CA wildfire fire? If not, then stop offering advice about something you know nothing about because you read some posts on Facebook. I lived in San Diego from 1999-2019. I lived through the 2003 Cedar Fire (273,246 acres burned) and the 2007 Witch Creek Fire (273,246 acres burned). I doubt most of you have any appreciation at all for the topography of the areas affected or the incredible speed with which these fires move. This isn’t like a hurricane where you have warning days in advance before you have to evacuate. My wife and I took turns sleeping in 2003 and 2007 so someone could watch how close the fires were getting to us on TV. The winds that drive these fires are near hurricane speed and they accelerate as they blow through canyons. Fire crews try to build fire breaks but we watched in horror in 2003 as the Cedar Fire lept over I-15 aboard MCAS Miramar and towards our house. These are literally fire gales. People 5-8 miles away from the current fires in LA report phone book sized chunks of burning debris landing in their yards. Regarding prescribed burns, do you actually think that the US Forest Service and Cal Fire hasn’t thought of that? “Hey guys, GSOHokie01 has some unique ideas about fire and land management we hadn’t considered!” They’re are multiple problems these organizations have to consider: - the acreage we’re talking about is enormous. - decades of drought have created an unprecedented amount of dead and diseased trees and understory. You do not appreciate how many acres of fuel we’re talking about. - that drought has also made the trees vulnerable to invasive species like bark beetles, creating even more fuel - once again, you cannot appreciate the topography of these areas unless you’ve been there. California makes extensive use of fixed-wing and helicopter water drops because most of these areas are inaccessible to firefighters. When the wind is blowing at near-hurricane speeds, guys with shovels aren’t going to create firebreaks. So what does this mean? Cal Fire and other agencies have stopped doing control burns because they have no confidence they can actually *control* the burns they start. - Lastly and most importantly, developers keep building houses further and further into wildfire-prone areas that cannot be defended and protected. Most of the California wildfires this century have the exact same cause: trees or other debris gets blown into power transmission lines in backcountry areas, starting huge fires. Part of the reason electricity prices in Cali are so high is because PG&E and SDGE are paying billion dollar settlements for previous fires they caused through negligence to maintain clearance around their transmission lines. As for water management and protection of endangered species like the Delta Smelt, that has absolutely, positively nothing at all to do with these fires or the ability to fight them and I challenge EDGEMAN or any other poster to provide evidence from anyone other than known hydrology experts like Joe Rogan or Brian Kilmeade to demonstrate otherwise. Why were some of the hydrants dry during the LA fires? Once again, look at the topography. You have to pump water up to the elevation where the fire is. LA has more than enough water. They do not have the pumping or conveyance capacity because it wasn’t reasonable or practical to assume that you’d simultaneously have massive fires on three sides of the city. Please don’t believe a word I say. I only did potable water system planning for Navy and Marine Corps installations in California for two decades while the company I owned prepared Integrated Land Use Management Plans for the same installations. You’re much better off believing @jewscontroltheweather on Twitter.