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Can Seawater Fight Fires in SoCal | Why No Water | Fireboats | Damage From Seawater (Incredible Vid!)
What's Going On With Shipping - You Tube ^ | 1/12/2025 | Sal Mercogliano

Posted on 01/12/2025 5:08:12 PM PST by Paul R.

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano—a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — discusses the use of seawater and how it can be utilized to fight the wildfires in southern California.

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: california; fires; ocean; water
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Sal has an excellent discussion of San Francisco's water system design for fighting fires, limitations in most systems, and the use of seawater.

Also, at 15:15 in the vid is the most terrifying several seconds I have seen out of these fires. Clearly, in all this, there were moments where humans would be outmatched even if everything had been done right...

1 posted on 01/12/2025 5:08:12 PM PST by Paul R.
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To: Paul R.

Didn’t the Romans destroy Carthage by spreading salt on their land?


2 posted on 01/12/2025 5:09:53 PM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: Paul R.

Wasn’t there a ‘super scooper’ that did just this this weekend?

Also, I heard California won’t allow lakes to be used for a water source for wildfires. I haven’t verified.


3 posted on 01/12/2025 5:10:01 PM PST by TigerClaws
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To: Paul R.

I’m not interested in 18 minutes of a diatribe.


4 posted on 01/12/2025 5:10:30 PM PST by Dacula
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To: Dacula
I’m not interested in 18 minutes of a diatribe.

Thanks for alerting us to this important information.

5 posted on 01/12/2025 5:20:00 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thingy isabout censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: Paul R.

I thought sea water scooper planes were already in use....just grounded, in this fire, by Greasy Newscum.


6 posted on 01/12/2025 5:20:35 PM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
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To: Paul R.

Watched from 15. Interesting. Heavy wind blowing sparks from a McDonald’s on fire. He seems quite knowledgeable. Thanks.


7 posted on 01/12/2025 5:21:32 PM PST by mairdie
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

quiet you


8 posted on 01/12/2025 5:24:57 PM PST by Az Joe (We can't spare President Trump; He fights!)
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To: Paul R.

Sal should strict to history. Like most “intellectuals” he wrongly thinks his degree makes him an expert on everything

Why across the SW and TX with similar eco systems does no one else have this much trouble with forestry, and water, management as CA has for 2 decades

No, this is a political and a structural problem. The nonsense about “even if they did everything right” is nonsensical

They can’t do “everything right” because the political structure in place has failed for 2 decades to make the required decisions to make the structural changes to set them up for success.


9 posted on 01/12/2025 5:31:43 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: yesthatjallen

The Roman spreading salt on an area thing was ceremonial, more like a curse. But back then, salt was way too valuable to spread across an area. The word salary literally comes from the Latin Sal, leaning salt. Roman soldiers were paid in it.


10 posted on 01/12/2025 5:32:13 PM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI..)
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To: Paul R.

Yes, salt water can be used to fight forest fires. Then, after the forest fire, you plant alfalfa or Alaskan Lupine to absorb the salt and then plant trees a couple of years from that point.

It may not be rocket science, but it is know how to regrow forests, in the event of a fire.


11 posted on 01/12/2025 5:36:30 PM PST by Jonty30 (Liberals are a fulfillment of II Tim3:5. We are instructed to have nothing to do with those people. )
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To: Jonty30

Somebody tell Michael Bloomberg.


12 posted on 01/12/2025 5:53:48 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Liberals are prone to Dunning-Kruger.


13 posted on 01/12/2025 5:55:18 PM PST by Jonty30 (Liberals are a fulfillment of II Tim3:5. We are instructed to have nothing to do with those people. )
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To: Paul R.

I’m not even sure why there is a debate.
Harbor Fire boats are big and throw a huge amount of water on a fire. Who gives a cluck if salt water is corrosive, to what? They are salt water Fire boats. The LA / Long Beach Fire boats should have been sent to Malibu. Those houses were hardly Hollywood elite. 70 year old smallish wood houses


14 posted on 01/12/2025 5:58:27 PM PST by DAC21
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To: DesertRhino

Can’t fire trucks pump water out of swimming pools in a emergency and credit homeowners for the water.


15 posted on 01/12/2025 5:58:38 PM PST by cnsmom
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To: DAC21

California could have had water desalination plants, along with its dams and reservoirs. California has the least excuse of any state for not being prepared for a statewide forest fire.


16 posted on 01/12/2025 6:01:14 PM PST by Jonty30 (Liberals are a fulfillment of II Tim3:5. We are instructed to have nothing to do with those people. )
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To: cnsmom

just leave a “thanks for your water, we saved your house with it” note.


17 posted on 01/12/2025 6:03:26 PM PST by cableguymn (They don't want peace they want skeletons )
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To: yesthatjallen

Salting the land is quite different from using salt water to quench a fire.

Tons of salt, ploughed into the fields until they are half salt, half soil is not salt water dropped from the air. A few rains, and the air-dropped salt from sea water has washed back to the sea.


18 posted on 01/12/2025 6:06:22 PM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn)
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To: cnsmom

I’ve been involved with the design and permitting of large warehouses her in Eastern Washington. Due to their rural locations, they all required ponds for fire fighting.


19 posted on 01/12/2025 6:07:12 PM PST by shotgun (H)
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To: DesertRhino
The Roman spreading salt on an area thing was ceremonial, more like a curse. But back then, salt was way too valuable to spread across an area. The word salary literally comes from the Latin Sal, leaning salt. Roman soldiers were paid in it.

My understanding is that they would have used inferior or contaminated salt, of the type thrown on the roads to keep them weed-free:

Matthew 5:13:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

20 posted on 01/12/2025 6:13:29 PM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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