A news site covering wildfires, firefighting methods, wildland fire policy and agency operations in the US and elsewhere.
HN links it for reporting on specific fires and fire events, and commenters cite it for incident updates, power line ignitions and prescribed burn controversies.
> When I first moved here in 89, I never heard of a fire crossing a freeway (though no doubt it happened sometimes) because the conditions weren't typically so bad
The Laguna fire in 1970 crossed over I8. [1] (Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the article, it's really interesting.) I know you acknowledge that it probably happened, but the reason is didn't happen more was due to the location of those fires, not characteristics of those fires. Most wildfires don't happen near freeways, so the data will show that fires jump freeways more frequently now. That may be true, but there are also a lot more freeways now. Interstate highways didn't even exist before 1956 and freeways were also rare at that time, so comparing freeway-jumping between then and now isn't really saying much about fire intensity.
Almost all of California's largest fires have had human causes.[3] There is a tendency to blame climate for wildfires increasing, but the real reason is that there are just a lot more people in the state. More structures, more people, more irresponsibility at scale. There is also a lot more misguided policy. For example, bans on cutting trees, reduction of logging activity and various other policies designed to "protect" the environment but fail to acknowledge unintended consequences. (To be clear, I'm not advocating mass logging, but bad policy is definitely contributing to fires.) [4]
> The problem with these recent fires is when you have like sustained 50 mph gusts…
It still happens that they get away from the firefighters sometimes [https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/escaped-prescribed-fire/]
With very high fuel loads, the consequences get worse as time progresses, and the odds of it happening get higher - at least without tons of manual shredding and other fuel work first, which is expensive, and what a prescribed fire should alleviate the need for.
In the modern legal/liability environment, it’s tough to do - if you do the inexpensive thing (still expensive) like prescribed fires to reduce the catastrophic risk, you get sued.
If you do the safer option (mastication, lop and scatter, etc) you can only touch tiny areas at a time - and the catastrophic risk rises.
Logging can help, but it also requires management and care to not make the problem worse long term, and in many of these areas it’s a non-starter due to environmentalist pushback. Even if we ignore the cost in money, it delays things for decades sometimes - and by then it’s probably burned down.
> my bots have tweeted [...] U.S. Forest Service AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters fighting fires
I had to Google that. I'll await a correction from a more knowledgeable HNer, but as far as I can tell the US Forest Service does not have AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters.
I don't care enough to dig deeply into it, but it seems that basically there is a very long line of Bell helicopters called "AH-1", going all the way back to the original AH-1 Cobra in 1965. There have been many variants over the decades, and two of these have been been retrofitted into "FireWatch" helicopters for the US Forest Service, after being retired from military service.
The AH-1Z Viper is a modern attack helicopter, a variant of the SuperCobra, itself based on the AH-1 Cobra. It went into service in 2000, whereas the USFS two FireWatch Cobra's were originally built in 1969 and 1983: https://wildfiretoday.com/2010/06/27/firewatch-cobra-helicopter/
>Having a compartment full of leaky flammable fluids and hot exhaust components might tend to do that on occasion.
Indeed, but you also get animal related fires (I have no clue as to what percentage) as birds, mice, chipmunks etc will build nests in vehicles.
I imagine the animal related fires are pretty low and in the case of an EV would be next to non-existent for nest-related fires, I wonder though if EVs though are more at risk of electrical fire from pets chewing on wires.
Trying to find any sort of statistics I stumbled upon a wildfire site that documents animal-started fires, the most recent one gave me a bit of a chuckle so I'm including it here:
"Bear falls on Sheriff’s vehicle causing crash and fire" https://wildfiretoday.com/2019/08/09/bear-falls-on-sheriffs-vehicle-causing-crash-and-fire/
There's also the infrastructure damage caused by animals that is documented at https://cybersquirrel1.com/
>New fires are detected via infrared usually in less than 24 hours.
That's not enough. Per the forecasted fire danger map[0]:
"Extreme - Fires start quickly, spread furiously, and burn intensely. All fires are potentially serious. Development into high intensity burning will usually be faster and occur from smaller fires than in the very high fire danger class. Direct attack is rarely possible and may be dangerous except immediately after ignition."
The lesser two classes have similar narratives. Given the speed at which fire spreads, earlier the detection the merrier.
As an aside, I was going to suggest artillery as a potential candidate for immediate response, but it seems that's already been thought up.[1]
[0] https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/afm/current.php?sensor=modis&extent=conus&type=firedanger
[1] https://wildfiretoday.com/2016/08/25/boeing-wants-to-fight-wildfires-with-a-howitzer/
The largest power company in CA is in the process of burying its cables.
The risk level is not just affected by proximity to forests. For offshore (Santa Ana) wind events, the riskiest areas are the SW bottom of hills and near canyons. That's where the current LA fires are.
IMO, a better prevention measure would be to not build houses out of sticks. That's already the case for much of the housing in Europe. Alas, here in the US the colonial and cabin aesthetics still win out, even when fire-resistant options aren't more expensive.
Coffey Park in Santa Rosa was destroyed in 2017, and most properties were rebuilt to lower fire-resistance standards.[1] The second little pig just doesn't wanna hear it.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2019/11/19/after-the-tubbs-fire-homes-in-california-town-are-being-rebuilt-without-strong-building-codes/