1mo ago

California wildfires: investigators explore possible link between new year’s fireworks and Palisades blaze

www.theguardian.com California wildfires: investigators explore possible link between New Year’s fireworks and Palisades blaze

Questions raised of whether Palisades fire is connected to earlier fire put out New Year’s Day, with possible human origins

Summary

California officials are investigating whether the deadly Palisades fire, which has killed 24 and destroyed thousands of homes, is linked to a smaller New Year's Day fire.

Reports suggest fireworks may have caused the earlier blaze, with wind and dry conditions potentially rekindling it days later.

The fire began in Pacific Palisades' brushy area, and experts warn that smoldering embers can reignite under such conditions.

Investigations into nearby fires, including the Eaton and Hurst fires, are ongoing, with containment efforts underway.

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It honestly doesn't really matter what exactly started it, because it takes something so small we can never stop all the factors.
Hell, in other environments animals like birds have learned how to spread it because it helps their foraging.
What we need to focus on is the conditions that allow it to spread like this. Which is climate change and privatizing water in a drought stricken state and then exporting it.
Addressing those causes will piss off billionaires, so they'll blame it on fireworks because they know people will fight cuz Merica.
- Hell, in other environments animals like birds have learned how to spread it because it helps their foraging.
  Wait, what? You know of an instance where birds were using fire?
  I mean, limited tool use by some birds, sure, but I've never heard of fire.
  
  It's Australia (of course) they have fire hawks that will try to use fire to flush out prey at times.
  
  Interesting!
  https://blog.nature.org/2018/01/12/australian-firehawk-raptors-intentionally-spread-wildfires/
- The region experienced high winds seasonally prior to climate change. Look at a topographical map of the southern California region - the deserts get hot and the high pressure pushes through the mountains (the San Gabriel range is one of the only east-west mountain ranges in the world), passing through the wide open savannah of the southern coast. The current wind conditions are a normal part of the winter cycle in SoCal.
  Focusing on the conditions doesn't put energy and resources isn't a good use. It really is a matter of finding what caused it and stopping that. There are no fire spreading birds out in CA (or this would be a known and common source of the annual fires). Each time the fires are burning, they are because of something a human did, like driving with metal scraping the road and creating sparks. Or power lines that hang over mountains getting knocked down by the predictable winds. Or gender reveal parties and other idiots who spread fire to celebrate. Or casually flicking a cigarette out of a car window. It's always people.
  
  100 things could have started it...
  Take what caused it down, pass it around, and you got 99 problems still.
  Even if a fire starting bird ain't one.
  Each time the fires are burning, they are because of something a human did,
  That can be your opinion. It still wouldn't be correct, but you can definitely have that as an opinion. Like how people think the Earth is flat, the moon is fake, and Elon Musk is a genius.
- Centuries of fire suppression across the state have led to massive fuel stockpiles for fires. Controlled burns have been recommended and blocked for decades.
  
  The issue here is the wealthy lobbying to lower fire risk areas in order to build more houses and not have to follow expensive building codes.
  Houses burn faster than forest, so these new houses catch fire more easily and dominoes into areas that were traditionally safe also catching fire. Like the outer ring used fire proofing techniques, the new expansions didn't have to, and they burnt more than forest would, meaning the old houses with the fire proofing techniques didn't have enough anymore.
  The recent expansion in the Palisades for 100 million dollar homes just burnt down working classes neighborhoods.
  Don't get tricked into blaming it on anything else except climate change as an overall factor.
  It was rich people not caring about anything other than money, trickling down to fuck over regular people.
  
  I disagree with your premise that this is all evil corp. The fact is that demand drives housing. Someone is going to buy and build on that property. Full stop.
  I am not aware of any fire proofing techniques for homes in a situation like this. References please.
  As mentioned above, we've had nearly 100 years of fire suppression practices that kept fuel from burning. I'm not sure how else to mitigate the properties other than clearing all trees and bushes. I don't think it would help in this situation.
  I agree that climate change is a problem and a contributing fsctor.
  
  Someone is going to buy and build on that property. Full stop.
  They weren't able t before because of the fire risk rating...
  Which the rich lobbies to change so they could build mansions there, land that was cheap because of that rating.
  The existence of those homes that also skipped fire safety regulations due to the lowered raring caused hotter fires to burn the houses on what used to be on the boundary to have their fire safety measured made insufficient.
  As mentioned above, we’ve had nearly 100 years of fire suppression practices that kept fuel from burning
  And the rating was changed less than a decade ago...
  Which is why prior methods proved insufficient...
  I dunno man, I can't think of a simpler way to put it.

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