Posted on 11/13/2018 1:41:17 AM PST by Morgana
Yeah. It’s raw, alright.
Could NOT imagine that woman refusing to leave without her makeup on, though; in the face of an inferno like that.
Incredible some people’s sense of what’s important and not.
The reason a phone book doesn't burn is that the layers of paper form an insulator and the center stays cold. That said, I have burned phone books, but only 1/3 at a time, and I have to "roast" the phone book for at least an hour over a bed of coals supported by some logs or a grate. Heating the whole phone book to 500 degrees will completely burn it, but it will leave behind a lot of ash.
The last thing you would do in your timber stands is allow ladder fuels to grow and die in a wet/dry season like they have out west. After the first year of growth (2016) you would light up all the growth to remove it. By 2017 it would have been a bit late, but still doable in low wind conditions (when CARB bans any kind of prescriptive or natural fire due to "pollution"). By this year the 2016 growth would start to put your trees at risk.
Instead of properly managing the extra 2016 fuel growth, California maintained their insane "air quality" regualations. I see no evidence that they have learned anything from the Napa disaster last fall.
That is an amazing story. Your dad...and your family....are blessed, indeed.
Death toll 56 with over 100 still missing
Over 10,000 structures destroyed
Was the spotted owl issue related to clear cutting of forests or selective cutting related to managing a producing forest. My late husband inherited 20 acres of southern Illinois forest. We spent 4 hours with a forester who explained how a forest could be managed by clearing out small trees like 5” or less in diameter a certain number of feet from the straightest target tree so it could grow. Also selecting straight large trees and how many board feet might be harvested, but leaving crooked trees to continue to seed the forest, and feed and house wildlife. He identified productive trees to keep like walnut and hickory and even pawpaw. That is very different from clear cutting. Small logging mills can handle that work, but I suspect the clear cut guys are bigger and just as happy to put the small timers out of business. After taking notes while being educated by the forester I went to two sawmills to find out what the different trees identified might be worth if cut. I also determined that one of the owners would probably be much more careful pulling out the downed trees than the other one, by pulling them out by a better route and not destroying so much undergrowth like berry bushes and small trees we might want to keep.
You speak of hay burning. However, straw bales are NOT hay bales. Hay has seeds, is probably softer, and should not be used as it would attract mice. The fact that the exterior is covered with cement or stucco which infiltrates the surface spaces, and tightly fastened interior coverings which might also be stucco but are more often drywall means there is very little oxygen within the space to promote burning. One person built his home by putting cement or mortar under and between every bale, in addition to exterior and interior covering. Thus each bale was completely encased. This might be especially useful in a high fire environment.
While I agree that a bale building could also burn, it probably would be more resistant than most others. Please read the link I included as at least one person’s comment described how his bale home behaved in a major fire. Incidentally, the article was from 2007 so there may be more recent information.
Add in the lack of proper forest and land management (grass and scrub lands need to be included).
Then think hot, dry, windy (happens a lot in much of CA), and "spark upwind".
The entire bullet train budget could be added to current CA firefighting expenditures, and, while more could be caught "in time", disastrous fires would still occur. An awful lot of prevention needs to be done, and many people would not like to live in remade "safe" places.
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