Environmental News

why can't they pump water out of the pacific?

 

CAL FIRE is a region unto itself. The only time any of the 4 US Agencies are called in is when all hell breaks loose...and even they are usually delegated to working as deucers. News story if you want to look it up. Oregon Engine Crews held back because they don't meet CA smog requirements.

 

more harmful than letting it burn?

 

Then it becomes a structure fire when it reaches the city.

Salt water is hard on equipment, assuming they have the equipment. Towns with hydrant networks don't maintain a fleet of tanker trucks, and it takes experience to field them for best effect.

Then only one fire is next to the ocean, and it extends s few miles inland. Then rest are farther away. In the case of planes, the ocean tends to have rougher surface conditions. Scooping up a payload of seawater might be more difficult.

To the native plants it is. They evolved to survive with the fires. Some plants need them for the next generation of seeds to germinate.

 

might be worth weighing the cost of new supply lines from the ocean vs other future solutions

 

I'm sure the dozens that burned to death would choose salty soil over perishing.
Then again, 20/20 hindsight means proper forestry / management would have gone a long way
Then again if a governor takes pride in providing sanctuary state status, along with being a great place to be homeless, the budget only goes so far. Who knew - that virtue signaling could be so expensive

.

 

He has made it a great place for MORE homeless now...

 

Could look into it for fighting the structure fire, but more water would not have helped with hurricane strength winds fanning the flames.

The Seaside Heights boardwalk was rebuilt after Sandy. It caught fire soon after on a windy day. Not hurricane strong, but strong enough that water alone wasn't stopping it. The fire department ended up tearing down stands and the boardwalk to make a fire break in order to contain the fire. Doing the same in LA would mean a whole lot of houses.

 

Having had our 1st Nashville home burn down (careless renters), the equally hard part is still ahead, fighting with insurance companies to compensate for all that folks lost. We chose to just sell the bare land .....


rather than have to remember the bad experience & so moved two or more modern part of town with a home that has fire sprinklers integrated inside.
Satellite view shows the empty lot & street view so old it shows me out mowing the front yard.
.

 

Slightly related, I'm having a solar roof installed and the team is laying the new power cables in the attic. So I'm add two, smoke detectors in that space. One on the Northwest corner nearest the added electronics and the second over where the new "smart panel" replacing the existing one.

The smart panel (SPAN panel) has electronic load circuit control and network management. The single most expensive part, it will isolate the heavy load circuits like EV charging, oven, and range ... the 240 VAC power circuits when grid power goes out. This prevents overloading the storage battery in the solar array.

I will ask the contractor if there is a recommended smoke detector that might integrate with the SPAN panel.

Bob Wilson