Little Sympathy for California Fire Victims

[charwin95]

I'm sorry, but if I was ever going to build a ($x??) million dollar home in the hills of California, I THINK I would spend another ten or twenty thousand or so on preventative measures against brush fires.

These fires are an annual event, and not at all surprising. What IS surprising, is how little the homeowners have done to prevent their homes from burning to the ground.

I see these lots along the sculpted streets of SoCal, and all of the homes are burned to the ground. In the back yards of these homes are reflection pools, HUGE swimming pools full of water, that reain after the fires burn out. They build the expensive homes, and the beautiful reflection pools, but they NEVER think ahead, to plumb in a sprinkler system that can DRENCH the home with pool water at the moment the fire wall approaches and burns past the house.

It boggles my mind, to think that any architect would design a home with a 50,000 gallon pool in the yard, and NOT have some way to use that water to fight a fire. We are only talking about a $500.00 Honda gas powered water pump and some steel piping, after all.

Does this make ANY sense?

I’m impressed how brilliant and experience you are about fire and catastrophic disaster.

Month of September 2019. North Texas was hit with 10 tornadoes. This is like saying......... Those stupid Texans should have built their houses stronger.
Does that make sense to you?

The Santa Ana wind is like a storm of strong winds at 70 to 80 miles an hour. With that force plus the heat. So tell me. What kind of water system if you have a swimming pool do you proposed?

 

[Kentucky_Conservative]

I’m impressed how brilliant and experience you are about fire and catastrophic disaster.

Thank you.

Month of September 2019. North Texas was hit with 10 tornadoes. This is like saying......... Those stupid Texans should have built their houses stronger.
Does that make sense to you?

Yes, absolutely. If I were to build a home in an an area that is prone to strong tornadoes, I would build a home than can HANDLE strong tornadoes. A welded steel frame, made with I-beams, not some wimpy wooden toothpick structure held together with Chinese nails. I would make the roof and the walls and the windows capable of dealing with the tornadoes that are sure to arrive.

If I were to build a home in a flood zone, I would find out the highest possible water level, and build my floor ten feet ABOVE that mark. In Utah, a lot of expensive homes were built in a community called "RIVER BED." They actually built an entire community on a dry river bed! Oh, but the river hasn't flowed for nearly a hundred years! Really? When was the last flood? Oh ... about a hundred years ago. But go ahead and build your homes. This is a 100 year FLOOD ZONE! Now they're all gone. Stupid is as stupid does.

The Santa Ana wind is like a storm of strong winds at 70 to 80 miles an hour. With that force plus the heat. So tell me. What kind of water system if you have a swimming pool do you proposed?

A simple system that sucks water from the pool, INUNDATES the home with water while it it risk of ignition from heat, flames and embers, and the water is then returned to the pool via a channel system built into the foundation and passed through a debris filter to be used again.

Do you know how a water fountain works? Make the same system, just a lot BIGGER.

 

[charwin95]

It is clear that the OP has no idea about fire fighting. We all took fire training in the Navy.......and that Macho man I'd have used a 200 buck pump to stop it is laughable.

It IS laughable, when you misquote me. I did not say a $200 pump would stop the fire. I said it could prevent ONE HOME from burning to the ground. It could keep ONE HOME sufficiently wet down while the raging fire burns past it. A home swimming pool is what ... 25,000 gallons? Larger?

You CANNOT intelligently argue that the fire is BOTH moving so fast that you cannot stay ahead of it, but when the fire line reaches a home, it stops and burns there for hours until the home is consumed.

A fire line BURNS PAST a house. The home is ignited at the moment that fire is the hottest. There is a very brief period of time when the heat of a brush fire is intense enough to IGNITE a home on fire. If you keep the structure's exterior soaked during that brief period of time, your chances of saving the home are exponentially increased.

The speed that the fire moves is determined by the available fuel it can consume in its path. Minimizing the fuel around one's home, combined with SOME EFFORT to keep the home's exterior DRENCHED for the brief period of time that it is actually an ignition risk is a far better idea than anything YOU have offered thus far, Macho Navy fire expert.

With Tropical Force Winds driving an inferno............you'd be burned alive in seconds with that stupid 200 buck pump.

Ummm .... the PUMP would be there pumping the water out of the pool. The water would drench the home and then return to the pool via channeling designed into the foundation. I would not be standing there next to it working a lever and braving the heat while sipping a Slurpee. Don't be so damned ignorant.

The whole idea is to set the pump to drench the home's roof and walls AND THEN LEAVE for a period of time WHILE the fire line is burning past the water drenched home and moving on. It requires no human presence for such a system to work.

