Wildfire ‘24

[plugboots]

There’s a Reddit thread with links explaining a lot of the design and material choices. Many I had no idea about like foam in the vents that expand and seal when an ember hits them.

[Meadow Skipper]

Thanks, that’s interesting. It seems like at least a few people in all this area must have tried to fire-proof their homes but I’m not hearing about other homes surviving.

Most of the homes in Pacific Palisades were built before ‘fire-proofing’ was a concept. Or in spite of that.

[smmokan]

Same thing happened here in Colorado during the Marshall fire… entire neighborhoods gone with one or two homes still standing. Nothing but luck involved (relatively speaking).

[Meadow Skipper]

I am not aware of any urban interface ever being tested like this other than Lahina or this

Santa Rosa CA 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubbs_Fire

Los Alamos NM 2000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Grande_Fire

Ruidoso NM 2024
https://www.koat.com/article/1400-st...homes/61207764

The list goes on. The LA fires affected more people because…LA, but our memories and media exposure are both limited.

[Cono Este]

There are no excuses, there were many warnings, the insurance companies all detailed the risk when they pulled out, they had to per the law “Poor wildfire management”. There were 40 fire trucks out of service with no funds to repair them, the chief wrote a letter voicing her concerns almost a yr ago.

I’ll respect the fire service of those in here by shutting up, but you guys of all know who,is doing their job, and who did not.

[ghosthop]

High res photos from Palisades and Eaton

https://wilg.github.io/la-fire-maps/...040277500.html

https://wilg.github.io/la-fire-maps/...040277300.html

When you talk about defensible space, it’s hard to reconcile what happened in Altadena without also considering building materials and design.

Bass was already an election away from having to find a new job, try not to let it influence your propaganda narrative when she doesn’t get reelected.

Blue skies and a distinct lack of smoke plumes today.

[Rock Knocker]

Bass was already an election away from having to find a new job, try not to let it influence your propaganda narrative when she doesn’t get reelected.

Why is Mayor Bass even a big deal? Isn’t Altadena unincorporated LA county? And Malibu has their own city government? And why is the fire chief of what I presume is LACFD meeting with Bass? Doesn’t she have her own chief to bitch at?

Im confused about all this

[Meadow Skipper]

Why is Mayor Bass even a big deal? Isn’t Altadena unincorporated LA county? And Malibu has their own city government? And why is the fire chief of what I presume is LACFD meeting with Bass? Doesn’t she have her own chief to bitch at?

Im confused about all this

Blame game.

[bodywhomper]

Argh
[ATTACH]5[emoji646][emoji645][emoji644][emoji644]2[/ATTACH]


Argh

[plugboots]

The Eaton fire image is really weird. It seems like whole neighborhoods are intact, and then there’s one or two houses burned.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

High res photos from Palisades and Eaton

https://wilg.github.io/la-fire-maps/...040277500.html

https://wilg.github.io/la-fire-maps/...040277300.html

When you talk about defensible space, it’s hard to reconcile what happened in Altadena without also considering building materials and design.

Bass was already an election away from having to find a new job, try not to let it influence your propaganda narrative when she doesn’t get reelected.

Blue skies and a distinct lack of smoke plumes today.

those satpix are insane

[plugboots]

I’m sure most of you seen this, but this is a pretty good example of the wind and ember situation I was talking about

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEnFa...B2YjR3MWJwZmR0

[Rasputin]

Seems Cono is arguing for more taxes to pay for Fire Departments, which I think is a great idea. People too often vote for fiscal conservatives who vote to limit public spending on vital services like fire departments, and who give sweetheart tax breaks to big business interests, and developers who overbuild neighborhoods to maximize profits within the space they hold title to.

Fire Departments love spending money on all the latest best equipment, and keeping ready to save lives and property, they are only limited by the amount of taxes people are willing to pay, and how much of the tax revenue is channeled to essential services rather than allocating in favor of real estate development and other industries.

[Bunion 2020]

I’ll respect the fire service of those in here by shutting up

Prove it.

[snapt]

It’s personal to us who applied to the FD and had deal with that bullshit.
.

