaurant on the beach, ubered to my cousin's in the palisades, then walked with half of the party to the high school up the street to watch fireworks. 6 months later all 3 are gone.

this is also one of those frustrating situations where everyone "wants to help" but the best thing for everybody to do (assuming you're not evacuating), is to stay home to let others get where they need to go. pretty helpless feeling.

we're donating to a couple of animal shelters because they're about to get inundated by animals running out of the woods. apologies if that's political.

many years ago, when there were horrible fires around San Diego, I spent a week using my horse trailer to evacuate animals to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.  It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done...actually helping people in a crisis.

1 hour ago, HOOKEM4 said:

@immamac can you just give @Incredulitya timeout from this thread? Jesus christ. Now he is arguing with actual firefighters in a fucking fire thread. 

Right up there with arguing with @Foosters about criminal law in CA.

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14 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

The high and low pressure systems are sliding east, so the winds will drop overnight, but this seems like Maui 50x. How can any place have the manpower to fight this?

Once it gets to this stage, the fight is already lost. 

The part I'm unclear on is if they actually took reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate this. Fires in California have a long history, so fires in these exact places should have been expected and planned for.   What fire prevention steps did they take during this prolonged drought?   

 

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For those of you who, like me, might not be super familiar with all the neighborhoods in LA and need to search a little bit to find where shit is going down, this is the Hollywood area that’s on fire and at risk of spreading. The fire seems confined at the moment to the area just north of Hillside Ave. at the center of the map at the link.

Edited to add screenshot:

image.thumb.png.7359e5f9cadb09f2a30fe57e2bf1aa9a.png

Edited by bolverk
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8 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Once it gets to this stage, the fight is already lost. 

The part I'm unclear on is if they actually took reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate this. Fires in California have a long history, so fires in these exact places should have been expected and planned for.   What fire prevention steps did they take during this prolonged drought?   

 

image.png.ff11f07e7bf49ba01959c5030c29b693.png

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11 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Once it gets to this stage, the fight is already lost. 

The part I'm unclear on is if they actually took reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate this. Fires in California have a long history, so fires in these exact places should have been expected and planned for.   What fire prevention steps did they take during this prolonged drought?   

 


what were they supposed to do? Bulldoze and replace all the forests, trees, and grassy areas with sand? Force every house to have some novel fire suppression system? 

if you’re going to ask these questions, what are you doing at your home? Central Texas is very similar if you’re being honest. 

 

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Just now, B00M said:

 


what were they supposed to do? Bulldoze and replace all the forests, trees, and grassy areas with sand? Force every house to have some novel fire suppression system? 

if you’re going to ask these questions, what are you doing at your home? Central Texas is very similar if you’re being honest. 

 

One big problem with removing trees, brush, et cetera, is that you've then removed what's holding those hillsides together when it finally fucking rains and you get massive mudslides. It's a pickle, for sure. 

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5 minutes ago, B00M said:

 


what were they supposed to do? Bulldoze and replace all the forests, trees, and grassy areas with sand? Force every house to have some novel fire suppression system? 

if you’re going to ask these questions, what are you doing at your home? Central Texas is very similar if you’re being honest. 

 

Yes, and this was not unexpected: the Palisades and the Lamorinda area in the Bay were the two main areas State Farm noped out of earlier this year. Also, read in the paper today that a Stanford study estimated the insurance costs of a Palisades fire like this to be $30 billion. The state’s fallback insurance plan, FAIR, has like $400 million for claims. Jfc. 

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Once it gets to this stage, the fight is already lost. 
The part I'm unclear on is if they actually took reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate this. Fires in California have a long history, so fires in these exact places should have been expected and planned for.   What fire prevention steps did they take during this prolonged drought?   
 

I hate this type of shit
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2 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

Austin wasn't meant to have a million residents. LA wasn't meant to have 10 million. If we are being honest, over-population in these areas is a mistake. 

Yes. But they do. So you going to tell who lives where? Every third resident moves to North Dakota? I mean, thats cool with me. But doubt most will like it.

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13 minutes ago, B00M said:

 


what were they supposed to do? Bulldoze and replace all the forests, trees, and grassy areas with sand? Force every house to have some novel fire suppression system? 

if you’re going to ask these questions, what are you doing at your home? Central Texas is very similar if you’re being honest. 

 

Back in the day I had a neighbor that was a forest firefighter turned insurance saleslady that moved here to sell fire insurance to the people in West Travis County.  Said it's not a matter of time before something LA style happens.  Anyway probably too non sequitur.

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2 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Austin wasn't meant to have a million residents. LA wasn't meant to have 10 million. If we are being honest, over-population in these areas is a mistake. 

True, but it's also foolish to allow construction on hillsides in these fire-prone climates due to frequent drought conditions. Are we prepared to have much more stringent land-use regulations in Texas? Who's going to support that proposition?

I don't have any idea if the part of Montana where your little chalet is built on the side of a mountain is also at risk of an eventual forest fire, but it's the same shit. 

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Sunset fire looks to be in better shape. 

For the person above asking how to prevent this, it's hard to fight something in canyons and hills with very little ability to get into those areas. According to the FD spokesperson on ABC7, aircraft are the best way to fight them but you can't fly helicopters in high winds. The reason they're having luck against the Sunset fire is the winds died down. There will be high winds through Friday. 

Edited by mdmost
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6 minutes ago, MFEU93MK9S8IW6K6FV0X said:

Back in the day I had a neighbor that was a forest firefighter turned insurance saleslady that moved here to sell fire insurance to the people in West Travis County.  Said it's not a matter of time before something LA style happens.  Anyway probably too non sequitur.

Good thing I'm in Hays. 

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Yes. But they do. So you going to tell who lives where? Every third resident moves to North Dakota? I mean, thats cool with me. But doubt most will like it.

Idk man. I got a sugar beet field in my backyard, I’ve never had to evacuate for a blizzard and our summers are perfect. What more do you need?
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3 hours ago, Incredulity said:

Fuck you.  Good Christ you people are such bitchasses.  
 

 

This is such a beautifully concise example of why you are on everyone's Mt. Rushmore of most braindead motherfuckers on Surly. Bravo. 

8 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

Austin wasn't meant to have a million residents. LA wasn't meant to have 10 million. If we are being honest, over-population in these areas is a mistake. 

Caveat to this is that extremely inefficient, car-centric sprawl that consumes vast amounts of resources and pushes up against wild spaces prone to these kind of disasters is at the root of the issue rather than the simple number of human beings in Austin (which absolutely is a wildfire disaster waiting to happen on the west side) or LA or wherever a vacuum. 

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1 minute ago, InkaUtexas said:

Do you live next to this guy?

Season 9 Nbc GIF by The Office

I think his neighbor is that real estate dork from the old Stupid Shit on FB thread that absolutely looooved posting pics of his new Beemer, so you might have that asshole to contend with.

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6 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

 

Caveat to this is that extremely inefficient, car-centric sprawl that consumes vast amounts of resources and pushes up against wild spaces prone to these kind of disasters is at the root of the issue rather than the simple number of human beings in Austin (which absolutely is a wildfire disaster waiting to happen on the west side) or LA or wherever a vacuum. 

Yep. 
 

 

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15 minutes ago, MFEU93MK9S8IW6K6FV0X said:

Back in the day I had a neighbor that was a forest firefighter turned insurance saleslady that moved here to sell fire insurance to the people in West Travis County.  Said it's not a matter of time before something LA style happens.  Anyway probably too non sequitur.

You just mash the keyboard for your handle or what?

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