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85 Comments
- bixby1, on 06/30/2008, -1/+31I live in California. My house almost burned down last year. I was not amused. non-amusement continuing....
- inactive, on 07/01/2008, -2/+28Forrest fires, limited water, dry weather.
Welcome to California it has been this way for the last few thousand years. Did you idiots really think it was gonna change because you built a mansion on a hillside with a killer view? - inactive, on 07/01/2008, -1/+23Some food for thought:
We have been extinguishing forest fires for decades now, fires that would normally have eaten up a lot more forest than they have. If we keep putting out these fires so avidly, the forest just grows into a huge tinder box unfortunately. Fire is a natural way for forests to restart and start from scratch. They're not necessarily bad from nature's point of view.
I'm not saying we should just let them burn, I just wanted to point out that I think these fires will get progressively harder and harder to put out. - theNazz, on 07/01/2008, -4/+22Too bad we don't have tens of thousands of Reservists to call to help out...
- MyKillK, on 07/01/2008, -1/+16This article didn't mention the most amazing part of the whole story. The near 1,200 wild-fires in northern California were started by a freak "dry-lightning" storm that dished out over 8,000 lightning strikes in a short period. Crazy.
- bamafun, on 06/30/2008, -0/+14they showed a graphic on tv of "where the fires are" - its beginning to look like the need to show a graphic titled - "Where the fires aren't"
- plundstedt, on 07/01/2008, -4/+16It's because environmentalists won't allow controlled burns to clear out underbrush, so when fires like this happen, there's plenty of fuel to burn.
- Spartycus, on 07/01/2008, -1/+11LOL, and disallowed forest thinning, leaving nature to thin them its way....
- casspa, on 06/30/2008, -3/+13Is this just annual climate conditions or is this something that's really flared up in the past decade?
- krnldmp, on 07/01/2008, -0/+10That's actually a well documented and understood problem by midwestern and western forestry departments. What you may not already know about it is the underbrush that is being kept from normal seasonally occurring burns is growing to the point where it contains massive amounts of energy that can no longer be controlled, and when it finally does burn it gets so hot that it kills and even burns away large trees that used to be left relatively untouched by the fires of only a few decades ago, leaving absolute wasteland that doesn't bounce back for decades. In the past the fires didn't nearly force the forest to start from scratch, but they are now.
- AKBryant54, on 06/30/2008, -4/+12There's a part of me that just hopes it gets bigger.
- CiXeL, on 07/01/2008, -2/+10armageddon bitches.
half the country's burning, half is underwater - btschul, on 06/30/2008, -6/+14It's because of global warming. /sarcasm
- btschul, on 06/30/2008, -0/+8It's carlin reincarnated
- macbookhair, on 07/01/2008, -1/+8Thats what she said.
- Landlocked, on 07/01/2008, -0/+7...a bear with a hat was seen running from the source of the fire.
- Inflammo, on 07/01/2008, -1/+7Wow, he must be exciting at a party.
- pseudojd, on 07/01/2008, -0/+6Here in CA there are 1400 fires burning as of this afternoon.
- kevinwiz, on 07/01/2008, -0/+5hundreds of fires? try thousands. 1400 alone here in CA
- theghoul, on 07/01/2008, -1/+6Sooo the land should be cheap now?
- wildfire, on 07/01/2008, -0/+5Wasn't me.
- phybere, on 07/01/2008, -1/+6No, it's because of those damn terrorists... (that is a typical conservative response right?)
(we can play this game all day) - SoundScape, on 07/01/2008, -0/+5As an Australian this sort of news hits pretty close to home. Bushfires are almost a part of our culture, unfortunately.
- nmessick, on 07/01/2008, -0/+5perhaps if hte environmentalists would allow controlled burns and some amount of preventive forestry to clear out underbrush we would not have this problem.
- artofficial, on 07/01/2008, -1/+6We need captain planet...he'll know what to do.
- Nidy1, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4I'd be more worried about the CO.
- macbookhair, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4Urg... I live in Hampton Roads area (virginia) and the smoke was pretty bad... when I would go to va beach it would make the beaches really foggy and smoggy.
It seems to go and come (from the wind direction) - IphtashuFitz, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4A few years ago we took a trip to Alaska and Fairbanks was just covered with a thick haze. They said an area the size of the state of Massachusetts was burning (roughly 5 million acres). The only saving grace was that it was over 100 miles from any populated areas. With fires that size up there they just let them burn until the first snows of the season put them out, unless they get too close to populated areas.
- phybere, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4Alternatively, rent rather than own.
(or just have fire insurance) - QuantumRiff, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4I live just over the Oregon border, about 20Mi north of California. I can't even hardly see the mountains 5 miles from my house, the smoke is all traveling north.. Course, 3 years ago, there was a fire in Oregon that burned 300,000 acres (biscuit fire), about 60 miles west.. Streetlights were on in the middle of the day because of smoke then, so I guess its not as bad as its been..