I’ve gotten a job offer from every fire job I’ve ever applied for, CA included. As a honky. Maybe you’re just a shitty candidate?

[plugboots]

Rasputin on point.
There were folks arguing against our new firehouse that it shouldn’t have a weight room. I’m like holy shit. I think they should not only lift weights, but have a personal trainer on staff too.
Everybody wants weak firefighters. [emoji849]

[Bunion 2020]

[muted reborn]

So this whole incident has given us here in Tampa Bay a bit of PTSD. Watching this happen and knowing the horrible truth for these people is heartbreaking. We feel lucky to just have had to deal with water. Here is a little breakdown of my life since Sept 27th. Sorry for the brain dump, but it should make sense by the end, hopefully.

Hurricane Helene (Milton didn't do much other than tree and a little roof damage)- We only had 1" or so of water in the house. We lost all flooring (beautiful white oak real hardwood) and 2 ft of every wall in the house. Most of the garage was toast with 26" of water throughout. Lost a safe (contents were salvageable but a mess to deal with), 2 vehicles (1 a company car- the other a 2015 QX that was starting to cost us a bit of $$ anyway). The rest of the garage contents were dried out, sprayed down with salt-away, and most stuff was able to be saved. Certain items worked for a while, but then died. I just replaced our variable speed pool pump yesterday. It was starting to be way too loud since the bearings were quickly going out. Other than that stuff, we got super lucky.

Water intrusion wasn't high enough to affect electrical. We got the water out fairly quickly, and we got mitigation crews in a day later, thankfully. You have about 72 hours to get the wet shit out before the black mold starts to take hold. Luckily, our cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms were very high quality and didn't show any bit of damage from the water. I popped a few 3" hole saw holes in the bases and sprayed and dried them out. Good as new. We were able to save everything structurally except the floors and walls. We have been living here ever since. Our contractor can start on our house in March. We feel very lucky about all of this after seeing what neighbors and friends are going through.

Many more people had over 2 ft of water in the house. This affects electrical. 3-4 ft (might as well go to 4 ft- it is a full sheet of sheetrock) of drywall needs to be removed. Wiring needs to be replaced up to the junction in the attic. Sewer systems back up dumping fecal matter in your house (they don't mention this part in the news much). Everything in the house needs to be removed and sanitized. Cabinets, sinks, toilets, etc- all gone. Those people can't live there. They also can't find anyone to fix it. Again, we were lucky.

Getting paid by insurance is a whole other issue. We hired a public adjuster to fight for us. We just got paid last week. Full ride for structure and contents minus the mitigation charges and the public adjuster fee of 10%. Others are still waiting, or still fighting. They may need to hire a lawyer and lose 40% of it to that. Others had no flood insurance. They are stuck. We also had roof damage from the BOGO storms we got through here, Helene and Milton. That claim has yet to be settled, and is with our homeowners, not flood. We will hopefully find out on that claim by end of February. This is round three after they have tried to lowball and we fought. 3 separate inspections. We just fight till we get what we want. Most don't. I am sure they will drop us once they pay, but they will pay and I will have a new stone coated metal roof, so fuck them.

The other wrinkle to this has been FEMA. Because we live in a flood plain, the federal government can tell you how to rebuild. They use these disasters as a way to get everyone up to code in these areas. Since flood is federally subsidized, they can keep you from rebuilding. I have seen comments above about how the rich will rebuild, and developers will move in. Well that is what is happening here. Imagine your house gets flooded, insurance pays out, and you can rebuild and get back to your life. FEMA comes in and tells you that since THEY deem your repairs to exceed 50% of the value of the structure, you cannot rebuild. You have 3 options- raise the structure 2 ft over the current 100 year flood line (subject to change due to remapping by FEMA), knock the whole thing down and start over per current code for floodplain, sell as is for land value and let someone else (BlackRock) knock it down and start over. 3rd option is what is happening, A LOT.

