LRC: lets solve the West Coast wildfire problem

No way. All winds are designated by the direction they come from. Offshore means the winds come from the ocean to the land.

No, wait… you’re onto something.

Poisoned land means nothing grows, hence no more fuel for future wildfires. It’s like chemotherapy!

It doesn't matter unfortunately. Californians will just keep voting for Democrats who will change nothing.

Don't build houses made of wood. Ever heard of the 3 little pigs?

Mandate roofing materials and vents made from materials that won't burn. Mandate creating a defensible space around houses, no brush/trees.

Maybe not tomorrow but researchers are already trying to figure this out

Guy guys, this thread was not created to rehash tired lame political arguments. This thread was created to figure out real tangible solutions to this issue.

Since we now know all of the drones spotted on the East Coast are Chinese, and they are using anti gravitational technology enabling them to have enormous payload capacities and travel at incredible speeds, maybe we can convince China to use them to scoop up water and dump on the fires. Although I guess since China certainly stole this technology from us, we can always just use ours.

Unfortunately, the near 100 mile gusts were sending embers two miles. Hence that with 8 months of no rain are the reasons why the LA fires are a Natural Disaster.

Due to the near 100 mile wind gusts, anything airborne proved to be ineffective. Water drops dissipated so quickly that they were ineffective. Therefore, the only access that could help is ground/underground. As many previously mentioned roofing materials that are fire retardant along with emergency of Phos-Chek systems (sprinkler type) that coat the property automatically in case of fire. This could also be incentivized by insurance companies remaining in areas that they are presently abandoning due to fire risk. Lastly, traffic flow issues occurred during evacuations which hampered response times to the fires. For some areas in Pacific Palisades and the Alta Dena/Sierra Madre there was limited road access. Fire roads (specific for first responders) need to be planned for such high fire danger communities, before the areas are rebuilt. Just some thoughts, now let the debate begin

Yup. Hurricanes only hit republicans and fires only hit democrats.

Build back better. Once California is completely covered by parking lot, it will be difficult for it to catch fire.

California is not in a drought cycle currently. During extended drought conditions, wild fires are more infrequent and smaller due to less undergrowth from the drought. The last couple of year brought quite a bit of rain to California, and all the grasses and undergrowth grew and flourished. Everything is dry at the end of every summer in CA, and there have been no rains to speak of in SoCal yet this year. SO, once a fire starts, it has more and dryer fuel.

Amen brother. May God bless you and your loved ones. Keep the faith.

I think we should build a big beautiful wall around California so the fires don’t spread to REAL American states and we should make New Mexico pay for it!

Wrong. Santa Winds are most definitely offshore. Offshore means from the east/mountains. Sounds contradictory but if you surf, you know. These are the best winds for waves but the worst winds for fires. Onshore means from the Ocean.

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This fire is a lot like the Oakland/Berkeley firestorm in 1991. My girlfriend's brother lived out in Berkeley and had his house burn to the ground. They found ashes in the shape of his golfclubs that were in his garage.

There have been a lot of improvements in fire response since then and people generally have done a better job at keeping dry brush trimmed around their homes and not using wood mulch, which turns into burning embers that are blown all around.

But when you have hurricane force winds and dry conditions, there are going to be wildfires and those fires are going to be impossible to control when the winds are up. The amount of money needed to build fire breaks, clear brush, build more fire roads, install fire resistant building materials and fire retardant systems is massive and many times more than the cost of property damage from the fires. Even in the very liberal political climate in CA, there is a limit to the amount of public resources that can be marshalled for doing big things like this. And the last people on earth who would be willing to put up the funds are the right wingers who are blaming Newsom.

There has to be a sea change in how we approach natural disasters in an era of climate change. Huge public infrastructure investments are needed to harden areas that are prone to fires, floods, hurricanes and windstorms. This will require higher taxes and will result in some inflation as large sums are spent on infrastructure and storm/fire hardening.

Firebreaks are effective if the wind is low and the fire is small. But with high winds and large fires they would need to be massive to have any effect.

A river would be the perfect firebreak but in 2016 the Fort McMurray wildfire jumped the Athabasca River which is 1/3 mile wide at that point. That fire was propelled by 45 mph winds, LA is getting gusts of twice that value.

North winds, west winds etc. are defined by the direction they are coming from. But onshore and offshore winds are the opposite, they are defined by the direction they are blowing towards.