[Elecraft] [OT] Fires

[David Gilbert]

I think you have a skewed view of the situation, probably understandably 
so given your own vulnerability to that fire.  I can find tons of media 
information specifically on the Bobcat Fire with almost daily datelines 
when I do a Google search, and I know from personal experience with 
wildfires here in southern Arizona that agencies have to prioritize 
literally on an hour by hour basis how and where they deploy scarce 
resources.  Slurry bombers are about the only effective countermeasures 
in rough terrain (and even then only partially), since sending fire 
crews into those areas is pure and simple murder.

Here where I live (dry grass, dry trees, hilly terrain) the aircraft 
(slurry bombers, helicopter water drops) try to slow the fires while the 
fire crews mostly just dig in their heels and try to save the homes ... 
and there isn't much point in them doing so until the homes are actually 
threatened.  The fire that whipped through this area in 2011 burned 
EVERYTHING within about 50 feet of my home, but the fire crews wouldn't 
back off and they saved the house.  If you can find the Google Earth 
satellite pictures from July 2011 you can see what I mean (my .kml info 
is available from QRZ.com page) ... everything is black except for a 
cone where my house is at the pointed end of the cone.

With 4 million acres on fire in California within a short period of time 
I think it's unrealistic of you to think that there will ever be enough 
resources in reserve to cover everything in a situation like that ... at 
least not when you would like.

Dave   AB7E




On 10/14/2020 1:52 PM, Al Lorona wrote:
> So I read not only K6XX's report, but the entire issue of the Jug.  http://nccc.cc/jug/2020/09sep2020.pdf .  I am completely floored by the complete destruction of Bob's place. Bob, I don't know if you're a believer, but I for one am praying for strength for you, my friend.
>
> My impression of the Bobcat fire here in Los Angeles, which got to within 2 miles from me and is still burning 38 days later, is similar to Bob's: fire agencies simply let it burn for days without any urgency whatsoever, letting it advance into backyards in the northernmost reaches of Arcadia and Monrovia before kicking into firefighting high gear at the last possible second. In strangely similar fashion, the news media never really reported with any energy on the Bobcat fire. I still can't understand the almost total ignoring of this fire for so long. So I resonated with Bob on this point, and for this reason I refute W6GJB's claim that resources assigned to southern California deprived northern California of the same. It seems that *nobody* had the resources they needed. What a shame.
>
> Hang in there, Bob. Please let us know if you've started a gofundme page or something like that.
>
> Al  W6LX
>
>