Pacific Palisades Wildfire

[edyvw]

Master of the obvious. Still waiting for your explanation:"This is by far most capable region to fight fires in the country, period."

It is. It is by far the most capable. No one has that capacity.
Tell me which fire organization in the US is on par Cal Fire?
I have at 2pm meeting with representatives of Wildfire academy here in Colorado Springs. We would really like to know another potential focal agency. I am all ears. .

 

[edyvw]

So there's choices to be made regarding risk appetite. Which is the greater risk... wildfire or mudslides? Which of the two are more devastating? Which historically have caused the most property damage and/or loss of life?
I'm just spitballing here but I'm going to guess it's wildfires across the board.

Yes, you are spitballing.

 

[y_p_w]

Tell me which fire organization in the US is on par Cal Fire?

Maybe the US Forest Service? Of course their issue is with budgets. Or maybe the National Park Serivce.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire
https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfire/budget

CALFIRE is kind of a hybrid though. They're officially the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Besides just forest management and wildland fire protection, they also provide contract fire services to cities and counties.

 

[Cropduster172]

It is. It is by far the most capable. No one has that capacity.
Tell me which fire organization in the US is on par Cal Fire?
I have at 2pm meeting with representatives of Wildfire academy here in Colorado Springs. We would really like to know another potential focal agency. I am all ears. .

You haven't explained why they are. And they are not the agency with primary life safety responsibility. It's LAFD.

Yes, you are spitballing.

Oh, so you're saying it's mudslides. OK. Put up the stats to prove it so everyone here can see how wrong you are as usual.

 

[TheLastWord]

With the previous comments about LA Mayor Karen Bass being out of the country and not there to direct or oversee things - two questions:

1) What could the mayor really do with respect to directing and prioritizing fire fighting efforts?
2) Perhaps more importantly, what kind of city business required the mayor of LA to be in GHANA?

Scott

To answer 2) specifically.

She was asked by Joe Biden to be part of a 4 member delegation.

She has legislative experience, but no experience in executive or management positions.

 

[edyvw]

You haven't explained why they are. And they are not the agency with primary life safety responsibility. It's LAFD.

Oh, so you're saying it's mudslides. OK. Put up the stats to prove it so everyone here can see how wrong you are as usual.

You don't choose between two disasters! My god, how difficult this is. Which organziation/agency/governemnt cuts completely vegetation, especially in such geography? I really want to know.
CalFire, LAFD, SDFD, RFD, etc. are all working together. CalFire has the most capacity to fight fires. No agency fights fire alone. It is whole community effort with such large disasters.
CalFire is the premier US wildfire agency, and LAFD is the premier fire department for their specific environment (UWI).
Again, I am all ears to find out who else is there on that level. They are the ones providing the majority of workshops, training, etc., to other agencies across the country and globe (Australians and New Zealand specifically).

 

[IndyIan]

Wouldn't the natural evolution of that government responsibility be them telling the public that housing is off limits in Oklahoma because of tornados, or off limits in California because of earthquakes, or off limits in Florida because of hurricanes?

Half the country would become uninhabitable. The Feds already own half the land mass of the country already. Give the government an acre and they'll take a million.

Back in the old days when I had life insurance, I remember my policy explicitly excluding coverage for things like auto racing and skydiving (which I did at the time). Whaa! Not fair!

Life is full risks. If people want to live in fire prone areas or jump out of airplanes let them, but they must realize they are taking risks that may end up being financed with their own bank account.

Scott

So you propose no government building restrictions in a known wildfire or landslide risk area, just because it may lead to unlikely overreach for no one living in tornado alley?
Tornados are a relatively small threat pretty much equally distributed across all states in the midwest, and in every state to a smaller extent. Also most of them are small enough that the destruction path is quite small. Also in the 1 in 100000 chance a house is in the direct path of a tornado, most can simply hide in the corner of a basement, or a concrete walled strong room, and reasonably expect to be fine. Surviving a wildfire and house fire in your house, requires some pretty advanced tech and infrastructure, and a landslide is even more deadly. So no, it makes no sense to compare the two.

I think the problem with letting people assess the risks of living in an high risk area, is that they aren't experts and understanding the risk. I don't want to see families get burnt to death because Dad thought his garden hose could save his house...
Most places have building codes for the same reason, it takes some knowledge and experience to know what construction methods are "good enough".
If you let people building and live in high risk areas, you'll probably get very rich people who can afford to torch their house every 20 years, and really poor people living in a shanty who think the risk is worth it. Kind of like a lot of lesser developed countries....

 

[edyvw]

Maybe the US Forest Service? Of course their issue is with budgets. Or maybe the National Park Serivce.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire
https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfire/budget

CALFIRE is kind of a hybrid though. They're officially the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Besides just forest management and wildland fire protection, they also provide contract fire services to cities and counties.

