Fire in L. A.

When I was at school there was a jolly alliterative phrase to remember the Californian climate - warm, wet winters with westerly winds. But no worries, Donald will sort the fake news climate change with Drill, Baby Drill.
 
speckyget said:
When I was at school there was a jolly alliterative phrase to remember the Californian climate - warm, wet winters with westerly winds.
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That's northern California. Southern California is warm and dry. The cold water current off the SoCa coast keeps the air dry. It's the opposite of the Gulf Stream.
 
speckyget said:
Interesting. So this is unrelated to climate change in your view?
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There have always been wildfires in Southern California. In fact the number of fires, and the area burned was probably greater in the 1930s, and certainly the 1870s than it is today. What has changed is population spread - the area north and east of LA used to be sparsely populated, just a few shacks in the woods. But now those shacks have become towns. For example Pacific Palisades did not exist in 1920, now it's 25k people living in the woods. In addition, there is a lot of old, outdated power transmission equipment installed to serve these towns in the 1920s and 1930s that is probably causing at least some of the fires.

Up to the 1930s the local people used to cut fire breaks and start controlled fires to reduce the risk of fires starting, and to mitigate their effect when they did start. Nobody does that now. Even with much better fire fighting capability in the 2020s, fires are pretty deadly because there is so much fuel to burn and there are many more people close by who are in danger.

I don't know whether any of this has to do with climate change. The climate in LA has always been pretty much the same. Hot, dry summers and cool, dry winters - that's why the movie business moved to Hollywood in the 1910s. They could film outside regardless of the season, which wasn't possible on the East Coast.
 
Soutra said:
In addition, there is a lot of old, outdated power transmission equipment installed to serve these towns in the 1920s and 1930s that is probably causing at least some of the fires.
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I'd agree with this, PG&E pretty much have a monopoly in California and therefore pay little to no attention to preventative maintenance or efficiencies, which means lots of outdated technology.

They sacked the CEO and went "bankrupt" following the Napa Valley fires in 2017 & 2018, which in reality in meant very little.
 
Juninhoburger said:
I think perspective is important, here. We're talking about one of the most affluent areas in America.

No, I'm not at all sad that one of the Kardashian's many properties may have been burned to a crisp.
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It's irrelevant how affluent people are, are you saying those who have a second home deserve for it to burn down or at worst have their life endangered if they happen to be in it at the time ?

I'd say some perspective is extremely important here...
 
This fire has been three years in the making as we’ve had very wet winters which has resulted in overgrown vegetation which has largely gone unchecked.

The utility companies have upgraded some of the power lines but it’s a long haul so this situation was bound to happen.

Yes there’s a lot of rich people in the hills but also a lot of people who are just getting a long with either retirement money or perhaps side jobs, so it’s not all milk and honey. I opened my doors last night to someone who had a small house on PCH- she’d lived there for 30 years and now it’s gone.
 
Juninhoburger said:
Thoughts and prayers to all the millionaires that have second homes there.

And genuine compassion to the less financially fortunate that live there, too.
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What a bizarre comment. Is there anything wrong with the idea that people can work hard to make money to become successful in the world monetary wise? I get the feeling you are happy their homes are burning? How compassionate you are!
 
SmallTown said:
And there it is again. Bring down someone's home is less of a tragedy of they have money somehow. Sorry i jsut can't be that cruel
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I keep on saying affluence has nothing to do with the present situation. Along the PCH corridor and in many other places where the fires have suddenly started there’s opportunities for people to start fires to keep warm. The last fire in the Malibu area was started intentionally and led to over 30 houses being destroyed. Now this, and the government does nothing but say we’ll help the victims instead of helping stop these awful situations arising from homelessness etc.
 
Saw a video of Spenser/ Heidi Pratt (celebrity couple who I only know from being on Big Brother a fair few years ago), videoing themselves as their mansion is on fire. Not that you would really be able to tell.

Then saw another video of them lighting a camp fire in their garden about 3 days ago, apparently this was something many who live there were doing.
 
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