Like the droughts, human error and constant winds don’t have anything to do with it; management or not.
Sometimes shit happens. We have to stop constantly looking for someone to blame. Acts of God exist for a reason.
Errr...so, removing the fuel by regularly scheduled controlled burning, and removal of diseased/dead timber ahead of God’s action, would have no affect on the intensity of a wild fire? They must not have known that when I studied forest management back in the 60’s.
Like the droughts, human error and constant winds don’t have “anything to do with it; management or not.”
Whaaaat? You actually believe thinning and removal of dead trees and undergrowth will not have any effect on the severity and destructive force of forest fires?
There are acts of God, but they should not be as devastating as these fires. It’s aoUR responsibility as we move into areas to manage what we are supposed to be stewards. Forest floors that were cleaned out be herds of herbivores need to be replaced by man. Thinking the forests by logging allows for healthier forests, grazing permits replace undergrowth with “fertilizer”. Allowing roads back into the forests allow for easier management. Before the Econuts took over that was normal and the forest fires that happened were normal and not these horrendous life threatening apocalyptic horrors we have seen the last decade.
If you're speaking of whatever sparked up this blaze, yes. If you're talking about the firetrap that was Paradise? The city was engineered to be unable to handle an emergency evacuation, doubly so if you count trying to evacuate neighboring towns. The city preferred lush forest trees and foliage to envelope the city and homes. The major evacuation route (Skyway) was reduced to a single lane in both directions to maintain the preference for bicycle lanes and middle lane turns into businesses.
If you look at a map of Paradise, it is pretty clear that if Pentz Rd is closed to the south that you've got three options out of the fire.. You either go north to Skyway northbound, west to Skyway southbound or west to Clark Rd. Oh, and at the same time, you have 20,000 other people trying to do exactly the same thing.
Predictably, there was gridlock. Pearson was the first to lock up, trapping people on north-south streets that feed onto it. Elliot and Clark Rd followed as confusion reigned if Clark was or was not open for evacuation - then Clark was blocked by fire south of town.
Skyway (south) was designed to handle 1,000 cars an hour - it's a two lane road now rather than the 4 lane evacuation route it was originally made to be (gotta improve street parking, 'normalize' traffic, have that suicide lane in the middle and plenty of room for bikes...)
New Skyway towards Magalia was thickly bordered with brush and timber, so few locals would trust it in a fire, so the sole road to get out of town was Skyway southbound. Which was a parking lot as people were trying to force their way in from every feeder street. People, seeing the fire coming, rushed to commercial parking lots in the hopes they'd be safe with the limited number of fire engines which could deploy by that point.
Others burned in their cars or fled on foot through flames when it became apparent that the fire would overtake the sideroads they were trying to use to get out of danger.
Paradise effectively made the town an oil soaked rag sitting out in the sun by not requiring clearing of brush and thinning of trees. They effectively locked critical exit doors by narrowing roads and leaving timber and brush up.
I agree how it started can be an act of god; how so many died who were heeding evacuation orders - that I lay upon the city.
Well the left ‘lieberal’ talking point is that we still have the same number of wild fires.
The problems lies with what they refuse to report - that the current wildfires burn hotter and longer and are shown historically quadrupling the average square footage of a wild fire from 50 years ago, when common sense ruled forest management policies.
Not doing back burns. Not clearing brush. Not allowing logging of dead trees. All that contributed more than the “acts of God”. California has become a tinder box and because they will not do what needs to be done it will continue