General Discussion Thread

[jemhouston]

Well, it's Santa Ana season in SoCal, with an absolute Godzilla fire in the Pacific Palisades being driven by 25 years of Los Angeles County mismanaging the urban-wildland interface and hurricane level winds.

March AFB is okay, but we're imposing a serious fire watch; the base wing and all tenant units have assigned personnel to rove all areas and ensure that if a fire gets started, it's reported and put out quickly. Riverside County has put an absolutely draconian ban on any open burning; you will get six months in County Jail and a $10,000 fine.

The winds were crazy yesterday evening; I'd say close to 40 knot gusts.

IRL, I heard there was a ban put in the 90s on controlled burns to reduce the brush load to reduce the fire hazard. I wasn't sure I heard right, is that correct?

IC: Earthquakes and brushfires happen all the time there, how can they not to hazard reduction for brushfires. Considering how much they spend on earthquakes prep, how can the not do the same for brushfires?

It would like Houston not doing floor / hurricane prep.

[Poohbah]

Controlled burns were restricted due to air quality issues (Los Angeles is hemmed in on 3 sides by mountains and gets a lot of temperature inversions that trap pollution--nothing like climbing out from Tustin and getting above 8,000 feet and seeing brown smudge only a few hundred feet below the helicopter and realizing you were breathing that crap).

The problem is that fewer controlled burns means you need more actual worker bees out there clearing out brush, and that never happened because of not enough money.