Tue Oct 23 18:43:36 EDT 2007 David Savage wrote: > On 10/24/07, Igor Roshchin <str at komkon.org> wrote: > > > > Some people may have heard about new fires in Southern California. > > Fires are burning in Malibu, Orange County, and San Diego and county. > > > > Here is a very impressive picture: > > http://www.komkon.org/~igor/CAfires_from_space.jpg > > Very cool (although not if your in it's path) > > I was just wondering last night after seeing the latest reports. Do > they (state land management department) do prescribed burning & cut > firebreaks earlier in the year before the start of the fire season? >
I do not know. My feeling is that they do some work, but not much. The problem is that 2007 was rather dry. Doing controlled burns during summer was too dangerous, especially in the inhabited area where the fire is now burning. There are firebreaks but they are not sufficient in this situation: This is because of strong winds on Sunday and Monday - up to 70 mph. In such a wind embers fly long distance (they say - up to a mile or two). Many of buildings caught fire from embers, rather than from the moving front of the fire. In my opinion, one of the problems is the way many buildings a built here: they are made of combustible materials (wood, etc.) rather then of concrete. Yes, it is cheaper, but when the houses here cost a million and above, one would think that differential is less essential, but apparently - not. Yesterday, I was recalling the tale about three little piglets. Igor -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
