Posted on 10/30/2019 7:13:37 AM PDT by IndispensableDestiny
That fire was caused when a dry branch from a eucalyptus tree was flung 30 feet (9 meters) by high winds into a city Department of Water and Power line, which short-circuited and sparked, the utility and Fire Department announced Tuesday.
The power line had been operating safely and the DWP had cut away brush and trees from around the line, officials said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti called it an act of God.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Mostly. You left out the part where the state also forced PG&E to spend massive amounts on expensive Green energy subsidies and generation, reducing the money available for ROW maintenance. The detail behind your takes huge amounts of resources from them, on top of the direct taxes.
I don’t mean you, lol.
Apologies, my sarcasm in that post was directed at the Democrat politicians of the state, who don’t seem to be able to figure out the obvious, but I think I worded that poorly.
Sounds like California has gone Sodom & Gomorrah and is getting it’s due wage.
Act of God indeed!
I work for the Kentucky equivalent of PG&E. We take this stuff pretty seriously. However, due to the climate here, the risk of fire is beyond remote. But still, we clear. In fact, they sprayed foliage killer on my hill (without my permission( where the line goes up from the road to my property on the hill.
But here, it’s more about branches causing outages, rather than fires.
If you supply electricity in an environment where the sort of stuff happening in california is a serious risk, you either change the way you do it - i.e. underground - or you accept the risk - i.e. what we do every day when we get in our cars.
That’s what most people forget.
They love cheap & reliable power, but hate overhead lines.
Underground utilities are about three times the cost of overhead. And CA is an earthquake hotbed. Imagine that headache with a 6.0+ hitting and cutting lines/duct-banks.
HAHAHA! I remember that scene!
Mostly forestry management so fires don’t rage out of control. We can’t stop fires from starting, but if the environmentalists didn’t have their way and we could clear forest floors and thin them out, then fires would not burn out of control and we could stop them more readily.
These fires did not burn out of control in the 1950s and 1960s when we exercised strict forest management. This is a man-made problem caused by environmentalist wackos.
Its pretty funny though that the only way to get power effectively to homes is still via wires strung on wood poles.
The next billionaire can eaisly be the person that figures out a better way.
I wonder why they haven’t gone underground there.
Also most of the wildfires around here get started by lighting strikes, so I can only assume that occurs there as well.
I wonder why they havent gone underground there.
So it would seem like the only answer is to accept the risk, and then engage in risk mitigation as well as you possibly can.
I would say that in the case of California, the black outs are not the answer. Doesn’t seem to be helping.
Here we have Jerry Brown blaming Trump and the Repubics for the fires because Climate Change.
/facepalm
I agree.
I used to live in Vallejo as a kid and until recently would visit family in the LA area. Seems to me that control of undergrowth is the real answer there. It also seems like it would be worthwhile.
And as someone else pointed out, we could pay people to clear it out rather than pay them snap/welfare/etc. to sit on their butts.
They truly think the voters are idiots. Dead serious.
I think God made most of California to burn every couple of years.. I've read somewhere that some of the trees in that area don't drop their seed until the fires come..
If you build your house in the furnace don't be surprised if it gets burnt...
Bury the electric lines in areas like they have been found to be a problem with fallen lines causing a fire, which is usually in an unpopulated section. In a populated section the overhead lines, if they fall, are usually going to land on pavement or in someone’s yard.
Elect a bunch of Democrats, burn to death in the dark.
________________________________________________________
At this point, electing Republicans would be a futile and stupid gesture as well. The situation is beyond hopeless. The only way out is to let Kalifornyuns hit absolute rock bottom, feel the massive amounts of pain, then get up, dust off, shake it off, and only then... elect Republicans. Lessons must be thoroughly felt, learned and understood before any meaningful change can occur in any liberal utopia.
“Elections have consequences.”
Those in California that elected the Dims are only blaming the “greedy” utility companies. And, unfortunately, the Dims are the majority.
STOP POSTING THE OVERSIZE PICTURES. YOU RUIN THE THREAD FOR IPAD USERS!
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.