Flying SquidApocalypto indeed.
EABOD25Odds are great that a person set the fire regardless of climate impact. Most sources I see say that climate change is the reason for the fire, and not necessarily pointing out that it’s human influence that starts it. Climate change just helps spread the fire.
First we need to convince dumb motherfuckers to stop setting fires or shooting fireworks in dry seasons. Also (IMO) people who set fires that cause this much damage and loss of life should be executed by being burned at the stake
First, there are several fires, it’s not one big one. A video cropped up showing a fire starting at the base of an Edison transmission line tower as the start of the Eaton fire. Whether that’s the cause remains to be seen. The only almost confirmed arson was the Sunset fire (Hollywood Hills).
Even then, So Cal is on a record dry streak at the moment, with something like less than a quarter inch of rain since last May. Then the Santa Ana winds came, with a vengeance (75 mph sustained winds in some areas). When these winds come, humidity drops to near zero. All it takes is a tree knocking into a boulder, setting it loose down a hill, smacking a boulder and creating a spark that ignites already dry brush. We are already in the middle of a La Nina year (little to no precipitation), though the Santa Ana winds happen all the time, caused by high pressure in the Great Basin in northern Nevada with low pressure off the coast. Not staying climate change isn’t a root cause of the intensity of these factors, but So Cal has a history of all these conditions.
Since California is richer than most countries if the world and these fires happen constantly, why don’t they invest more into firefighting?
There is a large patchwork of different firefighting agencies within CA, notably city FDs, county FDs, forest FDs, hotshots, and others. However, when a fire breaks out and gets out of control, departments from all over swarm to help. When the Line fire ripped through my area back in September, we had crews from all over the country.
The problem with these fires is that there are quite a few going at the same time at a time of year where fire fighters are laying low after the fire season, but also too that conditions prohibited flying. On top of which, more firefighters have responded but the amount of damage in the first 24 hours was the most catastrophic, in which there wasn’t time for outside agencies to respond.
The problem with these fires is that there are quite a few going at the same time at a time of year where fire fighters are laying low after the fire seaso
Don’t forget physics! Multiple fires going on at the same time means multiple teams draining the water supply at the same time. There was not enough pressure left to push the water uphill even with auxiliary pumps which allowed the fire to spread.