and we are on fire again

[Jarno]

Wow, those pictures look serious, that is a monumental amount of smoke and fire, stay safe everyone.

 

[scott2000]

Wow, those pictures look serious, that is a monumental amount of smoke and fire, stay safe everyone.

You should see some of the videos coming out.... The fire spread so fast in Paradise that everyone was stuck on the roads trying to get out in the middle of the fire.....SCARY!!!! ...

 

[pucho812]

Yes.  It's bad here and worse up north.
We hit 15% contained yesterday.  But the winds picked up last night.  So will see how today goes.

 

[scott2000]

Yeah I'm going to go ahead order or grab and send some masks over to my son out there in case he can't grab some locally........ the camp fire is about 180 miles from his area but still a lot of smoke......

I've seen some pretty big fires here before but never as much damage to actual towns as that.....Tragic! :-\

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have shared before that my (smart) brother lives in SoCal. He has mentioned in the past that there are community fire abatement regulations covering how he maintains his land/property to manage fire risk. On top of that there are regular inspections and he can get written up for violations (like not clearing dead brush). Further if he does not remedy the violations, the authorities can correct them and send him the bill. (I think thats how it works for him). 

Sometimes this is common sense, but some communities have different perspectives about cost/benefit. Big real estate insurers also proactively attempt to manage risk for insured homes, but they lack access and authority to deal with all the trees, just properties they insure.

JR

 

[pucho812]

So looks like the big fire in Southern California may have been started by an electrical failure in the power grid. Reports are so cal Edison said they had an alert of an issue 2 mins before what is the Wolsey fire was reported. 
Last year was a homeless encampment leaving their cooking fire unattended and causing a huge fire. This year electrical. How long before the state uses this as an excuse to raise taxes. For the big surplus we have they sure are not spending it where needed.
 

 

[JohnRoberts]

So looks like the big fire in Southern California may have been started by an electrical failure in the power grid. Reports are so cal Edison said they had an alert of an issue 2 mins before what is the Wolsey fire was reported. 
Last year was a homeless encampment leaving their cooking fire unattended and causing a huge fire. This year electrical. How long before the state uses this as an excuse to raise taxes. For the big surplus we have they sure are not spending it where needed.

Not the first time for utilities but I think they may have insurance problems if/when everybody sues them, so somebody (taxpayers) will have to bail them out, socializing the loss.

While these are the triggers they are not the reason the fires spread so fast and burn out of control. Lighting always happens.  The larger issue right now is how dry CA is, and the winds do not help (I saw reports of 70 MPH gusts). 

JR

 

[Kingston]

when you get that chain of events, no type of forest management or house construction can do much, you are better off investing in an early warning system for each house which could be done easily with today's technology as well as evacuation drills and traffic planning by local  law enforcement.

clearly I've no clue. Just this year we had our fire hazards in Scandinavia where Sweden was burning and the neighboring countries were giving their best - but hopelessly late - advice.

Somehow I thought similar forestry cultivation would apply.

And I have been in Clearlake CA. It's was dry in 1997 already!

 

[pucho812]

As the effort to fight the fire continues, this shot poped up.
That is a DC 10 dropping  fire fighting chemicals(what ever they use) to put out the flames.  That's low to the ground.

Yes jr winds were:are a huge factor along with dry climate.

 

[CJ]

the Butte County fire has jumped across Lake Oroville,  a distance of about 300 feet.  Could be big trouble for the town of Oroville which is much larger than the city of Paradise, hope the winds die down and they get some rain,