Who's fault these California Fires?

Question

How could these destructive wildfires have been prevented? Who is at fault? Should housing been permitted in fireprone hillsides all over S. California?

Answer 1

These areas had major burns in 2003 and 1999 that took care of a significant amount of ground fuel that existed through the region. It's a petty and easy option to point the finger of blame at the Forestry Service on these fires.

I don't think these fires are anyone's "fault". You've had three conditions combine here to create what can be described as the "perfect firestorm" in a sense: several severe dry seasons, very high seasonal winds, and exceptionally dry air. The entire southern portion of California had basically become a tinderbox.

If anything the USFS has done an exceptional job of pulling in resources from as far away as Montana to help battle these blazes.

Answer 2

Just saw an interesting report on that, seems the first day of the fire a new DC-10 firebomber made and appearance and according the firemen could have stopped the fire from spreading, but the next day and since that initial appearance it was not seen again...why?
Because the plane had been hired by the state of California but that the fire jumped onto National Park Land where it had not been safety approved therefore the grounding!
Better yet, in 1999 the Forest Service had a demonstration of the Russian firebomber (Il76)that could carry five times the payload of the biggest US firebomber, and even one that could reload on the fly (BE-200), the department was extatic, finally a plane to do the job, the report was glowing but for some reason the report that came back was dramatically negative....sound familiar?
Seems the US government was afraid of competition of some sort so they blackballed the planes to this day.
Some countries like Italy and most recently Greece didn't buy into the US report and hired the Russian planes which performed superbly....so who can be blamed for the California Enferno...look no further than Bush and the Boys....the US government.
More: http://www.vadscorner.com/wbf.html

Answer 3

The fires are a natural and necessary part of that ecosystem. There are some plants who's seeds cannot germinate until the land where they lay has been burned off. The hillside behind my San Diego home burned one day and the next spring all these big white flowers sprang up. I had never seen them before and looked them up. They were called "Matilla poppies" and their seeds will lie dormant until a fire passes over them, then they sprout. That hill side had never burned before which is why I never saw these spectacular wildflowers before. Many wildflowers are like that, requiring fire to grow.

So the fires are no person's fault. And if people choose to live where fire can happen, then they choose to suffer the problems when those fires happen. There is no fault here, except possibly the people who say it is some OTHER person's fault and then try to make OTHER people fix it. People without fire insurance or who have not made their homes fire safe by clearing brush and building with non-flammable roofs who then complain to the government to bail them out are at fault. But a person who fire safes his home, pays his insurance and rebuilds without complaining that someone else should bail them out is NOT at fault in any way.

Answer 4

In response to one answer by "groingo", the suppression of the Russian fire bomber aircraft is not just because of President Bush. That issue goes far beyond the President, but any scapegoat will do, as usual. To bad the President doesn't have as much authority as the ignorant seem to think that he has.
The people, in general are the primary cause of the issues. This has been pointed out by others as to the impediments caused by those who want to protect the environment, but actually lead to making more problems than what they prevent. As to what started the fires, it could have been any thing from a small fire started some where that got out of control, to a random lightning strike. We may never actually know the primary root cause, other than controls that could have been used to lessen the impact have been thwarted by well meaning people, but those efforts of certain ecology groups actually led to this disaster.

Answer 5

They had some items about this on the TV new the other day. It looks like the forestry service has a lot to do with the intensity, range and size of a lot of the recent fires. Many years ago there were lots of smaller fires that got rid of the small brush and other fuel in the forests. Now the forest service has been removing and managing the wooded areas and have actually paved the way for what we are seeing now. The other thing is the El Nino and El Nina effects of strong wind currents fanning the blazes.

Answer 6

Yes the fires could have been prevented. Also at least one of the fires is believed to be arson.

Thanks to the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, etc. it is illegal to clear out the dry dead underbrush, which then is easily flamable which then in turn burns easily and allows the fire to spread.

I think hillside housing issue, if you build a house on a hillside (in California), you should know that there is a certain amount of risk of fire and or mudslides.

Answer 7

Well i live in San Diego.On saturday Ramona was burning up.But isnt it too much of a coincidence that it started the same month as the fire of 4 years ago did?I think someone is doing this on purpose! Im not sure who started this.Well some people say in the news it started in a city in Mexico.But if it did mexico did not do this intentionally.The wind is part of this.

Answer 8

The forest service put too much effort into fire suppression in the early days. Thinning out the forest would REDUCE the intensity of these fires. The PUBLIC is the one who doesn't want forest management and fuel reductions (logging/thinning).

The forest service has been trying to remedy the situation by doing controlled burns and thinning, but environmentalists (who don't know what they're talking about, especially in CA) are putting road blocks in their way.

Its not the forest services fault anymore, its the general public.
They should not build in these areas, or at the least, don't complain when their houses burn down.

Answer 9

We prevented fires over there for so long that the dead stuff that burns easy built up.

Now when the natural fire came, it burnt sooo fast that we couldn't stop it and now it is huge and we can't control it.

Forest fires are natural and we shouldn't have tried to prevent them.

Answer 10

My father in law is a geophysicist. He tells me that when they study the soil in forests, that there is a layer of ash approximately every 200 years. Now days though, it seems like there are a lot of fires that are started intentionally.