The policies of California over the decades have contributed greatly to this problem. As have the Federal Policies of the Roadless Acts passed by the Greens in Congress. The thinning of forests are now a higher priority in California as they are finally realizing that forest thinning, controlled burns, and building fire breaks are essential to minimizing fires.

But now that have Newsom to $%^& things up for them again.

In regards to PG & E............the requirements for right of way are ONLY 4 FOOT in California.......In 60 to 70 mph winds this is USELESS.............They are now proposing a 30 foot Right of Way to clear trees and limbs from hitting the lines in Santa Anna Winds. But low and behold they are being fought in court over it yet again. As an electrician..............NO GRID can NOT BE DAMAGED with limbs hitting it constantly in high winds.

Agreed. Why aren't the power lines UNDERGROUND in the Socialist Utopia of CommieFornia?

Forest Management ...............and thinning is necessary...........the neglect of this for decades is exactly why we are having infernos today. Learn or burn California. And vote out the Greens who are fighting the fire prevention measures to protect the State.

Agreed.

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

 

[Kentucky_Conservative]

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

Absolutely! You see, the fire rages on, because the FUEL is already ignited. They are trying to EXTINGUISH a fire. I am talking about not allowing the materials that constitute the exterior of the home to ignite in the first place. A home CANNOT burn down, if no part of the home is ignited.

 

[Kentucky_Conservative]

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

Ask yourself, "Would a large brush fire ever occur, if the initial point of ignition was inundated with water the entire time something was trying to ignite the fuel?

 

[gallantwarrior]

Unless you have been in such a fire, fleeing for your life and losing all you have, I guess sympathy will always be beyond you.

Spoken like someone who has fled for her life and lost all she has to a fire. Bless you, Gracie! Recognized by someone who lives where similar can happen at any time.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Unless you have been in such a fire, fleeing for your life and losing all you have, I guess sympathy will always be beyond you.

No...because I have fire insurance...if those assholes were all smart...they would too.

Fire insurance means squat if the whole town burns. Insurance companies declare bankruptcy. It happened in Paradise. Many got NOTHING because there wasn't enough to give. Unless you want to dictate which insurance companies they should buy?
I feel badly for those suffering this fire. Place the blame where it belongs..ON PG&E.

Insurance companies rely on the Fed bailing these poor folks out. My home owners insurance covers everything but fire, and I live in an area very prone to wild fires. I'd prefer an earthquake knock my place down, or the creek flood, than a wildfire sweep the place. I'd be one of those people pumping water through garden hoses, hoping the generator survives to drive the pump and keep the well going. I had a volunteer fireman tell me that having a well was the best thing I could have, living off-grid and in the woods they way I do. Hell, I'd herd the animals into the house and keep it hosed down. I'd deal with the mess later to save as much as I could.

 

[charwin95]

That’s really, really stupid.

Has it been tried? No? THAT is really, really stupid!

I’m an engineer. No one tried because it’s really stupid.
The heat alone will melt that tubings that you are talking about.

 

[charwin95]

I have a co-working who told me a story about his friend's younger brother that is borderline extremely wealthy and built his dream home in an area stuck by wildfires in Ventura County. Fortunately he had installed a fire suppression system that was like almost $100K. This system made foam that covered the house and his house was saved. Unfortunately almost all other homes and businesses burned to the ground and today it still looks like a war zone. His property value has plummeted, and his wife refused to live there because there is literally nothing there.

It was just a bad place to build his home, and now he knows it.

In short he wasted a lot of time and money. Brilliant.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

Unless you have been in such a fire, fleeing for your life and losing all you have, I guess sympathy will always be beyond you.

No...because I have fire insurance...if those assholes were all smart...they would too.

Fire insurance means squat if the whole town burns. Insurance companies declare bankruptcy. It happened in Paradise. Many got NOTHING because there wasn't enough to give. Unless you want to dictate which insurance companies they should buy?
I feel badly for those suffering this fire. Place the blame where it belongs..ON PG&E.

Fire insurance means SOMETHING when MY property burns. I could give two shit about my neighbor or the town.

Something a narcissistic sociopath would say....or a conservative.....which is basically the same thing....

You can always volunteer to go cry on the fires shitlib.

 

[charwin95]

I’m impressed how brilliant and experience you are about fire and catastrophic disaster.

Thank you.

Month of September 2019. North Texas was hit with 10 tornadoes. This is like saying......... Those stupid Texans should have built their houses stronger.
Does that make sense to you?

Yes, absolutely. If I were to build a home in an an area that is prone to strong tornadoes, I would build a home than can HANDLE strong tornadoes. A welded steel frame, made with I-beams, not some wimpy wooden toothpick structure held together with Chinese nails. I would make the roof and the walls and the windows capable of dealing with the tornadoes that are sure to arrive.

