California wild fire in LA area, 01/08/2025


If you live in this area I hope you stay safe and have no losses.
Please be careful.  Fires can leap around.


Chrissy

Not good, hope all are safe. They can have some of our floods!

These fires are a real tragedy. 

Chrissy

I've been watching some coverage of this. It's apocalyptic. I feel for everyone affected by it. Although I will say, y'all need to allow people to clear out the brush and potential fuel so this doesn't happen quite so often. Australia realised this many years ago, but I understand you don't have the same kind of awareness of it in America? Or will to keep on top of it? I don't know.

But that doesn't matter. Looking at the footage, it's like world war 3 happened in some places. Which is a tragedy no matter what you think. I hope the loss of life will be minimal but that people will learn lessons from it. To make sure it doesn't happen again.

Quote from: Sephirah on January 10, 2025, 05:34:16 PMAlthough I will say, y'all need to allow people to clear out the brush and potential fuel so this doesn't happen quite so often. Australia realised this many years ago, but I understand you don't have the same kind of awareness of it in America? Or will to keep on top of it? I don't know.

We saw this a few years ago in Utah and Colorado. The problem is that some terrain is so steep and rugged, that there is no easy access to the area to clear it out. My dad described a place in Colorado that was quite remote. The canyon walls were very steep, almost like cliffs. The pine trees had been dropping their needles for many years and that left the canyon floor full of highly flammable tinder a foot deep.

Later, a lightning strike started a small fire and the wind blew it into the canyon. They had no way to fight the fire except by dropping water or retardant on it from aircraft. They could not use HotShots (firefighters that parachute into an area) because the terrain was so rough, they would get trapped very easily.

I do sympathize with those who are affected by fire. Many fires can be prevented with maintenance. But in some cases, there is nothing to be done except to let it burn up the fuel and try to keep it contained.

Unfortunately there have been looters in the LA fire area, a number have been caught by law enforcement or the National Guard.  According to news reports, one looter was wearing some kind of firefighting clothing.

Why do some people stoop so low?

Arrrgh.


Chrissy

This is a disaster of epic proportions.

Blame already has been cast about and this disaster will be studied by academics, professionals, politicians, media, and public interest groups.  The focus now is to help, rescue, recover, cleanup, and then rebuild.   

However the area may still have more losses as the winds pick up.  This is a very sad situation.

Wildfires have popped up in other states too.

As expected, rents for replacement lodging have been jacked up by some landlords.
Some are even demanding that renters pay a year's rent in advance on top of rates far exceeding prior rent rates.  For this locality, in the case of an emergency situation, landlords are not allowed to increase rents by more than 10%.  That may not apply at all to new housing just made available because rents are attractive.

It is the law of supply and demand, as many people there need replacement lodging.  Maybe greed could be a factor in the higher rents.

However, some larger rental companies are holding rates at a reasonable level, even waiving application fees.  Some are providing no cost lodging.

The fires continue to burn.

They have a big mess there in California, with many with some family members now and many without their usual lodging.

Then the plane and helicopter collision there above the Potomac River this week, and the jet crash in Philadelphia today. 

So many tragedies.  Wishing all those people and their families and friends strength and sympathies.