The Real Story About How California Became ‘The Land of Raging Infernos’

Canada Free Press ^ | 11/13/18 | Judi McLeod

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It’s a common problem throughout the west from BC down to all the western states. The US has really bungled forest management with the craze for “roadless” areas starting in the early 1980s; putting out all fires starting in the early 1900s; lack of thinning leading to sick and diseased forests susceptible to insects and thick underbrush rather than natural sparse trees with high canopies that never caught on fire; and many other mismanagement issues.

It isn’t just California. It’s bungling at a federal level.

[Mashood]

The real problem with the west coast is that these federal positions are so politized. Get some federal firebrand in the local Forest Service Office and a call goes out to the Congressional Offices saying that so and so not a team player. Next thing you know, he/she is gone and a new boss is on their way. The employees work and live in the communities which they serve and they too raise their families within the small community structure. All the players know each other and they attempt to make it one happy community. What you end up with is watered down management of resources.
As you say, most of these forests are dead or dying rapidly of disease and acid rain.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There was a huge fire a while back, the largest in land area ever in the U.S. ...

The Great Fire (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the western United States that burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi) in North Idaho and Western Montana, with extensions into Eastern Washington and Southeast British Columbia. The area burned included large parts of the Bitterroot, Cabinet, Clearwater, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kaniksu, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, and St. Joe National Forests.

The fire burned over two days, August 20–21, after strong winds caused numerous smaller fires to combine into a firestorm of unprecedented size. It killed 87 people, mostly firefighters,and destroyed numerous manmade structures, including several entire towns. It is believed to be the largest, although not the deadliest, forest fire in U.S. history; the extensive burned area was approximately the size of the state of Connecticut.

Smoke from the fire was said to have been seen as far east as Watertown, NY. At night, five hundred miles out into the Pacific Ocean, ships could not navigate by the stars because the sky was cloudy with smoke.

The extreme scorching heat of the sudden blowup can be attributed to the expansive Western white pine forests that covered much of northern Idaho. Hydrocarbons in the trees' resinous sap boiled out and created a cloud of highly flammable gas that blanketed hundreds of square miles, which then spontaneously detonated dozens of times, each time sending tongues of flame thousands of feet into the sky and creating a rolling wave of fire that destroyed anything and everything in its path.

Caused by man-made Global Warming no doubt, right? Caused by forest mismanagement, right?

When did this fire occur?

1910.

[onyx]

Gov. Brown started it in the 70's and has redoubled his efforts. And California burns.

You're right.

The Sierra Club has very dirty hands, too.

All the anti-loggers and tree-huggers won the day. There was a time when 40 trees per acre was the norm, but over the past 4 decades or more, 100+ trees per acre became the norm and with that over growth, the water supply was sucked up, the underbrush grew out of control and now the fires burn out of control!

Moonbeam wants to blame "climate change" (WEATHER). Good grief. He's a total mess and dunce.

[kingu]

As I’m familiar with both places; most of Skyway in Paradise is about as wide as one lane and the shoulder of PCH - PCH is two lanes each way all the way through and out of Malibu, Skyway is mostly one lane each way through Paradise. Once you’re in the outskirts of Paradise, Skyway becomes a divided two lane each direction road.

Main differences - cell coverage is typically spotty in Paradise, once power started going out, it was nearly non-existent in some areas. Most of the copper wire telephone service is actually VOIP, so when the AT&T tower died, so did much of the landline service. And rather than fully evacuating the town like the order for Malibu came through, Paradise first ordered 3 zones to evacuate (along Pentz Rd) and many people dismissed further orders as being simply repeats of the existing order, not that the entire town and much of Magalia was ordered to evacuate.

Oh, and of course, in Los Angeles, there’s nearly 24/7 live copter footage showing frightening flames whereas here, we sometimes might get a distant shot from Sacramento showing smoke on the horizon.