CNN Breaking News

-- Wildfires have now forced 321,000 people from their homes, California officials say.

Comments

wow. that fire is really something else.

[john]

cnn reporting over 500k evacuated from their homes in SoCal as a whole.

[Jim]

Blame it on Smokey the Bear!
Having been raised in Southern Cal (all the way through USC '83) it was fairly normal to me to have a "Red October" with flames visible from the hillsides, smoke and ash all around. It's quite natural for these fires to occur but they have become even bigger and hotter because we "put out" fires; that is, decades of fire prevention and suppression has caused the tinder to be much more flammable. The brush is made up of high oil content mesquite and chapparal. When the cycle of natural fires is allowed to occur the tinder is reduced and not so damaging. There are many natural plant species in So Cal that rely upon fire for seeds to mature and with hotter fires even they don't survive as well.

The other problem is that homes are built in fire prone areas and the practice of controlled burning can no longer be considered. Subdivisions go in with no regard to fire danger.
The practical solution is for Insurance companies to stop coverage in fire prone areas unless the locals practice vegetation management, including controlled burning. With billions in claims it seems a natural course of business.

[4-7]

someone please save gahrie

[Andrew]

Jim, I wonder though, without human settlement, how would any of these fires ever start? We don't get thunderstorms, so even though it's hot and windy, what would spark a fire? Flint stones don't just fall off mountains and spark wildfires. Almost every fire these days starts because of a cigarette butt, arson, downed power lines, a blown-up transformer, etc.

[Andrew]

We don't get thunderstorms

I mean during Santa Ana conditions.

[Texasyank]

Just saw the first part of "20/20," during which some airhead commented that the scene at Quaalcom was in marked contrast to the chaos in "Houston and New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina."

Ummm--what? HOUSTON and New Orleans?

Look: We here in Houston have grown used to never being thanked for our city's finest hour, certainly not by Mayor Asshole, and not really by New Orleanians in general, with a few glorious exceptions, such as writer Richard Ford, who came here to give a reading and nearly broke down in giving thanks.

Well, fine. We did what we did--everyone I know played some role, in money, time, or supplies, some in all three--and we would do it again ten, a hundred times, gratitude or no.

But, gee whiz.

What correspondent Know-Nothing speaks of as "chaos" was confusion over who would be admitted to the Astrodome. On the Wednesday afternoon of that week--the first day the big crowds started to arrive--only those on designated buses were admitted. Before dinner the matter was resolved, with Mayor White stating emphatically that any evacuee who made it to the Dome was welcome.

That's it. In all, a few hours.

Otherwise, if by "chaos" the correspondent meant "The greatest act of charity by one city toward another," he pretty much nailed it.

And, for Pete's sake, the very Astrodome pictures ABC used to supposedly illustrate the "chaos" in Houston actually showed the truth: that the Astrodome was a sanctuary in those times.

Now it is a place of honor.

ABC ought to be ashamed of itself.

(Not exactly on point, but as Brendan basically runs the Katrina clearing house, here it is.)

[gahrie]

Sadly, many women have tried and failed 4-7.....

[lex icon]

Does that include voluntary evacs? If so, count me and mine among them. Although we were in Chicago during the evac, still savoring USC's shutout.

[Wobbly H]

Were any of them your students, Gary?

[gahrie]

I teach Middle School Wobbly H...I'm bad, but I'm not THAT bad....

I say blame it on Global Warming.

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/a8ae099c-6a23-45fd-a6fe-7b923d3e728b

[Jim]

Andrew:
As improbable as it seems wildfires can start without lighting, power lines down, or a BIC lighter. Static electricity heightened from a sudden change to dry air and wind can cause trees to ignite (clear air lightning).

Ignition of brush from solar energy occurs; but not all that frequently. It can be from a rock formation that reflects and focuses sunlight in highly improbable angles to cause a smolder.
The Africa serengeti has continuous summer wildfire with no human potential causes for hundreds of miles.

[Andrew]

Jim, the African serengeti has thunderstorms and lightning. Same with dry places prone to wildfires like Idaho, Eastern Washington/Eastern Oregon, the Sierra Nevadas, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc.

Southern California is uniquely dry and uniquely disinclined to have thunderstorms during the dry season.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Funny how the same people who say there isn't enough scientific evidence to support the idea of Global Warming or Evolution will rally around these guys and their "evidence"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZFG5PKw504

...Sorry, but if these guys represent the alternatives, I'll take my chances with Al Gore and Charles Darwin.