California Fires

[Paul Stevens]

How many ranchers live near the fires?

[HS Thomas]

No I don't live anywhere near there. California has it's faults.

regards

[JiaPei Jen]

A friend of mine lost everything that she owned except her car, a couple of TVs, her computer, and a few items of clothing in the horrific San Diego fire. She does not have rental insurance for that rented house. She is a mother of three disabled kids. Fortunately, none of them is injured. She is a software engineer in IT.

[Mani Ram]

Originally posted by Paul Stevens:
How many ranchers live near the fires?

I'm in San Francisco, 500+ miles north of fire. Is it near?
But Jim is much nearer to fire than me - just 450+ miles

[Jim Yingst]

Ummmm... we're not being dirctly affected by those fires in Tucson, AZ. (Unlike this last summer, when for several weeks we could look up at our nearest mountain and see an ongoing fire gradually razing homes there.) I know there are a few other ranchers are in southern California - Mark Sprizler, Elaine Michaels, Rob Ross - they may have more to say.

[Mani Ram]

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
Ummmm... we're not being dirctly affected by those fires in Tucson, AZ.

You are not in San Jose, CA?
Time to update this information
[ October 27, 2003: Message edited by: Mani Ram ]

[Chumma Fun]

I live in San Diego.. and thankfully nothing much happened particularly in my area.. but a dozen of houses got burned a few miles away from my place.
I'm not sure whether I'm correct.. but I'm really sick of this media...because I feel like they are scaring the people more than helping them to keep themselves cool.. Though most of the fire has been controlled, they are still repeating the earlier incidents with out mentioning that happened earlier..
How do you guys feel..?

[Gail Schlentz]

There's some real danger still. It's really amazing how quickly, and how far it has spread. Starting out as a brush fire, then burning through the rural homes, then into some very populated areas. And that's just the one fire. There are 2 others burning on each side of it.
Lots of livestock hurt/killed/needing to still be evacuated. It's really bizarre.

[Gail Schlentz]

Yay!! It's raining!!

[Matt Cao]

Hello,
I have relatives live in those burning areas, and help them to evacuate into my home since last Friday. All I can said if you live in an influence neighborhood, those darn choppers soak your neighborhood way before the fire get there. If you live far away from civilization, you will see prisoners donning gears helping firefighters out.
I witness the sky looking just like in the movie Total Recall when Arnold and his accomplished were tossing the dome.
Regards,
MCao

[vasu maj]

I heard on one of the talk shows on radio that the fires are caused / spread by dead trees left alone in forests. It is because radical environmentalists won't allow them to be cleaned up as it is against the cleaning process which takes place naturally. Is it true?

[Gail Schlentz]

There's a lot of finger-pointing going on. The big fire in San Diego was caused by an idiot hunter who was lost & decided to either light a signal fire, or shoot a flare. 200,000+ acres & almost 20 lives later, it's still burning out of control. He's in custody.
As for the water soaking the houses, there was some terrible political problem that prevented the tankers in San Diego from ever leaving the ground, so I imagine that was not a "problem" in San Diego. Also, many of our firefighters were up north fighting the fires there, & weren't able to get back down very quickly.
Yes, it's true that the Forest Service tries to leave the forest alone as much as possible, to allow for the natural process of decay & soforth. Makes sense until you have people building communities in & near the forest. Do you blame the trees or the people? I wouldn't build my house on a cliff, then get mad at the cliff when it erodes & destroys my house. I don't know what the answer is.
Other than that, the unusually dry, hot, strong winds we had last weekend & early this week had a lot to do with the quick spread of the fire.
A lot went wrong all at once. That's all.
[ October 30, 2003: Message edited by: Elaine Micheals ]