Posted on 10/26/2003 9:43:37 PM PST by GeronL
Unless it's a leaner over the top of the house, that's a ripoff, even in California.
I do my own tree work. I climb and top. My forest is in pretty good shape and getting better every year (our place is a helicopter medical evacuation site). If a fire came through here, I'd get chainsaw, drop a couple of trees near the property line, set up a 1-1/2 hose below the house, get a cup of coffee and watch it crawl through the undergrowth. A fire would be a big help to clear out the weed seed. Adjacent to my place is a eucalyptus grove. Now THAT'S a fuel bomb that would spray seed in the draft for a half mile.
The property owner(s), the insurance companies, and the fire department have convinced themselves that "people will only hurt themselves or each other if they use the fire hoses."
I do not know how widespread through the downtown area, this is in effect, but the net of it is that:
There are no firehoses in the building --- the hoses have been removed!
Our building is just opposite the state capitol.
A friend who worked at a local hospital, made a tour through it to double-check and found that:
There are no firehoses in the hospital!
This means, that if the Islamic terrorists hit the downtown with fire, The New York Times will get to write up the story of the pool of metal that remains of the "brave first responders' fire truck." And you all can wonder what really happened.
I'm here to tell you all beforehand, that I am the first responsder --- you heard the story here, first.
About the amateur who tried, not to get water, but firehoses with which to deliver the water --- the firehoses that previously were in the buildings, but had been removed upon the decisions of "experts" according to our government now under the control of the judiciary.
The statutes require the hoses.
The judges do not.
Ah yes.
The Sierra Club; Friends of the Dirt; Greenpeace; the ACLU; PETA....
Our very own domestic terrorists.
War by other means.
As an Engineer I have always tought similarly, that proactive planning and minimal additional work would go a long way, until I realized...
That Friends of the dirt, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the ACLU, all conspire to prevent adequate fire fighting and bulletproof water supplies, since they are "growth inducing", and encourage more damn people to move into an area.
No water supply, no power, and the best preparation is useless.
Not true. Vegetation management is really all you need. We could do just fine in a fire without either water or power (although the principle reason I sited the house where I did was so that I could have 35psi of gravity-feed water pressure). The easiest way for me to keep my house from burning would be to go out there with a torch and light a backfire below the house. I clear off that slope every 7-10 years and did much of it last year. I won't do the backfire because I don't know where the firefighters might be and they wouldn't know what was coming. The only reason for the hose is to obviate that need. We're ready.
Ah yes, the ol' "Let the professionals do that," syndrome. I know it well. You could have fire hose training as a part of OJT, but since the disabled can't do it, no one else is so allowed.
It's a disease.
My entire point was that regardless of why that pipe is there or what the water pressure is, you are relying on having any water at all on a purely political (and often mindless) process, not based on safety, for decades now.
I'm not relying upon anybody to fight a fire on my property. I don't need to. I did the ten years of hard work and took care of my forest. I don't have an excess of fuel. If I didn't have stupid neighbors down the hill, or a risk of that idiot firefighters might be lost in the woods, I wouldn't even need a hose. A little backfire would do.
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