5 screen shots.
Oh, and speaking of a-holes. Apparently one of the super scooper water bombers (Canadair CL-415) is grounded because it ran into some a-holes drone while dropping on the Palisades fire.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/drone-palisades-fire/3600068/
I grew up in Altadena but we moved outta there 40+ years ago. My aunt didn't, she and her kids and grandkids evac'd with what they were wearing, and that's all they have left. Sent her an Amazon card but really, what the berk can we do?
The 3 schools I went to and the 3 houses we lived in are all gone, as far as we can tell from here. It's been weird experiencing memories I haven't thought of for decades suddenly coming to the forefront; "geez there's what's left of Fox's restaurant, I used to walk by that place all the time" and I can remember their signage like I walked by it yesterday.
This was always the Nightmare Scenario. There were a few times when the San Gabriels lit up and it snowed ashes on us but we always lucked out. But now all's left is memories.
Terrible stuff. It's never happened to me but I can imagine losing stuff, like pictures and family items, has got to be devastating.
sending lots of good thoughts.
A new fire broke out in Calabasas yesterday which is about ten miles from my home and the police have arrested an alleged arsonist.
In other news, one of our two Super Scoopers is now grounded after hitting an unauthorized drone while making a water drop.
Can we please do some Martial Law thing where you're instantly deaded if you create problems.
In reply to VolvoHeretic :
I'm trying to find out if the house from "Two and a Half Men" is still standing - 23422 Malibu Colony Rd.
In reply to VolvoHeretic :
That definitely backs up what I saw in the video I posted. Houses seemingly far from the flame front burned in random patterns.
A few years ago I lived on the other side of town, near the hills. Some idiot decided to do fireworks on the 4th of July and set them on fire. My neighborhood was about two or three blocks away from the base and the flames were coming down. Smoke was so thick on my street that is was like a thick fog, you could hardly see. They evacuated the houses closest to the hills. There were a couple blocks of houses and a creek separating my house from the fire. I was the only one hosing down my roof and yard, concerned about flying embers, which were clearly visible but not too heavy. I felt a little silly as no one else was concerned, and the fire fighters stopped the fire at the base of the hills, right next to the first row of houses. I guess I wasn't so silly after all.
Our old next-door neighbors used to live in California and once got the call: get out.
He was in the middle of restoring an old Jag. He figured he could lose it in the fire, lose it on the road or, perhaps, get out with it. It was like the only possession that survived.
aircooled said:Oh, and speaking of a-holes. Apparently one of the super scooper water bombers (Canadair CL-415) is grounded because it ran into some a-holes drone while dropping on the Palisades fire.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/drone-palisades-fire/3600068/
From the article, and 12 months isn’t nearly enough:
Interfering with firefighting efforts on public lands is considered a federal crime punishable by up to 12 months in prison.
In reply to RX Reven' :
From what I can see The Colony and Malibu pier are fine. The fire seemed to stop about a mile east of there... right about where that last burn scar stopped.
Found this picture of what might be the partial cure to some of this. This is what they call a Passive House or Envelope House (?). The general principle is that they are highly insulated and sealed for energy efficiency. That also eliminates most any open venting of course. Certainly won't make the house entirely fireproof but it will certainly help a lot.
Of course, I suspect this will make construction much more expensive (maybe 50% more?), and as you might know, housing is a bit pricey in CA as it is...
The sky is very big...if not an intended strike, it was a YouTube sensation creating near miss effort...the E36 M3 has gotten real, fools be warned.
Found a pic. Note the amount of rivets on the skin of the underside of that wing! That's a strong wing! (water is heavy)
BTW - speaking of more a-holes. They have arrested numerous people for looting. They may not be aware of a new LA district attorney who is less than forgiving for "justice involved individuals"
I wonder what percentage of houses there have asphalt or cedar shingles? Either of those replaced with metal or clay tile is apparently a big help.
Looking at those pictures, though, I think you'd need to shingle with kryptonite. Not hard at all to see why it is considered 0% contained. Horrifying, I think, is the word.
aircooled said:In reply to RX Reven' :
From what I can see The Colony and Malibu pier are fine. The fire seemed to stop about a mile east of there... right about where that last burn scar stopped.
Found this picture of what might be the partial cure to some of this. This is what they call a Passive House or Envelope House (?). The general principle is that they are highly insulated and sealed for energy efficiency. That also eliminates most any open venting of course. Certainly won't make the house entirely fireproof but it will certainly help a lot.
Of course, I suspect this will make construction much more expensive (maybe 50% more?), and as you might know, housing is a bit pricey in CA as it is...
it's not that much more expensive to do than conventional construction in CA. You mainly need things like having forced-air ventilation controlled by a humidistat for crawl spaces rather than open vents.
Streetwiseguy said:I wonder what percentage of houses there have asphalt or cedar shingles? Either of those replaced with metal or clay tile is apparently a big help.
