That is sad Chrissy....but with everything that has burned up...a lot more people could have lost their lives but didn't.
Like most everything else, there are probably a variety of causes. Having lived in California for twelve years, I know that fires, mudslides, and droughts are all too common, but this is an unusual time of the year for forest fires. It's quite likely that federal and state governments have acquired far more land than they can appropriately maintain, so it might make sense to put some of that back into the private sector. Being strongly in favor of individual rights, I"m not so big on government mandating when and how I clear my own property, but I can understand that fires don't respect property lines. I don't know a lot about this part of it, but I do know that California has placed what are perhaps needless restrictions on the use of water, but whether that might play into the situation or not, I don't know.
It seems like California has had a whole lot of these fires in the last few years, and the drought might be part of it, but President. Trump could very well have a good point that poor management has made the situation worse than it needed to be. There has been a lot of wildfires all over the western United States ; so it can’t all be the fault of California having managed their land in a poor fashion, and several places have had other possible explanations for the fires as well. One interesting one that I read about was from a few summers ago, and it was in Southern Idaho. They said that the actual ground was getting hotter than normal from underneath. One man actually died trying to rescue his dog from a pond that turned out to have almost boiling water in it. The man and his dog were out in the woods on a trail where they were used to walking, and the dog had gone on ahead and bounded into the water in the pond, and then started screaming because it was so hot. The owner had no idea what was wrong, and also ran into the water to try and rescue the dog. I think that either other hikers heard the screams and went to help, or maybe he was able to call for help on his cell before being rescued. In any case, the ground had heated up so much that what was usually a nice cool pond, was now almost boiling water. The hot ground in other areas was also considered as a possible cause for some of the forest fires. Since California is a hotbed of earthquake movements, just like southern Idaho is close to Yellowstone caldera, it is possible that this could be contributing to the excessive fires down there. I do think that what President Trump was thinking possibly was also about California and the sanctuary cities there, which have lost their federal aid when they became sanctuary cities. When they have forest fires, they have a disaster, and I think that qualifies them for federal help, therefore offsetting some of what they lost in federal funding.
I don't think it's an unusual time for the fires....I recall the Napa valley fires being in October of last year....I also remember it being during the college year because parents were figuring out alternate routes to take for their kids driving home for maybe Thanksgiving. Also...it's the winter rains that cause the mudslides where everything burnt previously. Actually we probably have fires all year except for the couple months we get some rain.
The present number of deaths from these preventable fires is mind boggling in this day and age. It isn't like these fires weren't predictable as to when and where they would occur. I don't know who or what is responsible but I am still trying to get my mind around the number of deaths and THOUSANDS of homes and personal property destroyed.
The first 5 I heard about died in their cars...probably trying to get away. Don't know about the others. Did you see those videos of people driving on 101 with fire blazing on both sides of the road...scary! Doesn't take much for it to jump the road either. In this fire many of the homes destroyed belonged to the rich movie stars, so although it's still devastating at least they have other homes or good insurance to rebuild. It's the ones that aren't wealthy I feel for....ones that have nowhere to go.
Having gone through a fire emergency, I know many people stay behind when ordered to evacuate. They think they will have time to get out, and they want to try to protect their property from fire or looting. Sometimes children, pets or livestock cause people to try to return to their holes after they have left, or they go back when they have been out for work or visiting. When we went through it, I had 5 children at home, 16 dogs, a number of goats (I don't remember exactly), and a house full of memories. At the first voluntary evacuation, I sent one daughter and one son with the dogs to one friend's home, and my wife, other daughter and young toddler son went with the goats to a small farm away from the danger zone. One of my older sons and I stayed to protect the house as best we could. We have a lake behind the house, so that would be refuge should we need it. We eventually left when the flames got close and we passed the fire trucks coming into our driveway as we were going out. I think I told this story here on another thread, but many people misjudge how quickly a fire can travel and change direction, and they believe they are safe until they are not and cannot get out. Many times they can't be rescued.
How true this is Don...so many people think they can "judge" the time they have to get to safety...but it really doesn't work that way in most cases. And no one should ever put the safety of "things" against the safety of their own or their family's lives.
The whole length of the UK, is only 870 miles that's from the very tip of the west and south of England and all the way through Scotland to the very tip...however if we were to drive it would probably take 2 days..
During the years my wife and I lived in So Calif., as in Orange County, before we met and two years following, we didn't know about any fires going on in any area. We did get the Santa Ana winds, but I sure don't remember smelling any smoke anywhere. Those years were in the late 70's until mid 2002 (for both of us). I also remember street intersections being really flooded due to Dec/Jan rains. Seemed like fires never hit the Mt. Baldy, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake areas...……..but I could be wrong. I didn't watch the news back then, like I do now.
I think we should concentrate our efforts on getting these monster fires under control, then we can all point fingers at the people who are the problem. Trump is overplaying his hand on this tragedy
While it might be great to wait awhile before placing blame, it actually began immediately. An example: " The stock has halved in value in the past 7 days, the company has extended its line of credit to the max and is expecting a $15B hit, which will likely wind up on the customers bills. I am not sure what the company could do differently, unless shutting off power when conditions are dry and winds accelerate... or everytime the Santa Ana winds kick up. Apparently PG&E considered doing just that 1 week ago. They didn't. Suggesting an alternative way of doing business seems to indicate either Shutting off the power during significant danger period. Stronger infrastructure, which requires significant investment and therefore significant rate increases. Everyone completely going off the grid. (Even if 10% do not, the problems would still exist).
I am in the UK.... BUT On my local Radio in the UK this was asked to an American. His reply was that the State and the house owners did not clean their scrub/undergrowth over the years The States excuse was Conservation and endangered speices lived in the undergrowth. Which meant they did not want to spend any money to keep people safe
Yeah, @Tom Galty, that was what I was referring to earlier. I was told several decades ago that California was setting itself up for disastrous fires due to the manner in which they managed the low growth and brush. It was done in the interest of preserving species, but I think many of those animals were cooked in the holocaust of last year and this. California has always been dry, and it periodically goes through droughts, but that is in part why it is so heavily populated-it doesn't rain a lot and is sunny for much of the year. The heavy population is hard on local water sources and thus the drought is worse than it would have been in earlier years.