Forum - California fires

One of the fires is only 35 miles from where I live (about 50km) and there is another one only 2hrs away.

1 killed in Calif. fires; more Guard troops coming By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 11, 6:52 PM ET



One person was found dead inside a burned-out house Friday after a wind-fueled wildfire swept through a rural community in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a rare human casualty among the hundreds of blazes that have tormented the state for weeks.

Investigators believe the person died in the fire in the town of Concow, but they will conduct an autopsy on the burned body to confirm the cause of death, said Sgt. Steven Pelton, the county's deputy coroner-sheriff.

The town had been evacuated when the blaze approached early Tuesday, "but unfortunately not everyone chose to leave and you cannot force them to," Pelton said. "This appears to be one of those people."

A complex of blazes in Butte County already has destroyed 50 homes in Concow and forced some 10,000 residents of the nearby town of Paradise to flee.

Firefighters battling the out-of-control fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills thought they had caught a break Friday when strong winds they feared could blow hot embers across fire lines toward thousands of homes did not immediately materialize. The northeast winds forecast for the morning were expected to be similar to those that caused the fire to flare up earlier this week.

The Butte County fires have charred more than 76 square miles over the past two weeks and was about 55 percent contained.

Officials have said this unprecedented fire season, plagued by drought and high temperatures, has seen the most fires burning at any one time in recorded California history. Most of the blazes began during a massive June 21 lightning storm that sparked 800 wildfires across Northern California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to help firefighting efforts around the state. President Bush planned a visit next week to survey the Golden State's wildfires, which have burned more than 1,100 square miles and destroyed about 100 homes.

The spate of fires had been remarkable not only for their scope, but also for the low number of fatalities and major injuries so far.

During a separate fire in Paradise last month, an elderly woman died after suffering a heart attack while voluntarily leaving her home. On July 2, a volunteer firefighter collapsed on the fire line in Mendocino County and died at a hospital a day later.

Fire officials estimate about 320 fires were still burning in the state this week.

About 400 guardsmen were called in earlier this month, and more than half of them already are on the fire lines. The governor's office has said it's the first time in more than 30 years that the California National Guard has been deployed for ground-based firefighting.

The governor's office said the additional 2,000 Guard troops Schwarzenegger ordered will be trained and deployed over the next few months. Schwarzenegger also announced Friday that help was on the way from Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

President Bush planned to visit California next Thursday to get a briefing on fire damage. White House spokesman Trey Bohn did not say exactly where Bush planned to go. The president also planned to attend a private Republican fundraising event in Napa that day.

A letup in the wind aided firefighters in eastern Washington state battling a wildfire that erupted Thursday in a heavily wooded part of the Spokane Valley. It destroyed at least 13 houses and forced 200 residents to evacuate. No injuries have been reported.

The cause of the suburban Spokane fire, which grew to nearly 2 square miles, was not immediately known.

That fire and others prompted Gov. Christine Gregoire to declare a state of emergency across all of Washington on Friday. That freed equipment, firefighters and funding for efforts to quench the flames.

State Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said a half-dozen major wildfires east of the Cascade Range were straining resources. In addition, some Washington firefighters have been working on the California blazes but are returning, he said.

"Our resources are really thin," Sutherland said. "It's going to be another hot, dry weekend."

___

Associated Press writer Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., contributed to this report.

Those californian forests, are they left totally dead after a fire, or maybe they can revive, at least some trees?

The largest trees, the ones most desired by the huge logging interests, are the ones most likely to survive a fire.

In any case, after a fire, grasses and wildflowers come back relatively quickly, followed later by shrubs and small trees.

It can take many years for the forest to get back to what it was before the fire. One area I visit in southern Arizona still shows signs of a fire from the early 1980's.

Well, nearly 30 years is not so long period for a real forest.
But you say about the largest trees. It sounds like another essential argument for those timber companies who are potential arsonists!

The logging companies sometimes talk about logging as "thinning" the forest ("to prevent fires"), but they tend to go after the largest trees first (those most likely to survive a fire), and then if they can get away with it, leave the smallest trees behind. The result is that they do nothing to prevent fires.

Although I do not agree with clear cut logging (where they cut down every tree) the new thinning policy has advantages and dis advantages. It is true they take a large number of the older and therefore larger trees but some of the older trees are now being protected. One of the advantages that logging does have is that they have to clear up all the brush in the areas where the log there by removing fuel for forest fires. Another benifit (if you call it that) is that they have to grade roads into the areas they log and these roads provide, not only fire breaks but access to remote areas in order to fight fires.
I myself believe that this country should adopt a 100% wood recycling program. All the houses that were lost in Katrina and floods were torn down and the wood discarded. Why isn't that wood recycled and used in laminted wood produts or other wood products?

They go through the burn area and make sure that all hot spots are out so that no possibility exists that the fires can be restarted. This was not always the policy but in the last 10-15 years it was implimented becasue there were times when the fire re-started after being put out.

In some kinds of forest soil underground fires can smoulder for many weeks and shoot up in most unexpected places.

Those are fires that are called "peat" fires. We have had some in California that have lasted for years. It's a build up of brush that is compacted and becomes compost and will burn, for years, and there is no way to put them out. Of course they could bring in bulldozer and tear up the land but then they would be exposed to the air and burst into flames and they'd have the same problem as before.

On the news today I heard that we had over 2 thousand fires burning in the past 2 weeks. We are now down to 28.

We have a new fire burning near Yosemite National Park. It has, already, burned something like 20 homes. The news did not mention any thing about arson. At least not yet.
If we get a heavy rain season this year most of California will be a giant mud slide.

Hi Paul,
I feel bad for you and others in California that have been dealing with all the fires there. I hope that they finally find a very good way of getting rid of the fires. I know that California is known to have very warm temperatures and have very dry conditions in some places if not all places. We have very warm temperatures in SC in the summer; but at least we do get some rain to go along with it. California sure could use some rain; but not the heavy rains like you were talking about. By the way, did they ever find out what and/or who started the fires?

You call them peat fires Paul. They are often in some regions of our country where are many moors and forests. You are right, They cannot put them out though it usually does not burn for years.