LA Fires - Its as bad as it seems on TV…

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I used to live in Eastern Washington north of Spokane. I was about three miles from a municipal airport that during fire season had firefighting aircraft based there. Years ago one of the planes (since retired from service) was a WWII vintage PBY. From my house I could hear it when they fired up those big radial engines to go fight a fire. I’d always jog out to the road so I could get a clear view of it taking off. One time I went over and visited with the crew and got a tour of the plane. It was amazing how much engine oil would leak out of those lower cylinders while she sat on the tarmac.
I remember seeing a B-17 at Burbank used for firefighting. Probably 50 years ago.
 
I really feel for anyone in those areas. Just this past summer there was a very large wildfire that was moving over towards my town and 1,300 firefighters fought it for over 2 weeks and managed to stop it just at the edge of town (in the backyards of some homes less than a 1/2 mile from me).

It was quite sobering to think that everything you have in your house can be gone in an instant and there's not much you can do about it.

Pic of the Jennings (NY) Creek fire from my town beach this past November:
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These two pics were taken from my driveway!
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We were extremely lucky that the helicopters (Blackhawks & Chinooks) were able to scoop water right from our lake, but it still took 2 weeks to stop it.

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(Past November in NY.)

God Bless our firefighters and first responders! ❤️
 
My heart goes out to those who lost their homes. I’ve had to evacuate my home in Northern California three times in the past six years, twice for fires, and once for when the Oroville Dam was in danger of failing. This past summer was the scariest, sitting in a motel room wondering if I still had a house to come home to. Will probably be going through it again this coming summer.
 
Azusa/Irwindale has a lot of wildlands, and it's not hard to find homeless encampments there. "Arson" could be somebody building a fire, too... it's sometimes tough to make a distinction in these cases.
yeah... sounds like the person was known to the responders
 
Almost all of my professional work is related to larger buildings, which have code defined requirements for fire resistance. I've tried to apply my knowledge to think about how houses could be built but it's not that applicable. Then I found a video by a house construction person on things related to fire resistance. This video just sort of scratches the surface but there are things that can be done with the materials we have now to improve fire resistance.

 
Fires are one thing to worry about, but what about landslides?

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It’s pretty common in CA for landslides to follow wildfires. The fires destroy the plants holding the slopes together, increasing landslide risk. Usually they’re after the first rains, but maybe air dropped firefighting water triggered this one?
 
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