[Tig] SoCal Fires - no posts?

[Jim Houston]

On Oct 24, 2007, at 8:15 AM, Rob Lingelbach wrote:
>  the SoCal fires are perhaps the worst in modern
> history, and with almost a million people evacuated, a catastrophe.

While they are the worst in memory, I would point out a few things
often lost in the news reports..

Most people are evacuating because the smoke gets so bad they can't
breathe well.  I felt a little of this yesterday myself even though I am
at least 20 miles from any fire.  All of outside was hazy with smoke.
I just stayed indoors.  The sun was blood-red like at sunset all day  
in my area.

While there are 5000+ homes right on the edge of the fire, this is a  
problem
throughout the West now because people are building in areas in which
there are known fires every decade or two.

Too many of these fires started suspiciously, so there were some clear
copy-cat arsonists at work.

The firefighters do a great job at protecting structures and often  
let the burn go
right to the edge of the development to burn up the fuel.  So the  
pictures look bad,
but they often succeed at saving homes.  Yesterday was a bad day  
because they
noted that more firefighters had to spend time evacuating people who  
refused
to leave than spent time fighting the fires.

Just a few thoughts, while having great sympathy for those most  
effected.

Jim H.