The Hell-Scape of California: Historic wildfires bring destruction and death
The town of Paradise has been seared off the face of the Earth.
In the wake of the midterm election last week, I remarked to a friend that California remained Satan’s playground.
Little did I realize that this would be prophetic, as vast portions of our state have become a Hell-scape and over 20 people have died in devastating wildfires that are scattered across the state.
The remains of 14 more victims were found in the ashes of a massive Northern California wildfire, bringing the total number of deaths from blazes raging across the state to at least 25, officials said Saturday.
Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said the 14 bodies were recovered in the Camp Fire, thought to be the most destructive wildfire in state history. Nine deaths had previously been reported in that fire.
Two bodies also were found in the burn zone of the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, officials said.
“I know that members of our community who are missing loved ones are anxious, and I know that the news of us recovering bodies has to be disconcerting,” Honea said. “I will tell you that we are doing everything that we possibly can to identify those remains and make contact with the next of kin.”
“My heart goes out to those people. I will tell you that this weighs heavy on all of us,” he said.
The blazes of most concern are:
- The Camp Fire: 23 people have died, as the inferno has claimed 109,000 acres, and destroyed 6,453 homes. The entire town of Paradise has been seared from the face of the Earth.
- The Hill Fire: The blaze in Southern California’s Ventura County began Thursday, has already burned 4,531 acres and destroyed two buildings.
- The Woolsey Fire: This wildfire has hit the famous Malibu area hard and has already killed 2 people and destroyed 177 homes:
The blaze began in Simi Valley and quickly spread in several directions to threaten Malibu and other communities, jumping Highway 101 in three places, according to the publication.
Firefighters battling “extreme fire behavior” are focusing on protecting lives and property in steep terrain with limited access, Cal Fire reported. Three of the 3,200 firefighters battling the blaze have been injured.
While San Diego remains unaffected at the present time, we are all on pins-and-needles as the Santa Ana winds are poised to begin and a mere spark may set off another inferno in this area. Last night, I slept with the windows open so that I might be able to smell smoke or hear alarms…and I plan to do so tonight.
The root cause of these fires is not climate change, but poor land management and regulatory catering to the politicized science associated with “global warming.” As none of our state politicians and bureaucrats have focused on needed reforms, President Donald Trump issued a tweet to motivate them:
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
The response is exactly what would expect, which is a mixture of denial, projection, and Trump Derangement Syndrome:
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said fires aren’t about politics or jurisdictions.
“Fires do not respect politics, though, so I would beg the President to pursue a major disaster declaration and not make this a political incident,” Stern said. “We have many parties, many views out here, and it’s really not about politics, it is about people.”
A number of celebrities also responded to Trump’s tweet Saturday.
“This is an absolutely heartless response,” singer Katy Perry tweeted. “There aren’t even politics involved. Just good American families losing their homes as you tweet, evacuating into shelters.”
Based on the response to Trump’s diagnostic tweet, as well as the state’s midterm election results, I anticipate California will remain Satan’s playground for some time to come.
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Comments
Probably not a great time to be telling you, “I told you so”.
No. It isn’t.
When is the right time? When people are no longer paying attention?
Letting the (few) sane residents of California know that at least some Americans recognize the real culprits has value.
Prayers for all those who suffered losses.
i live in Reseda at a retirement home.
we are hosting evacuees from aftra home Calabasas
Evacuated In Woolsey Fire
my family friends also evec from oal park, agoura and thousans oaks.
nothing from jerry brown
thankfully reagen lib seems ok.
California ceased being Paradise a long time ago.
Antifa, Yvette Felarca and the anti Trump riots in Berkely put the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur on that observation.
I lived my whole life in CA until 7 years ago. I lived in Pasadena from 1972 for most of that time. In the 39years I lived in Pasadena there were two devastating fires. In both cases there were two major causes. 1) Steep inaccessible canyons and 2) no forest management because liberals will not allow managed/controlled burning; brush clearance; selective pruning. Thanks libs!
Jerry Brown just toted out “climate change deniers” for cause of mismanaged land now charred. The environmentalists want it all “natural” with the same botched outcome as their other plans. When their plans go horribly out of control, when theirs enacted laws fail and when their ineptness is finally on display….it is always not their fault. Exactly what did “deniers” do explicitly to cause this Jerry?
And when their policies cause things to turn into disasters we are supposed to say nothing critical, but to all pull together in this time of crisis.
What BS.
This will continue until California changes its priorities.
It is not a mystery how to prevent these sorts of fires. It is common knowledge all over the world and is taught to everyone in the industry:
1. Cut fire breaks.
2. Clear out dead wood.
3. Institute a system of controlled burns.
Leftist love “old growth forests” which don’t exist in the burn areas. Instead of controlled burns that improve diversity of wildlife, it is all dead. But forest management takes money away from illegal immigration and further solidifying the one party rule in Cali. Fire control will go no where on their agenda.