So my point of all of this is, imagine now that your house is just gone. Everything you owned, gone. I can't even begin to imagine the hopelessness those poor people feel, same with the folks in NC, many of whom didn't even have flood policies. Insurance only pays so much. Flood policies are pretty standard- a certain $$ amount for structure, and another smaller $$ amount for contents. I know from experience that it is not enough to cover much of a substantial rebuild and replacement of lost items, never mind complete loss of everything. I hope a lot of these people had homeowners protection for fire, but it is sounding like a lot of those policies have been cancelled over the years. What do those people do, sell the land? Like was said above. Someone will buy it, and that area will become a fireproof fortress of the 1%. How is this handled by the county too? Obviously any structure that is a total loss will be rebuilt to current fire code, but what about those that are partially damaged? That is the big problem here, a house is only partially damaged, but FEMA demands they rebuild. Will that happen out there? Because fire damage isn't federally subsidized, does FEMA have any say?

Sorry for the rambling, but this has been my life since Sept 27th and this one got me thinking about the differences and similarities between our area and LA. Hard to say I can totally relate with them, because I can't. I just know what it feels like (slightly) and my heart goes out to them.

Good perspective on insurance, thanks for this. So you've had no floors and cut drywall 2' up since the hurricane and it's gonna get fixed in March, and yer one of the lucky ones? Dang.

[old goat]

Cono, you’re showing your ignorance and stupidity again. Half of what you posted is untrue.

The main reason for this disaster is that California was allowed to be developed in the first place. These fires have been happening since development started and before. This kind of loss is unavoidable if people want to live in the area, it will happen again. It has nothing to do with politics.

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

FIFY

[warthog]

Good perspective on insurance, thanks for this. So you've had no floors and cut drywall 2' up since the hurricane and it's gonna get fixed in March, and yer one of the lucky ones? Dang.

Yup, really lucky because we can rebuild. Many are not allowed to rebuild, and insurance has nothing to do with it. They could get a $500k payout and if FEMA says your structure is only worth $400,000, then you are limited to $200k, assuming you haven't made any improvements in a year (some areas the look back is 5 years- those people are screwed). Living on a floodplain is not for the weak, or the poor apparently.
Just to be clear, I don't live on the water. Our neighborhood backs up to Tampa Bay, but there are acres of mangrove area between us and the water. Our flooding came from the brackish fed ponds on the golf course behind us. They all feed back to the bay, which is great when you are catching tarpon, snook, and redfish in a golf pond, but kinda sux for keeping the bay out of your house.

[GBB]

@meadow skipper and others with extensive wildland fire experience - I'd be curious to hear your opinions on where prevention and mitigation resources should best be deployed? What's the next best alternative to prescribed burns in areas where they are difficult (and I imagine impossible in some cases) to conduct due to population growth?

[MultiVerse]

Not sure water was involved w/ this one:


https://www.mansionglobal.com/amp/ar...sades-9f93b307

Note the scorched wall. Best guess is the concrete wall saved the house

[Cono Este]

Seems Cono is arguing for more taxes to pay for Fire Departments, which I think is a great idea. People too often vote for fiscal conservatives who vote to limit public spending on vital services like fire departments, and who give sweetheart tax breaks to big business interests, and developers who overbuild neighborhoods to maximize profits within the space they hold title to.

Fire Departments love spending money on all the latest best equipment, and keeping ready to save lives and property, they are only limited by the amount of taxes people are willing to pay, and how much of the tax revenue is channeled to essential services rather than allocating in favor of real estate development and other industries.

I’m all for money going to essential services and not illegals, or other fairy tale horseshit.


The Japanese had plans to torch the west coast with balloons.

Also, again, they were not doing basic things like brush removal etc. I bet if you cut down a tree with a fire approaching and was wrong you’d be cited.

My buddy is one of those,guys whose dad was sffd, and still couldn’t get hired. He’s in Marin, but ordering pumps and fire retardant. He said the only homes that survived were saved by home owners.

[rideit]

Ok, for the mouth breathing morons, this didn’t happen because of the Mayor or whatever, it happened because of this. (Key Takeaway, mostly due to Oceanic Heatwaves, and related drought).

Gore was right. PERIOD.

https://www.vox.com/climate/394005/p...rnia-explainer

[priapism]

There’s a Reddit thread with links explaining a lot of the design and material choices. Many I had no idea about like foam in the vents that expand and seal when an ember hits them.

link please? I could dig around but I try to limit my exposure to reddit