Subj : Re: LA Fires
To   : AL
From : Dumas Walker
Date : Mon Jan 13 2025 10:39:00

> There is not a fire depatrment anywhere in the world that can take on a fire
> like those happening in the LA area.

That is correct, they could not.  Most of the criticism is being directed
at the lack of preparation for such a catastrophe, especially when it has
been predicted.  Cutting back on, or outright preventing, brush removal
makes your fire danger go way up.

If you've ever built a campfire, you know that you need kendling to get the
logs to burn.  Forest fires work in a similar manner.  The more kendling
(dry brush and undergrowth), the easier it is to get the trees to dry out
and start burning.  Even more so when you are in a drought.

Within the past year or so, I was reading an article about the Native
Americans further north in the state.  For years, the state would not allow
them to conduct their traditional rituals when it came to clearing out (by
controlled buring) the underbrush because it was *illegal* to do so.
After a few catastrophic fires, someone who knew how fires worked finally
convinced the state to allow the natives to resume their rituals in the
forests in question.

Guess what?  No more castastrophic fires in these forests.

Preparation would not have prevented the 100mph Santa Ana winds they are
having this year, it would not have prevented the drought, and it would not
have prevented the arsonists who may have set some of the fires.

Preparation would have very much prevented these fires from being so
destructive, especially when you *know* you are in a long-term drought.


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