- johndavidjack, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3dugg for carlin reference...
- jrhelgeson, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3I remember when Senator Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rebuked the "BIG timber" industry for wanting to enter into federal and state lands to "harvest lumber". She forbade them from ever entering in and cutting back undergrowth and overgrowth. Funny thing is that timber companies grow their own trees and paper, funnier still is that trees are an INFINITELY RENEWABLE RESOURCE and once a tree is chopped down, it holds in it all the carbon that it sucked up from the atmosphere to grow.
The shrubs and fallen trees that get cleared out are often turned into mulch and composted. Didn't matter to Pelosi - she didn't want "BIG TIMBER" to profit by raping the land. "BIG TIMBER" just laughed and shook its head while walking away. She even sponsored the legislation that forbade the US Forest Service from clearing out overgrowth, lest the precious "lumber" fall into the hands of "BIG TIMBER".
It is said that people get the government that they deserve. I hope California is livin' it up! I remember the first Oakland fire back in October 1991, when homes were destroyed. It was front page news because of the size and scope of the disaster. Then in the late 90's good old Pelosi put a stop to clearing out dead trees. Now that we have a couple decades of fuel stored up, it was only a matter of time before the tinder box exploded.
Californians made the bed they are now sleeping in. They surrounded themselves with gasoline and started playing with matches... - bobcrotch, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3We were just coming home from a vacation on the coast yesterday commenting 'wow every summer we come home at this time it's hot as hell and smokey'.
Seriously, wildfires are pretty much the norm in Northern Cal and Southern Oregon. Plundstedt pretty much nailed the reason too. - 8347, on 07/01/2008, -4/+7Where's all the environmentalists worried about the dangerous carbon dioxide being released by the fires? Where are all the donations and help from organizations worried about the environment? Why aren't environmentalists volunteering by the thousands to help put out the fires? Where are our Democratic leaders?
I guess there just isn't much money to be made putting out fires. Easier to shake down corporations and taxpayers. - bigjakefhecake, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3Im from klamath falls, i assume your near there right.
- ludditte, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3I wish I could send you guys some of the rain we've been getting in the eastern part of the continent.
- jaxontyler, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3No hes right. They say around every 10 years, before people came out here for millions of years that wildfires would happen about every 10 years. Now since we have people out there, we put out the fires, just giving it more and more fuel for next year.
- philodygmn, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3Actually, no, it's only been this way the last couple hundred, at most. Invasive European alien species of grasses and other weeds have choked out natives and completely changed the ecology across much of the US. They're nothing but tinder, whereas natives in an intact site are extremely fire tolerant, even without controlled burns.
Weeds and the Effects on the Native Ecosystem
http://www.laspilitas.com/advanced/advweeds.htm
California Plants and Fire
http://www.laspilitas.com/classes/fire_burn_times. ...
Restoration of a California Native Plant Community
http://www.laspilitas.com/advanced/advrevegetation ...
David Attenborough once shot a burn through coastal scrub, walking right across the fireline because the flames were so tame! - jpop, on 07/01/2008, -4/+7Man, lookit all that CO2 going up. I'm sure they'll figure out some way it's Mankind's fault...
- logicet, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3now that's a BURN
- bjornski, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3Come to Minnesota.
No fires, no floods, nice and 80 degrees here right now, and our snowfalls have been so amazingly pathetic lately that it's hard to believe it's Minnesota.
I remember HUUUGE snows. Now I barely even have to shovel. - GeorgeTirebiter, on 07/01/2008, -3/+5Maybe someday the greenies will figure it out. Fires are natural. The federal government has tried to supress them for decades, resulting in more fuel than would otherwise be available. The result of that is more and bigger fires than would otherwise happen. Global warming? Give me a break.
- elnerdo, on 07/01/2008, -2/+4The United States is about 2,263,960,480 acres. This means that currently, 0.00019% of the country is burning.
- inactive, on 07/01/2008, -1/+3They are busy keeping our borders safe from mexicans, actually, those mexicans could come over and help put the fires out.
- telapan, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2can you please tell me where these fire zones are?
- zmigliozzi, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2Should we even ask Al Gore what to do in this senario?
- bjornski, on 07/01/2008, -2/+4Maybe move out of a fire zone?
Staying there is just as stupid as staying in New Orleans during flood season. - bjornski, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1How much IS fire insurance in a hot zone?
- Tommydukes, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1And this happens every summer.
Why do people act suprised....its not even breaking news.....its predictable and scheduled news - bjornski, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1Just getting tired of the "Easier to shake down corporations and taxpayers." *****.
I understand your point on the CO2, but your last line put me in "grit the teeth" mode. -
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