I am certainly not criticizing any fire fighters and would not. That’s crazy.
I live in fire country..this year is weird.Usually we try time the property clean-up after the rains stop but before the real heat comes to stay. All the grasses that catch fire easily from tailpipes or yard equipment went from lush and growing and hard to burn to parched with these last two late and almost back to back large Santa Anas….I think the fires can start in these dry weeds and grass and run really fast into the brush which is as you all know a great boon to fire.
[quote=spdrun]Also, I’d imagine that terrorists wouldn’t want their dastardly deeds to be blamed on nature, accident, or hobos cooking dinner. Highly sceptical that it is terrorism — far too subtle for al Qaeda.[/quote]Yes and no. If it is a ‘success’ in their eyes, they will lay claim. If it is not, they will take the time to ‘learn and retry’. I suspect that any claims, if they are involved, will occur at the end of the fire season, not during. They want an unprepared and caught unaware opponent. If this is what is going on, it is not the end of it.
Has there been any neighborhood fire protection programs around? You figure these fires are here to stay and will happen every 5-7 years.
Most people would be happy and willing to at least defend their area / homes given the right tools/equipment/training.
Sorta like neighborhood watch or the reserves, etc…you would go through fire training and be “called up” in situations like this.
There is obviously liability, but you’d signed that off and hopefully, not be on any of the difficult spots. Maybe like putting out hot spots “after” the fires so the “real” firefighters can spend their time fighting the toughest areas.
I heard on TV about a prison crew in red for just 2 seconds. No references anywhere else except a Reuters photo below. We need more willing guys. Could be at least 10,000 non violent prisoners in CA.
[quote=equalizer]I heard on TV about a prison crew in red for just 2 seconds. No references anywhere else except a Reuters photo below. We need more willing guys. Could be at least 10,000 non violent prisoners in CA.
They’ve been using prison crews for decades. They can only use the most well-behaved, non-violent offenders, and they have to be physically able to do the job. These prisoners volunteer for the program because they get a lot of extra freedoms and benefits (including some pay) compared to regular inmates. They’re hand crews who cut fire lines and help firefighters with the very tough manual labor that goes into fighting fires. They do an awesome job in extremely brutal working conditions.
