The fires in California

[herpastcanchangethefuture]

Is anyone else watching in disbelief? It just so awful to see so many people lose their home and I keep thinking about all the animals who would have been terrified and trapped too. I was watching the news on it last night and people were saying their insurance companies had recently revoked their insurance so they won’t be covered.

It’s just awful.

You parade your ignorance. China releases more than twice the CO2 of the US every year. US emissions peaked in 2007 and have dropped since because we have and are making changes.

People have lost everything and you ghouls can't stop for 5 minutes with the "America is the devil" bullshit.

The devastation is massive. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and the firefighters.🙏

However, a lot of what china produces is consumed by people in the US and Europe

It's not about "US" is evil is about having a conversation about how we all have a choice how much we consume and therefore we all play a part in tackling climate change.

green measures have made the situation in California worse. They’ve not done controlled burns of brush and diverted rainwater to the sea that could have made things better (and less dry)

Because 85 to 95% of wildfires are started by people. Either intentionally or not. This particular one is an act of arson.

It does not help that they use lots of wood in their house construction and build them too close together.
There is not much left on the pictures I have seen other then bits of brickwork.

It doesn't matter how the fire started - the effects of someone starting a fire are much more serious when the conditions are really bad and the conditions more likely become really bad much more often because of climate change

It's happening in front of our eyes and still people don't want to believe it - but I gather it took decades of evidence before people believed smoking was harmful so I shouldn't be surprised

Bloody hell if this is not hate speech I do not know what it is. You must be a cousin of that mayor of LA. Honestly, how can people be so mad and be allowed. Let alone those main cities Mayors including Sadiq Khan here. Only elected just to appease the loud mouths.

Normal people wake the hell up! Tomorrow it can be you judged this way.

Not everyone. Friends of mine in Santa Monica grabbed their two dogs and ran. They have each other, the dogs and one car. Everything else is gone. They are not high net worth.

I'm so sorry that happened to your friends.

😞 horrendous.

On rhobh

I remember Lisa Rhiana and her husband doing practice fire drills with the hose

Because 85 to 95% of wildfires are started by people. Either intentionally or not. This particular one is an act of arson.

Do you really think that the environmental conditions when a fire is started make no difference to how it spreads? And do you think the current environmental conditions are not a result of climate change?

Because everyone with knowledge of either fire or the climate would disagree with you.

Very small portion of Chinese emissions will be export-oriented manufacturing. Sometimes it’s not about you.

Climate change did not cause the fire hydrants to run out of water, or the city to delay building reservoirs to capture the relatively abundant rainfall they’d had, sack firefighters who refused the vaccine, clear up underbrush, or stop tolerating homeless encampments, which are obvious fire hazards.

This was human failure due to mismanagement

I'm watching the news right now, and it is horrifying - beyond awful. A huge disaster, and I hope that the fires can be brought under control soon.

@user22446688 Had not realised there'd been a lot of attention earlier, no. Thank you for your post!

There has always been high risk of fire in Cali, it’s not like Florida that is very humid, cali has a lot of dry seasons/periods that increase the risk. When I lived there I always saw lots of warning signs about not dropping cigarettes and exercising care with BBQ’s etc… because it often just takes a simple spark to set off huge fires - coupled with the Santa Ana wind makes it even more dangerous. It happens so fast. There used to be big fines for certain acts/activities that might cause a fire - not sure if it’s still the case, but I would assume it is.

I’ve been sickened by the amount of glee expressed because its celeb’s homes affected. Firstly it’s not only celeb homes being destroyed. Secondly, forget the “celeb” label. No. It’s human beings watching their homes burn to the ground and in some cases their pets being hurt or friends and family being in extreme danger. No amount of money makes that any better. I’ve watched my own home burn and it’s horrible and terrifying - and none of my emotions were anything to do with money. Honestly I despair at humanity sometimes.

Your home is your home it doesn’t matter if it is worth millions of dollars or a few hundred thousand or long term renting it’s where people often have hugh attachment too plus many people have lost items that are very personal to them

And not everyone is really wealthy LA has high levels of high poverty some of these people have been impacted too there is many homeless people around Santa Monica

and the fear, the even poorer air quality knowing this shall take years to rebuild

There were similar fire risks and warnings when we lived in Chile. On one occasion I noticed a fire on hills from our home. It was sort of tiers of hills and this was 3 tiers away. There were 2 towns between, very poor people in those towns. Luckily the - voluntary- firefighters managed to put it out.

My local friends there go south for summer holidays to get away from the intense heat. A friend’s family were packed to return, thought they’d get the DC to sleep and set off after breakfast. Instead the mother smelt the smoke and bundled the kids into car. By the time they were home there were thousands of acres scorched.

I’m another with family over there and watching with horror. So far they’re all ok but I won’t stop worrying until I know the fires are all out. They are ordinary, decent, working people, not celebs or high net worth individuals.

Is it known yet or not if it was arson? I remember a few years ago some teens in a national park threw fireworks off a cliff in a national park (think in Oregon). It started a massive fire, loads of damage. Somehow they found out who the kids were and they were arrested.

no idea what ultimately happened to them but I’d hate to be the person who’s responsible for burning a good section of LA down if this is what happened!

Oh have googled and found the Oregon fire case. Was a 15yo boy, he got five years probation, 1950 hrs community service with the forestry services and fined $36 million!

took a year for the fire to be fully put out but was contained after 3 months. 50,000 acres burned.

They know where it started but not how from the reports I've read.

Many wildfires are caused by carelessness like cigarettes or bbqs.

Wildfires were always happening in this area, they have identified older trees which weathered over 100 fires in their lifetime. In fact fires have reduced drastically in the last 100 years, as a result the combustible material that feeds a fire has been allowed to build up over decades, whereas before it used to be cleared out every few years by smaller, regular fires. Environmentalists like to leave this undergrowth for biodiversity reasons. The same thing happened in Australia. In Hawaii the fires spread because of a species of grass which had been introduced.

As a result housing development has also spread into areas which 100 years ago no one would have dreamt of building houses on.

Just blaming climate change is way too simplistic, land management strategies are a major factor, not for fires starting, but for enabling them to burn out of control so quickly, and they sooner this lesson is learned the more effectively these fires can be dealt with and the less harm they will do.

Arson?
By who?