Posted on 10/13/2021 1:31:34 AM PDT by PghBaldy
About 100 Central California properties and a shuttered oil refinery were under threat from a rapidly growing wildfire that forced the closure of a major highway near Santa Barbara overnight, per the Los Angeles Times.
The big picture: The Alisal Fire that ignited near the Alisal Reservoir on Monday has grown to 13,400 acres with 5% containment, officials said. Nearly 800 firefighters are now battling the wind-driven blaze that caused thousands of people to evacuate.
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
I can already hear another “state of emergency” coming soon. And the revenue flow and power will be in place once again.
Why don’t they have fires like this in Alabama or Georgia? Those places are covered in forest? The same is true of East Texas and SE Oklahoma. In fact, I’d imagine SE Oklahoma is as dry or drier than California.
Gets a little hotter and drier in California. Plus, they really do enforce the green party ban against clearing the undergrowth. They are rabid about leaving the forest in a natural condition, which means lots of dry tinder on the ground. Literally making their forests a campfire.
You can clear undergrowth in the south, take out dead trees, chop up stuff for firewood, etc. Some places do, some places don’t, but enough gets cleared out that a fire really doesn’t have a lot of fuel to keep going, or jump a highway.
Sometimes we do.
https://www.thesmokies.com/gatlinburg-fires-2016/
That was the worst but the national forests in north GA, Tenn, and NC burned for quite some time that fall.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.