700 California Wildfires: Why Don’t We Have Enough Firefighing Resources?
Almost three years ago, Americans watched in horror as this country failed to provide adequate disaster relief resources during Hurricane Katrina. Currently, the scenario is being repeated in California, where an estimated 600 to 900 lightning sparked wildfires are burning. Many of these fires began last Friday afternoon (6/20/08); many of these fires remain unmanned. As someone personally surrounded by over 80 fires in a 10 mile radius of my home, I am pissed, frightened, anxious, and depressed.
On Saturday, I called 911 twice to report seven fires, six of which only appeared on a map yesterday! I called CalFire, the United States Forest Service (two ranger districts), the Humboldt County Sheriff Department, the Trinity County Sheriff Department, and our local volunteer fire department. I wanted to know what road I could take out of our valley if I needed to escape the firestorm. The response, “Ma’am, there are fires everywhere. We don’t know where they are or what roads are open.” I felt trapped, and we began putting dozer lines around our meadow, hooking up more sprinklers, and connecting fire hoses to the pump in our pond.
Friends of ours in Mendocino were told by CDF, “We have so many fires, you are on your own.” YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! Five days later, there has still not been any agency to help with their fire; however, the BLM showed up to tell them to stop using private bulldozers to put fire lines in around the blaze on public land. They didn’t listen and protected their homes on their own.
We’ve been through fire before, but never of this magnitude. There is no doubt that local agencies are doing the best they can with limited resources. The Firefighter Blog explains:
The State of California is in the midst of the worst wildfire crisis in modern state history. More than 900 wildland fires are burning, many unstaffed. Incident commanders are making do with skeleton crews in most cases.
Of course, the priority for resources has been homes and life, and I commend the job the firefighters are doing, but why did it take our governor three days to declare a state of emergency from the fires? Does he not work on the weekends during a natural disaster? Why do we have skeleton crews? The most apparent lack of support is air support. We are lucky if one plane or helicopter shows up for an hour to fight one fire out of 80 in our smoldering community.
The Bush administration has left this country’s infrastructure to deal with natural disasters in shambles. National Guard troops and resources are in Iraq, and local agencies are underfunded. Increased wildfires have been predicted as a result of global warming; this should not have hit us out of the blue. If we can’t handle natural disasters on our own, we need to ask other countries for help. We often send assistance to other countries during times of need. It’s time to swallow our patriotic pride and admit we can’t fight the magnitude of these fires on our own. We let immigrants earn citizenship by fighting in our wars; why not let them earn citizenship for fighting wildfires?
Locals are trying to make noise to get anyone’s attention: We are in DESPERATE need of help! We have been contacting our county board of supervisors, who have been trying their best to get us resources. We have called the governor, Boxer, Feinstein, Berg, etc. We receive compassionate responses to our pleas for help, but the answer is always the same: We don’t have any resources to send your way. Here is what one impassioned citizen wrote:
We appreciate your efforts in the past week to try and obtain the needed resources to fight the fires in Trinity County. However after five days, there are still few if any resources on any of the eighteen or so fires threatening our home and business, and the homes of our eight to ten other neighbors. All told there are about ten houses, one commercial building, our winery, numerous barns and outbuildings( probably about 25 ) and historic ranches that are being threatened. After we called 911 on Friday afternoon, a spotter plane flew over Friday night, but since then no planes or helicopters have worked on any of the eighteen fires near us…So far the weather has been ok so the fires have not spread too badly, but we need resources at some point to fight these fires, or they will eventually reach our homes and businesses, our lives that we have built over the past twenty years and longer. We are trying our best to be patient, but it is difficult. While we were watching the fires burn last night from our deck, we realized there is at least one that is not on the map and does not have a name…We are doing what we can to remain safe, keep our place green, build defensible barriers, and would like to remain here as long as we can to keep our place safe, especially since so far very little help appears to be on the way. Help is getting closer, which is a good start, but I wish it could get even closer. The fire camps are quite large, I hope they can spare some bodies out our way, and any air support would really help both the fires and our spirits. More resources are needed or the situation in Northern California could turn into another Hurricane Katrina type situation when the government took too long to take care of its citizens.
Local citizens have stepped up to the plate to keep each other informed and squelch wild rumors. What few firefighters have arrived have needed locals to help them find roads and locate fires on the map. Email has been utilized to keep the community informed; however, power was turned off to our town two days ago because of fire near the poles. Maps finally showed up yesterday at the store, and tomorrow there will be a community meeting. The information aspect of the fires is improving, as our local volunteer fire chief explained, “I don’t feel like a mushroom anymore, kept in the dark and fed s**t.” Despite local information efforts, websites reporting incident news are unreliable. This occurs every fire season, when the server for InciWeb can’t handle the demand. Firefighters and families rely on InciWeb for updated information, why can’t the government upgrade the server?
We are lucky the thunderstorms occurred early in fire season, when much of the foliage is still green. These fires are moving slowly, for the most part, which has been a blessing, as agencies scramble for very limited resources. The weather has mostly cooperated with cooler temperatures and light winds, but more thunderstorms are predicted for this weekend.
Image: Redding.com
Forgot to mention, our county health dept. dropped off supplies to our community, including a large bag full of lubricated, multi-flavored condoms.