And clear cutting. Took a commuter plane from SEA to PDN in the 90’s and was shocked by the checker board – clear cut forests in SW WA. Now on the n. Olympic peninsula, we take 101 to get to town or to the Seattle area a few times a year – used to be they left the trees bordering the highway – but no more – lots of swaths of clear-cut. Loggers only take the Douglas Fir and leave the Western Cedar and Hemlock … but without the stand of forest around them, they often get blown down in the first big storm. It’s an eyesore for a few years until the seedlings emerge – but we don’t seem to get the fires in managed forests that occur elsewhere. We did have a bad one this summer in Brinnon area – on the eastern border of the ONP. Access impeded putting it out – until it rained.
Similar to the Levee Board claiming no responsibility for Katrina’s aftermath. How “A Confederacy of Dunces” was not coined to describe them is beyond me. Perhaps too close to home on that one.
Years of fire suppression combined with the abandonment of successful methods of forest management to the environmentalists has led to these mega fire storms which release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than an average fire. The huge accumulation of fuel loads and plant material in these areas must be dealt with or the mega fires will continue into the future. This is nothing more than returning to the forest management procedures prior to the 1970’s.
California Wildfires 2018 – California’s Unsustainable Legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajPpP3vbD5c&feature=youtu.be
Former firefighter with some history and technical background.
If my home were burning, I would think it to be class-less for someone from some other state to wag their finger at the elected idiots in my state while my stuff burns and people die.
On the other hand, if my home burns in a wild fire, I have insurance and will be doing cartweels because I’ll get a new house on the back side of the “disaster.”
So in the fall out, can my town up north expect several more busloads of homeless druggies to be shipped in from Cali? The count of tents went from 30 in Aug to 300 in Oct. They ain’t locals.
Andy: Personally, if this was the first major wildfire California had ever had, I would have agreed Trump’s tweet would not have been appropriate.
However, since 2003, our state has had a series of vast conflagrations…and the state officials have done nothing to prevent it from occurring again.
It’s sort of like the ballot fraud of 2000 in Florida — the problem was so big that it should have been effectively dealt with already. So the question is…why hasn’t it?
So I say, Mr. President, tweet away.
Building codes were changed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to prevent that kind of conflagration from ever happening again. I wonder if these California fires will prompt any introspection about the wisdom of build wooden houses in the middle of a pine forest. Probably not.
People here are assuming that these stem from forest fires. But California is a natural fire escape, it has deep ravines covered with oily brush. That type of vegetation naturally burns fast and hard, and when a fire gets in the valley it races up a ravine. California is wins then blow hot embers to spread the fire. This is natural and it’s been going on since before I single person set foot on the ground.
Those areas of course are much cheaper than the coast line, and they weren’t previously built on because it was obviously too dangerous. But now with land being expensive people are moving out to high-risk areas. Thus there’s extensive building In the fire zone, and surprise surprise the fire only sleeps, it never dies.
The West Coast. Landslides, lava, fire traps. To paraphrase Field of Dreams, “Build it and God will visit.” As we say in Portland; lousy soil, water, and elevation differential: what could possibly go wrong?
I have an idea…. let’s build a giant hospital and medical school on top of one of these hills.
I’m sure the state authorities are preparing an appropriation for carbon offsets as we speak.
Leslie: if you see this, please read my comment on the typhus thread.
as for fires, the chaparral NEEDS to burn every few years. but we prevent that, so when it finally does burn, there is so much fuel that even the top soil burns away…
as for the forests, they too need to burn every few years, for the same reasons. clears away dead & diseased trees, thins out the underbrush, and keeps the forest healthy.
but we’re smarter than Mother Nature, right?
Gov. Moonbeam is blaming “climate change deniers” because he knows full well the state is liable for causing the fire. But primarily the local utility, PG&E. The fire was caused by downed high-tension power lines near the location where they cross the Feather river. The utility could have shut those lines down, and should have considering the place is a tinderbox and the wind was blowing 35mph. But instead they chose to keep the lines in operation. It was a deliberate decision as their communications show. Apparently their bottom line was more important to them than fire safety. So now 23 are dead and entire towns are wiped out.
All the units initially responding to the blaze reported downed electrical lines.
It reminds me of the 2010 San Bruno gas explosion, which caused 8 fatalities. Do an internet search for the litany of malfeasance and misfeasance on their part. I’ll just give you one tidbit: they had illegally diverted $100M from their safety operations fund to executive compensation and bonuses.
I still jointly own a cabin in the Plumas National Forest above Oroville in the vicinity of the area where the fire started. Needless to say I am not amused by their greed and incompetence.
Burn baby burn. Trump shouldn’t have approved federal funds for the loonies. Ket them use their sanctuary hush funds.
Burn baby burn. Trump shouldn’t have approved federal funds for the loonies. Ket them use their sanctuary hush funds..