There are very few cedar or wood shingles in CA anymore (I think they have been illegal for a while now). I think most all of those houses are new enough to be build without them. There was one house in my entire community that did have them, but they were original from 1977 and have since been replaced (they were in horrible shape and likely needed replacement 10 years ago!). Asphalt (typical style shingles, right?) are pretty common. On some newer houses, you do see a fair amount of clay style ones though.
I am not sure asphalt style is a big issue. Certainly flammable with enough temperature, but if the house gets that hot, the entire structure is likely burning anyway. I suspect it might help to avoid throwing burning material down wind though.
Found this:
Now, the California State Building Code states that no wood roofing materials are to be sold in the state on or after January 1, 2001, unless the product has passed at least 5 of the 10-year natural weathering tests. In addition, under Title 24, wood shake roofing would have to be treated with fire-retardant chemicals, among many other requirements.
Due to the hazards that are posed by cedar shake shingles in California, the state had strictly enforced these codes, requiring all wooden California roofs to be replaced with fire resistant roofing by August 2012.
As Paul Harvey would say, "And Now For The Rest Of The Story".
A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby, the Los Angeles Times found.
Officials said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year.
Yahoo.com: State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:Some of the footage is unreal. Looks like what Hell would actually be.
Those were my thoughts exactly.
Reading by candle light this evening in suburban GA due to power lines down caused by falling limbs, weighed down by ice and snow.
Just thankful to have a roof intact and my family safe. Some crazy images - that McDonald's sign in a "fire hurricane" is freaking scary.
Final thought for now: I wonder how many of Larry Ellison's Malibu properties burned.. Hope he has somewhere to go.
In reply to VolvoHeretic :
While people will want to make political hay out of this. Those winds were bad. That resovoir wouldn't have made a difference.
Boost_Crazy said:As others mentioned, fires are nothing new. We just have a lot more people building in fire prone areas now, and at higher densities. As the building sprawls into more and more fire prone areas, the amount of land that needs to be maintained and protected grows, and the boarder that needs to be defended gets longer and longer. I do think that the impact of the weather is overplayed. It's California. It has wet years, it has dry years. I've been through the cycle enough times to recognize that the only thing predictable about it is the unpredictability. What is predictable is that whenever there is a fire, the weather is blamed- too dry, that's the problem. Too wet- stuff grew too much, that caused the problem.
This article links to some good studies on the effects of urbanization and climate change on the fires, and climate change is a big part of it...a longer and earlier wildfire season is certainly something new:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/climate-change-contributed-extreme-wildfires-california/story?id=117475669
Fueled by Caffeine said:While people will want to make political hay out of this. Those winds were bad. That resovoir wouldn't have made a difference.
And if it was down for maintenance -- well, you gotta do that sometime. Fire season is usually over by January.
And yeah, the shake roofs are all gone, asphalt is the default option now. You can get roofing materials that look like shakes (but are actually tiles or something) if you want that aesthetic. My current house has metal shingles that look like tile, installed by the previous owner.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
I 100% agree, but it's best to have as much true info known as possible to help discredit the conspiracy theories.
I still haven't heard how the city workers could have turned off some 5000 home shutoff valves during the firestorm conflagration. (The estimated number of burned up houses in Pacific Palasades.)
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Problem is, they took it down last February. They didn't even sign a contract to repair it until November, and apparently still have no idea of the status of the repair. I can't imagine the amount of typical CA governmental BS that resulted in that, but I could take some guesses.
But yeah, I don't really think that water would have made much of a difference, it was a LOT of wind. Water and high wind = mist. I mean, it would help a bit, but I suspect the outcome would be similar.
...Emptying of the reservoir began in February after a tear in the floating cover measuring several feet allowed debris, bird droppings and other objects to enter the water supply. State regulators ordered DWP to drain the site to avoid contamination.
DWP sought bids for the repair in April, at a cost of up to $89,000. In November, the utility signed off on a contract with a Lakeside firm for about $130,000, records show.
The status of the repairs is unclear. The DWP's employee union leader condemned the months-long wait to restore the reservoir....
In reply to GameboyRMH :
This article links to some good studies on the effects of urbanization and climate change on the fires, and climate change is a big part of it...a longer and earlier wildfire season is certainly something new:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/climate-change-contributed-extreme-wildfires-california/story?id=117475669
There is no research in that article. It's an opinion piece that links to another opinion piece, again with no research. That article finally links to some research, but even there is little data to support the claim. It mentions a bunch of factors, yet singles out climate change. Population, developement, forrest management, man made events, aging infrastructure, the weather, tree disease, and many others. The climate is a part, but it's getting way more credit than it deserves in some circles. The fire seasons have changed for the last 200 years of California records, with periods of greater and less activity. While I have no problem exploring the impact of climate change, I think giving it more credit than it deserves can do more harm than good. Before we spend our resources trying to change the climate, I'd prefer we tackle the areas that are much more on our control.
This topic is locked. No further posts are being accepted.