I am a big fan of controlled burns, however my understanding of the flora out West is that they don’t work well in that environment. Native brush species have a higher resistance to fire, but when they are burned off they tend to be replaced by faster growing non native species that are more fire susceptible.
I agree that it seems idiotic to let brush grow that close to residential areas.
Drier hotter longer summers. Urban sprawl packing folks into areas and terrain prone to fire or on the border of fire prone areas. Forest MGMT issues. More people means more chances for a spark or cigarette butt. Etc. Add in unlucky timing with windstorms/seasonal high winds and it’s disaster.
I guess some folks don’t realize that it doesn’t rain for 5-6months of the year in most of CA either. It is legit kiln dry for months on end. Scary.
Also, most folks don’t want to clear brush that far from their houses. There is value in having a house set IN nature.
Also, it would be expensive, using herbicides would be terrible for the environment and it would reduce wildlife habitat. There are good arguments against, so I shouldn’t say it’s idiotic to not clear out firebreaks around residential neighborhoods, but on the whole considering the Billions of dollars lost to wildfires in CA every year it seems like the lesser of two evils. Also, considering they aren’t raking leaves or cutting grass like us fools back east, putting that time into maintaining a firebreak seems like a wise investment.
From my perspective (in the home building industry), I think building and zoning codes need to change and require the use of fire retardant building materials, and fire resistant lot layouts and street planning. Herd immunity type of concept. But that’s a pipedream, and wouldn’t help current homeowners.
Concrete homes with metal roofs for everybody. Probably not a bad plan.
Then again, many homes in socal that burned were stucco walls with clay tiles roofs. I guess the windows need metal shutters cause that’s how I would assume fire and heat could enter those homes? Heat shattered windows?
I wish I could recommend Asbestos siding. As far as protecting your home from fire exposure, that shit was awesome!
Ha! Beat me to it. Asbestos lap siding, asbestos roofing, asbestos windows, ASBESTOS EVERYWHERE!
I’ve seen Asbestos siding protect houses from direct flame impingement, it really is impressive.
My old house had it and as long as you don’t go cutting or grinding on them they’re perfectly safe. We had to remove a section for an addition and I had to dispose of them in a landfill, which meant extra paperwork and an outrageous fee, then it was just dumped in to be run over by the bulldozer with the rest of the trash.
Lmao
Oh, for crying out loud. What a shame.
Hillary Clinton is as blind as Trump in thinking that her issues are because of other people or circumstances.
Hillary Clinton lost because of who she was and what she represented…and Trump’s myriad of problems are almost 100% Self-Imposed.
While I think that neither of them will do it; both need to look in the mirror and do some soul searching
…yet A LOT of people voted for her.
This is what troubles me … the blind partisan support of this woman because of…party?? She’s reprehensible. She’s a terrible human being and a political hack to boot…
Agree, @polo77j
The exact same thing can be said about Trump and those who support him.
I agree.
Gotta love America. We made our “choice” in the election two people with record low approval ratings. Of course we belong in the stupid thread.
I wrote in John Galt … so, yea…
I both come to this thread for the lulz and the tears … I essentially come to this thread to feel alive again
Who is John Galt?
So if I was the CEO of an NGO that was blatantly breaking the law and coaching migrants to pretend they’re refugees… I wouldn’t brag about it to people I just met. This group was really respected, until recently. I just don’t get why people breaking laws are so quick to brag about it. They need to hire some mafiosi to teach people to keep their traps shut.