Woolsey and Hill Fires and LASG status

[xjrguy]

All,

We are ok. The area has been ravaged by unbelievable fires the past few days.

The internet line was affected by a fiber optic line that was cut as the fire burned south west of here. This occurred yesterday around 4pm.

It appears to be repaired as of 6:15PM today.

I hope everyone is safe out there.

[jhwalker]

Glad to hear things are OK.

Bell Canyon was clobbered. I was sent a list of over 30 homes that burned. 1 Bell (our old home) was fine as usual. Friends from the Canyon have called and emailed pictures. Hate to see it...

[Tetge]

Time to give a shout out to the fire crews that routinely take serious risks and work their butts off fighting the fires and protecting as much human life and property as possible. There may be some that fail to appreciate the firemen and the risks that they take, but, one hopes that most people give them the respect that they have earned, as there is extreme danger even for pros when dealing with these massive wind driven wild fires, so they literally put their lives on the line when they fight fires.

[jhwalker]

Time to give a shout out to the fire crews that routinely take serious risks and work their butts off fighting the fires and protecting as much human life and property as possible. There may be some that fail to appreciate the firemen and the risks that they take, but, one hopes that most people give them the respect that they have earned, as there is extreme danger even for pros when dealing with these massive wind driven wild fires, so they literally put their lives on the line when they fight fires.

yup...
I am biased.

[xjrguy]

Thanks guys. Glad you are here. And yes a huge shout out to the firefighters, police, first responders and EMS that helped.

We had a scare yesterday with another fire that started VERY quick near the 118 which was close to here. It got knocked down very quickly.

[SonicVenum]

Glad you guys are okay. Fire season is always rough in So Cal, but it seems this one is a particularly bad one for residential areas. There was a relatively quick fire last night into this morning out here in our neck of the woods. Luckily, it mostly burned empty land between the 15 and a concrete plant in North Fontana and North Rialto.

[jhwalker]

It is hard to watch these fires from afar. But better than being in them.

Approx. 13 years ago Terri and I sat on a Bell Canyon friend's patio sipping 'gritas while watching a fire clear out brush in Bell Canyon. It was pretty scary. He sent me a picture of his now completely burned house. It was one of the 30-35 Bell Canyon houses now gone.

[xbacksideslider]

There dysfunction going on,
It has multiple facets; don't know all but can speculate. Here's some ideas -

Are fire insurance premiums too low, not high enough to prevent building in dry hillsides, or deep forests?

Are hillsiders and forest dwellers laying off risk on the rest of us? Not self insuring? Not building expensive buffers or using pricey fire resistant materials?

Do insurance regulators force insurers to transfer wealth? Subsidize hillsiders' premiums with those of flatlanders?

Are fire departments too lax in enforcing hillside clearance frequency or extent?
If so, is there political pressure on fire departments to require less clearance than necessary?

Is Trump's forest clearance point true? Or, just more relevant to the Camp Fire than to the Wollsey Fire - pine trees, vs brush?

What about the past? Aboriginals set fires; American Indians did too; kept brush down and meadows clear; habitat for deer and hunting.

I've read that nature is not the environmentalists' snapshot; not static, not something arrogantly frozen in our moment in time. Rather, nature is a dynamic moving picture AND mankind is part of that movie, and for our own good, we should recognize, humbly, that we are a living part of the living and changing environment in which we live or die, and that our affects upon it are as natural as anything else.