XFILE36 said:
Hi Everyone,
Long time no see. I am asking for your good thoughts and prayers for the people and animals in Southern California. I believe it highly suspicious that a fire in Ventura county jumped 30 miles to Los Angeles (Sylmar) with no fires in between...Besides losing homes and personal property (devastating), horses died in Sylmar and people left their cats...and the wildlife...so sad and scary now...
Thank you.
Long rant here........
Over the past years, I've seen these fires attributed to all manner of things: illegal drug farming in national forests, welders working on ranch fencing, yahoos on OHVs on hillsides, inappropriate campfires, downed power lines, sparks thrown out by lawn mowers + rocks, etc etc. Some underlying issues are seasonal winds/weather patterns, hilly, inaccessible terrain, ever increasing human activity in areas that are essentially deserts - i.e. a wet season where growth explodes, then no rain for months at a time.
Hopefully we don't also have some misguided losers out there doing this.
Looking at the summer's fire in Napa, you can see well built homes (stucco siding with tile roofs) built 10 feet away from the next house, with dried-out trees in between. All on fire. In central Calif, I still have one neighbor with a wood shake roof - has enough $$ for 6 cars, but not a better roof.
Before one of the big fires a few years back, wife & I looked at homes in Squirrel Valley, Lake Isabella. Mostly larger lots, but with almost continuous, dried-out tree cover- literally leaf to leaf. Gave me the willies just driving thru there. Wife thought I was over-reacting, but the next summer, it all burned. Driving thru this past spring, there was knee-high dry brush around all the homes that remained. Other communities in that general area today look just like Squirrel Valley did before it burned.
End of rant....
