LRC: lets solve the West Coast wildfire problem

I talked to a woman this morning who has two fire retardant systems on her property. They have a pump system that drains the pool and covers the back of the property. The other system is a Phos-Chek system that covers her house. She praised the system with saving her property. She also shared that her homeowners insurance was going to be cancelled until she and her husband spent the money on installing both systems. I was surprised that someone had the system that I mentioned in my earlier post. Lastly, we discussed the idea of state subsidies and taxes to help offset the price. The feasibility of a wildfire disaster avoidance program in the wake of the LA fires may not be so economically off-putting as previously thought.

First, LA County is not the same as Los Angeles the city. She's not the mayor of the county.

Second, this is really unclear. There was a budget cut that reduced some overtime and administrative positions. There was also funding from the city council that was greater than the amount of the cut.

These fires are not in forested areas - they are in residential areas and areas of dense brush.

Was she hot?

What if the fires were started by a drone?

What if we applied some double threshold sessions on the fire, that would have to do something

The solution: fire Gavin Newsom. You Californian's keep voting this guy in, time cut the corrupt politicians. Mr Smith needs to go to Sacramento.

It turns out they *are* using seawater. It's corrosive and isn't particularly good for the land, but it works. I didn't realize they did that.

Not even an apocalyptic firestorm can penetrate your brain, so I’m not gonna try…

What about using different building materials for the homes?

Got to be materials that are more flame resistant than others.

Bricks are good but not good in earthquakes? Wood homes are going to burn for sure but other options.

Good idea and worth some consideration.

Bricks would tend to be on the expensive side, though I understand that they can be built to be fairly good seismically, built to current codes.

How about stucco? It is relatively inexpensive and is very good at resisting flames and heat.

I think that the important thing is that the solution will involve a lot of these kinds of things - fire breaks, less dead brush, and better choice of building materials.

EDIT: Brick can be okay in earthquakes if they are built as steel-reinforced masonry, as opposed to older homes which tend to be unreinforced masonry.

The California last resort insurance plan is call the "fair plan" it's run by private insurers and it's expensive and covers less.
The California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan is a private association of California insurance companies that provide fire insurance for high-risk properties. The FAIR Plan is managed by these private insurance companies, which contribute to the plan and share the risk of covering high-risk properties.
How it works
The FAIR Plan is for property owners who can't find private market insurance coverage
The FAIR Plan is designed to help homeowners and businesses in areas with a high risk of wildfires
FAIR Plan policies are typically more expensive and offer less coverage than commercial plans
The FAIR Plan is regulated by the California Department of Insurance

Two months ago, people were pushing for him to run for president.

a fine aspirational goal, but nothing can be done to meaningfully change the climate for quite a few years. And even that requires world wide effort. It is kind of like trying to hit the brakes on a huge container ship. So these winds and fires will continue to take place. The question is how to reduce the effects. Water supply and brush clearing are nice. But the real issue is populating areas which cannot be protected. The vast majority of the people in the LA area are not threatened other than by air quality.

The vegetation in the LA area and in a lot of California is naturally made to burn, so you’re fighting against that.

(1) Mandatory buffer zone between the “forest” and man made structures. Easier said than done but would be very helpful

(2) more/larger fire breaks in the forest , especially in populated areas

(3) enforced fire resiliency added to structures, including fire resistant rooftops, outside walls, decks, heat resistant windows, wildfire sprinkler system.

Some of this is a lot more expensive than others (the sprinkler system can be very expensive), so there would need to be social pressure for those who can afford it to be as resilient as possible as well as some kind of tax rebate or financial incentive to do so

Oh, and brush clearing. This would be labor intensive, but LA is a huge city and lots of people could need the work. If you had dozens or hundreds of people paid to clear brush throughout LA this certainly couldn’t hurt

The LA water chief makes 750,000.00 per year...Anyone think she will be fired? No, Democrats don't fire incompetents....

nytimes.com

An important reservoir was offline when the fires began.

By Mike Baker and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

The Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood had been shut down. Water there normally helps replenish tanks that were drained by firefighters.

Open link

STFU

Global warming is real, just not resulting solely from human expansion. The planet has been through this many times in the past, except no humans were around at the time. Equatorial deserts and tropical delight at the poles is a historical fact. Your family's future offspring could benefit from you purchasing land at the poles, but they're 3000 generations away.