No, they are very narrow. CalFire has numerous roles and capabilities. US Forest service usually depends on resources of local fire agencies. Here, where wildfires and UWI fires are common, they would not be able to do much without local support.
NORTHCOM does all logistical support in case of large disasters. Only two states regularly decline offers because outside intervention can cause more confusion: CA and FL, CA with fires and FL with hurricanes. Other states don't have nearly close capabilities to deal with these specific disasters as these two states, and usually they are one providing help to other states (CA fires, FL hurricanes).

 

[billt460]

Just wait until these fire victims start trying to pull building permits to rebuild, and run into the wall of bureaucracy that has become the direct result of who they voted for. They will quickly become victims of their own creation. This entire mess has only begun.

 

[edyvw]

Just wait until these fire victims start trying to pull building permits to rebuild, and run into the wall of bureaucracy that has become the direct result of who they voted for. They will quickly become victims of their own creation.

I think insurance bureaucracy is going to be much worse.
I own property in San Diego, and it was a problem before. After this, it will be olympic discipline.

 

[UncleDave]

With the previous comments about LA Mayor Karen Bass being out of the country and not there to direct or oversee things - two questions:

1) What could the mayor really do with respect to directing and prioritizing fire fighting efforts?
2) Perhaps more importantly, what kind of city business required the mayor of LA to be in GHANA?

Scott

Multiple friends lost homes.

1. Anything would have helped - call in favors from inland units to the coast, Call in favors from surrounding cities, get in a truck and help evacuate.
Make sure the totally inexperience LA fire chief insured water was pumped where it should have been prior - from what I can tell she didn't do that. Open to learning more though, and hope incompetence didnt make a bad situation worse.

2. I cant imagine that trip did a thing for the people of Los Angeles, but Im certainly interested now.

I was in LA Tuesday and it was a calamity.

 

[Cropduster172]

You don't choose between two disasters! My god, how difficult this is. Which organziation/agency/governemnt cuts completely vegetation, especially in such geography? I really want to know.
CalFire, LAFD, SDFD, RFD, etc. are all working together. CalFire has the most capacity to fight fires. No agency fights fire alone. It is whole community effort with such large disasters.
CalFire is the premier US wildfire agency, and LAFD is the premier fire department for their specific environment (UWI).
Again, I am all ears to find out who else is there on that level. They are the ones providing the majority of workshops, training, etc., to other agencies across the country and globe (Australians and New Zealand specifically).

Your dodging of the questions about your uninformed and incorrect posts is glaringly obvious.
No. No one said fire departments are responsible for clearing brush...do you know that state, county and municipal governments have what is called public works departments and code enforcement organizations?
I'm a former state cop. I don't need you to school me regarding how state, county, Federal and municipal agencies function. At least not until you learn something about the subject yourself.

 

[edyvw]

Your dodging of the questions about your uninformed and incorrect posts is glaringly obvious.
No. No one said fire departments are responsible for clearing brush...do you know that state, county and municipal governments have what is called public works departments and code enforcement organizations?
I'm a former state cop. I don't need you to school me regarding how state, county, Federal and municipal agencies function. At least not until you learn something about the subject yourself.

Lol. Public works cannot do fire prevention steps without fire departments.
Well, here is your chance as a former state cop to tell us which agency is better.
It seems state has loose standards on employment.

 

[Dave Hess]

Very unfortunate chain of events.

 

[CKN]

Just wait until these fire victims start trying to pull building permits to rebuild, and run into the wall of bureaucracy that has become the direct result of who they voted for. They will quickly become victims of their own creation. This entire mess has only begun.

In Pacific Palisades that won't happen. The amount of money and influence up there is hard to imagine.

 

[Rmay635703]

Can you imagine being a Firefighter and finding out you have no WATER to fight the fire? That is just ridiculous.
All to save the Delta Smelt.

Time to pump salt water, it actually extinguishes fire better but burns the landscape after as well

 

[Cropduster172]

Lol. Public works cannot do fire prevention steps without fire departments.
Well, here is your chance as a former state cop to tell us which agency is better.
It seems state has loose standards on employment.

No. They cut down trees, cut grass, cut and remove brush at the request of fire departments.
Written English isn't your first language is it?

 

[edyvw]

No. They cut down trees, cut grass, cut and remove brush at the request of fire departments.
Written English isn't your first language is it?

So, are you saying that they are not doing that there? You still did not tell us anything here. Who does it better? What are they supposed to do? Are you living in So Cal? Did you live?
No, it is not. But here I am.

 

[Cropduster172]

Lol. Public works cannot do fire prevention steps without fire departments.
Well, here is your chance as a former state cop to tell us which agency is better.
It seems state has loose standards on employment.

Nice try. You still dodged answering the question why they are most capable firefighting department. I don't which department is and I'm not the one claiming I do. That's you. So why is CalFire the most capable as you stated?

 

[97prizm]

A huge thanks to the brave Fire Fighters and all who are helping. This will be on the Loma Prieta scale... It's bad.
View attachment 257949

Maybe I missed it but what started it?