Wild Fires In LA

[Charles West]

Several of the most unhinged haven't been heard from since the election. The devastating loss was too much for some to bear.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

"Thou shalt not cut down a tree"

Had a neighbor from W. Texas. He and dad built a new fence, but John didn't want to cut the trees in the fence line because he didn't have any trees in W. Texas. So, the fence is in shambles from falling trees and limbs now. The old blackjack has all died so what is left is post oak. The new owner of the property built chicken houses so he doesn't care about the fence. I have been cutting the trees (every single on is on his side of the fence. But guess who gets to pick up the limbs.) My wood cutter and I are cutting the worse of the trees for my firewood. I am taking wire down, so the trees don't wreck the fence, then putting it back up later. Won't get them all in my lifetime for sure. Meanwhile our interior fences built in the 1960s and 1970s are all otherwise intact and undamaged.

Meanwhile the electric company gets the blame and so expect your electricity bills to increase as the 10s of thousands sue the utilities.

US investigators believe that a power line, which can withstand wind speeds of up to 90km/h, was outdone at 150km/h, causing the line to fall and sparks to fly.​

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Fires continue to devastate parts of Los Angeles, including the upscale Pacific Palisades district, where dozens of victims have been reported.​

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Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the fires and, while they're not ruling out the possibility of arson, one theory that is gaining ground is that overhead power transmission and distribution cables, shaken or blown down by strong winds, may have produced sparks that ignited the dry vegetation below.​

 

[TerryRohrer]

That reminds me. Where is UC?

No idea. I was certain that he was just in a timeout, since no one has seen him since late on election day. It was pretty reasonable, I think, to assume that he simply got "irrationally exuberant" as the results came in and made an out of bounds comment. As I recall, his account included a singular setting where placement in time out was fluid and quick while the release was a bit sticky. Maybe that function was reinforced somehow?

 

[Mike Ault]

My knowledge of the subject is to super saturate specific areas, choke points if you will and combine this with strategically placed backfires. It won't stop them, but will weaken and slow them. The problem is the water shortage which brings to mind all those Hollywood celebrities who for years who have flaunted the water conservation regulations because those laws are for the little people in their minds.

I'm fairly sure UC Bruin is in Massachusetts based on the last time I remember him posting about it.

"Backfires" were the only things that the first settlers out here could count on while traversing the waist high prairie grass on their way to the next playa lake. Apparently, from the stories I heard as a child, they were terrified of prairie fires and if they didn't light a backfire fast enough in front of them they didn't stand a chance.

 

[TerryRohrer]

Several of the most unhinged haven't been heard from since the election. The devastating loss was too much for some to bear.

Several more need to visit the same funny farm. They would most certainly be more at ease with their own.

 

[Charles West]

Had a neighbor from W. Texas. He and dad built a new fence, but John didn't want to cut the trees in the fence line because he didn't have any trees in W. Texas. So, the fence is in shambles from falling trees and limbs now. The old blackjack has all died so what is left is post oak. The new owner of the property built chicken houses so he doesn't care about the fence. I have been cutting the trees (every single on is on his side of the fence. But guess who gets to pick up the limbs.) My wood cutter and I are cutting the worse of the trees for my firewood. I am taking wire down, so the trees don't wreck the fence, then putting it back up later. Won't get them all in my lifetime for sure. Meanwhile our interior fences built in the 1960s and 1970s are all otherwise intact and undamaged.

Meanwhile the electric company gets the blame and so expect your electricity bills to increase as the 10s of thousands sue the utilities.

US investigators believe that a power line, which can withstand wind speeds of up to 90km/h, was outdone at 150km/h, causing the line to fall and sparks to fly.​

​

Fires continue to devastate parts of Los Angeles, including the upscale Pacific Palisades district, where dozens of victims have been reported.​

​

Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the fires and, while they're not ruling out the possibility of arson, one theory that is gaining ground is that overhead power transmission and distribution cables, shaken or blown down by strong winds, may have produced sparks that ignited the dry vegetation below.​

PG&E in the north is putting in tall galvanized steel transmission towers, replacing the weak 1960s wood pole designs that left lines exposed to trees. They are also burying lines in some cases.

 

[Mike Ault]

PG&E in the north is putting in tall galvanized steel transmission towers, replacing the weak 1960s wood pole designs that left lines exposed to trees. They are also burying lines in some cases.

The poles are all placed 1/10 of a mile apart here in Texas, in that distance there is enough slack in the lines to whip them together in high winds. Even with wind deflectors on the line meant to mitigate that risk. They could put up twice as many poles, but I haven't heard any talk of that around here. It's a bad problem, which will be horribly expensive to remediate.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

It's a bad problem, which will be horribly expensive to remediate.

I still remember outrunning a fire west of Midland that went east of Andrews. The white smoke would turn black at every oil well from the oil in a sump pit catching fire. Before I got to the intersection north of Midland a cop passed me. I was the last person he let pass heading into Andrews and he said, "Step on it. No one is gonna give you a speeding ticket." Within a few miles I could see the fire trucks coming out of the oil fields ahead of the flames and I could see flames probably 2 miles away, maybe 60' high. Meanwhile farmers were tilling the ROW on each side of the road. With the yellow sky and high winds, it was a scene out of Dante's Inferno.

 

[Mike Ault]

We had three guys working in the horizontal drilling fields get caught in one about a decade ago in Wheeler County. They were in their pickup, but they didn't make it. That always surprises me. Those flames are tall, but not very deep and I always figured if I saw a wall of fire coming at me and I couldn't turn around then I would kick it up to 100 and get through them before I roasted to death. But apparently, that is not a good plan.

 

[TerryRohrer]

PG&E . They are also burying lines in some cases.

Now they can be blamed when underground cables break from movement of the earth and the pumps don't run during the fire season. Fertile ground!