If I were to build a home in a flood zone, I would find out the highest possible water level, and build my floor ten feet ABOVE that mark. In Utah, a lot of expensive homes were built in a community called "RIVER BED." They actually built an entire community on a dry river bed! Oh, but the river hasn't flowed for nearly a hundred years! Really? When was the last flood? Oh ... about a hundred years ago. But go ahead and build your homes. This is a 100 year FLOOD ZONE! Now they're all gone. Stupid is as stupid does.

The Santa Ana wind is like a storm of strong winds at 70 to 80 miles an hour. With that force plus the heat. So tell me. What kind of water system if you have a swimming pool do you proposed?

A simple system that sucks water from the pool, INUNDATES the home with water while it it risk of ignition from heat, flames and embers, and the water is then returned to the pool via a channel system built into the foundation and passed through a debris filter to be used again.

Do you know how a water fountain works? Make the same system, just a lot BIGGER.

That’s a big... If. In reality and facts that is not the case. Am I wrong?

 

[airplanemechanic]

The only reason I have little sympathy for these whackjobs is THEY passed these stupid fucking laws not allowing power companies to cut the branches away from the power lines that start these fires.

You reap the stupidity you sew.

 

[charwin95]

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

Absolutely! You see, the fire rages on, because the FUEL is already ignited. They are trying to EXTINGUISH a fire. I am talking about not allowing the materials that constitute the exterior of the home to ignite in the first place. A home CANNOT burn down, if no part of the home is ignited.

Read my post. Don’t stare at it. The heat alone will melt your tubings.

 

[charwin95]

The only reason I have little sympathy for these whackjobs is THEY passed these stupid fucking laws not allowing power companies to cut the branches away from the power lines that start these fires.

You reap the stupidity you sew.

You are lying. Prove it.

 

[Jarlaxle]

That’s really, really stupid.

Has it been tried? No? THAT is really, really stupid!

I’m an engineer. No one tried because it’s really stupid.
The heat alone will melt that tubings that you are talking about.

Then use better tubing.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

Absolutely! You see, the fire rages on, because the FUEL is already ignited. They are trying to EXTINGUISH a fire. I am talking about not allowing the materials that constitute the exterior of the home to ignite in the first place. A home CANNOT burn down, if no part of the home is ignited.

Read my post. Don’t stare at it. The heat alone will melt your tubings.

I can buy "tubing" that will handle 1000+ degrees at the hardware store. Hell, the pipes in my old house are good to twice that.

 

[airplanemechanic]

The only reason I have little sympathy for these whackjobs is THEY passed these stupid fucking laws not allowing power companies to cut the branches away from the power lines that start these fires.

You reap the stupidity you sew.

You are lying. Prove it.

PG&E Lost Longtime Tree-Trimming Contractor as Scrutiny on Utility Mounted Over Wildfires

This is happening all over the state:

Mill Valley poised to adopt aggressive tree-removal rules, over objections

They are finally letting them trim these trees over objections of the radical leftwing whackjobs.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Drenching a home with water just won't work with these kinds of fires. Some people have survived by taking refuge in their pools. Others have taken refuge in pools and after the fire passes the bodies are found in the dry pools completely burned. The fire completely dried up the pools. These fires make their own weather and that weather normally takes the form of fire tornadoes. Water is not used on these fires. The fire fighting planes do not drop water. They drop pink fire suppression foam. The fire and wind simply dehydrates the water away. Drench the walls and the water will be sucked out and dried up in the upward force of the superheated air forcing up. The planes dropping water do it on the leading edge of the fire to stop or slow the spread as part of containment and dropped on hot spots in places the fire has burned. So stop with the pipe dream nonsense. Water on homes in these kind of fires would cause a steam explosion before it prevented a spark.

 

[Unkotare]

Did you even watch how these fire fighters use their hose to fight the fires?

Very strong and powerful system. They point it to one particular spot but the fires still raging on because of the strong Santa Ana wind.
You tell a system of your proposal will make any difference?

Absolutely! You see, the fire rages on, because the FUEL is already ignited. They are trying to EXTINGUISH a fire. I am talking about not allowing the materials that constitute the exterior of the home to ignite in the first place. A home CANNOT burn down, if no part of the home is ignited.

Is this some kind of comedy act?

 

[bodecea]

They HOSE DOWN the house until the fire passes, dumbass.

The heat evaporates that water very quickly.

No it doesn't. I am not talking about "wetting down" the walls. I am talking about continually DRENCHING the walls while the fire passes.

In other words...taking water pressure away from others......or having none if the power goes out.