As a former resident of SoCal with many friends still in rural areas I wish you the best. While it will not address your current needs I suggest you talk to Joe Mitchell at M-Bar technologies (just do a web search or I can give you his phone number). Joe is a physicist and resident of Ramona, California who has developed an external house-enveloping spray system to protect houses from wildfires. Fortunately, he installed it on his house before the Cedar Fire, such that while most of the houses around his went up in flames his survived just fine. I don’t think that Joe is actively selling his system (he works full time for an unrelated company), but rather is hoping that others use his technology to protect themselves (and I’ve got no financial interest). In high winds firebreaks even hundreds of feet wide (such as SoCal’s huge interstate highways) don’t stop fires.
A few years ago a study concluded that over the long term about the same amount of area in northern Baja, Mexico burns as in similar landscapes immediately across the border in the US, but in Mexico the fires tend to be smaller, more geographically dispersed and spread out over time, leading to a mosaic of fuel densities. This happens because the Mexicans don’t have as much capacity to fight fires.
In contrast, aggressive fire control in the US results in large areas of high fuel densities that periodically result in huge explosive fires. This US equipment-intensive approach creates a spiral of greater fire suppression resulting in higher fuel build up resulting in more intense fires resulting in greater calls for more equipment, resulting in greater fire suppression. This cycle results in catastrophic fires.
It may be that having a number of small fires burn around you during a relatively moist period is a good thing (whether as intentionally set controlled burns or acceptable natural burns), because it means that some of the fuel is being burned in some places. Yet, this is obviously a dangerous and frightening situation. Even a small fire can kill.
It may be that a combination of (1) site-specific practices and technologies, such as reducing fuels around properties (suggested by another commenter) and the M-BAR technology or other similar site-specific protection technologies; (2) better fire tracking and information systems that help residents respond safely; and (3) a policy to allow smaller fires to burn in certain moisture conditions would prevent huge catastrophic fires (that can’t be stopped by any amount of realistically available equipment) while protecting homes and businesses. This way periodic fires can burn around properties, allowing a natural process to continue without harming people. Property owners might be able to protect their homes, business and themselves while allowing small fires to once again create a mosaic of fuel densities in the surrounding landscape thereby reducing damage and risk in the long run.
Anybody who’s seen a major wildfire knows that we can’t stop major fires regardless of the amount of equipment. We can protect particular places. Perhaps we should use our limited resources by permanently installing systems to protect particular structures rather than using resources to by equipment intended to try to stop all fires. An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure. With adequate site specific protection and real-time fire situation information small fires at a distance might become something to watch with interest and respect, rather than something at which to immediately and reactively fling water, equipment and firefighters’ lives.
Good luck!
Paul, I completely agree that fire suppression has resulted in a high fuel volume, and that low burns do create a healthier, safer forest. The sheer number of fires in CA currently means that these fires can’t be adequately monitored to make sure they stay as low burning fires and don’t crown into tree tops. When a fire can be adequately staffed and helicopters available to help, then letting the fires burn and performing back burning works without risking life and property. In some cases, you are right there is nothing that can be done in a strong fire storm. The fire that burned on my property 4 years ago raged over 8 miles in less the two hours. The firefighters had to cut their lines and run, but then they returned. At the time, the Native American crew at our house was going to use the foam on the building if need be, but we have a very defensible space. So far, we have been lucky and aren’t facing that kind of fire, but things are expected to change.
i understand the fear and anxiety 100%.
BUT i think we are getting a bit selfish here in america
demanding perfection.
we live in a pretty damn good country
where there are services for EVERYTHING under the sun
most countries have NO public services whatsover
and once in awhile, our own people cant DO IT ALL
and we just rant about it??
GIVE ME A BREAK!
700 California Wildfires: Where the Hell Are the Resources? | Deliggit.com…
\r\nRight now, there are 700 wildfires burning in California — many unattended….
We dont have enough resources because our moron dictator President is more concerned with Global Domination than he is about matters right here at home!
JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
The fire fighting agencies have been asking homeowners for years to clear the brush and trees around their houses to create a buffer zone.
Of course, all the homeowners complied with this request. Just kidding – almost all the homeowners want to have their houses surrounded by trees at a close distance.
Guess what happens when a fire occurs.
Here’s a tip:
Don’t live somewhere prone to fires, jackass!
This is like someone with a beach condo crying that they feel scared during a hurricane.
No shit sherlock!
As a New Orleans survivor of Katrina, I can tell you with utter certainty that it will not get any better. Operate as if you are on your own (at least the fire department was able to tell your friends that they were on their own, instead of letting them guess for themselves), and be pleasantly surprised if FEMA and other organizations actually show up to help. If I was informed correctly Red Cross was not permitted to set up food and health-care tents in New Orleans until sometime in October, well over a month after the hurricane struck land. And FEMA…well…don’t get me started on FEMA.
Regardless, I concur that it is completely outrageous that the US is borrowing trillions of dollars only to spend it in a foreign country and yet our government completely unable to help communities within our own country during a natural disaster. Anyone who thinks that this is okay, or that it is the fault of the victims – well, you might want to consider removing you head from your rectal cavity. Otherwise it might come as shock to you when you are also told, “You are on your own”.
Fires are natural! your house being in the way is not.