Fire Deaths In California

Discussion in 'Weather & Natural Disasters' started by Lon Tanner, Nov 10, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    That has been the warning for many years now. What you say about California's population is significant too. While most people consider a drought according to its dictionary definition, the governmental definition of a drought takes into account the water levels in aquifers, lakes, and reservoirs, which is as much related to the amount of water that goes out as to the amount of water the goes in. This is why, even when a region is receiving the normal amount of rainfall, once you add more people that can be provided for by precipitation, it is considered a drought and the media asks us to look at global warming. The Rio Grande Valley of Texas is always in a drought, although it rains about as often there as it ever did.
     
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  2. Tom Galty

    Tom Galty Veteran Member
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    OMG reports that there are at least 631 people missing.
     
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  3. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    Where are the reports @Tom Galty ?
     
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  4. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Yes, still a large number of people missing. And it's still burning.
    IMG_4869.JPG

    IMG_4848.JPG IMG_4855.JPG
     
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  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Likely, the majority of the missing are those who evacuated and just haven't checked in with anyone. If something were to occur here to require evacuation, I'd probably want to go to family members in Michigan, where I won't be paying hotel costs and where I could bring my cats. I don't know that I'd consider that I needed to check in with anyone.
     
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  6. Tom Galty

    Tom Galty Veteran Member
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  7. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    Thanks Tom,,,and I just read that more than 9,000 firefighter are battling the fires...good grief, if another fire starts somewhere else there will be no firefighters free to attend...it's all just horrific...
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    It is horrific, but I don't think they're going to run out of firefighters. Usually, when a fire is large enough, and lasts long enough, firefighters and fire apparatus are brought in from all over the country. I know my brother has been in California a couple of times, with a crew of firefighters and apparatus from Minnesota.
     
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  9. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    I've never heard of this before, but apparently it's not all that new. There's debate over the "fairness" of the practice. The wealthy pay through their noses for insurance in these cases, so why shouldn't they have this benefit? What do you think?

    Wealthy's use of private firefighters ignites debate in wildfire country

    Kim Kardashian’s Private Firefighters Expose America’s Fault Lines


    As multiple devastating wildfires raged across California, a private firefighting crew reportedly helped save Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s home in Calabasas, TMZ reported this week. The successful defense of the $50 million mansion is the most prominent example of a trend that’s begun to receive national attention: for-hire firefighters protecting homes, usually on the payroll of an insurance company with a lot at risk.

    The insurance companies AIG and Chubb have publicly talked about their private wildfire teams. AIG has its own “Wildfire Protection Unit,” while Chubb—and up to a dozen other insurers—contract with Wildfire Defense Systems, a Montana company that claims to have made 550 “wildfire responses on behalf of insurers,” including 255 in just the past two years. Right now in California, the company has 53 engines working to protect close to 1,000 homes.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technol...nye-west-history-private-firefighting/575887/
     
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  10. Beatrice Taylor

    Beatrice Taylor Veteran Member
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    It makes perfect sense to me.

    I would think that many insurance companies would rather spend a couple hundred thousand dollars protecting a valuable property than paying out on a total loss.
     
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  11. Harry Havens

    Harry Havens Veteran Member
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    They also have private security details, etc. Don't see a problem. Now if public firefighters were allocating heavier resources to protect them...it could be a problem.

    Fee based fire coverage is not that unusual in rural areas. It sometimes makes national news as a result. Perhaps some can remember this specific incident that seemingly went on for days.
     
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  12. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Off the top of my head, I don't care much for the idea. Never liked any scheme where rich people get special consideration, just because they can afford it, for something that uses resources that might be better spent in a plan for containing the fire ASAP for the whole community. However, it's a private thing, so you probably can't stop it.

    I would hate to be one of those private firefighters assigned to stand guard at Kardashian's or West's house, while public firefighters are struggling down the street to contain the fire down there.
     
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    Last edited: Nov 17, 2018
  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I hadn't heard of private firefighters but I don't see anything wrong with it. It would be the equivalent of someone hiring private security or having a nurse or doctor in residence.
     
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  14. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    I don't see that it's wrong either, as long as they don't deplete resources that would leave others at risk.
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The City Journal offers what seems to be an objective discussion of the problems.
     
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