California Wildfires
The homes are the fire’s fuel
- Why firefighting was no match for a California disaster decades in the making.
Jan. 19, 2025, 7:00 AM EST
By Evan Bush and Lewis Kamb
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There’s a hard math behind the Los Angeles-area firestorm: When a two-story house is on fire under normal circumstances, three engines and a minimum of 16 crew members are generally dispatched.
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He compared the situation to a firestorm that barreled through the Oakland hills in Northern California in 1991. In that case, an extinguished grass fire reignited in “Diablo” wind gusts — seasonal winds similar to the Santa Anas in L.A. — and the more than 1,500 firefighters who responded struggled with hydrants that went dry and navigation on steep, narrow roads.
The blaze killed 25 people, injured 150 and destroyed more than 3,300 structures.
Miller toured the area in 2014, after it was rebuilt.
“They have bigger houses on the same lot, with the same trees, with the same brush in the same location, with cars that are bigger,” Miller said. “No fire truck could come up if a big Suburban was coming down. … We’ve built bigger, but we didn’t build better.”
The firefighters he drove around the hills with, Miller said, offered a final assessment: “It’s going to go again.”
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“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — attributed to Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Rita Mae Brown
The Pepuls Republik of Kaliforkneeah repeatedly demonstrates its insanity.
2014, houses burn down. Build back bigger and better, 2025 houses burn down.
Now any rational human being would look at the incentives in 2014 and figure out what disincentives should be in place to prevent a 2036 disaster.
I can think of a few right off the top of my head:
- Insurance companies don’t have to write policies for these houses. No penalty for them when they don’t. They can make any policies they want for these rebuilding projects.
- Create special fire districts with the power to tax and to prep for the extreme fire occurences. Roads may have to be extra wide and water retention facilities as needed.
- Forest management zones may tax and burn as needed to prevent wildfires.
- Arsonists get longer sentences with mandatory fire fight duties.
- Wood frame houses are not permitted in the fire zones. Concrete doesn’t burn. May not look like an antebellum Southern plantation home, but it won’t burn like one either.
- Shared risk pools for all houses built in the same fire zone. (Seems obvious)
Let’s run contests with prizes for the various engineering schools to come up with more ideas. Kind of like the concrete boats, paper airplanes, and other assorted challenges.
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Posted by reinkefj 
Reinke Faces Life 