Quote:
Originally Posted by dennisuello
SoCal burns, like what, every year? How come there isn't one or two of those sitting in SD ready to go, so we don't have to have one fly down all the way from Canada?
Hope everyone is safe.
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It hasn't burned this dramatically in about 3 years. What everyone forgets is most of the areas that burn like mad are arid and the plants use lots of oily secretions to keep water evaporation to a minimum. Good for the plant, bad for fire suppression.
The fire season is always the same, but what's happening now is the result of a record year of rain a few years ago that produced massive plant growth and then the subsequent years of drought that produced a lethal combination of dry fuel, lots of it, low humidity, and high winds. A potent recipe for disaster if there ever was one.
We don't have those air tankers because we don't need them. Typically the fires get knocked down pretty fast with the normal ground crews and air support.
Similarly, when Yellowstone burned, it was predictable, but the equipment wasn't staged, because it wasn't predicted.
It only seems like we burn every year, but it's been a long time since the Laguna fire and if you drive through the canyon, you have to really know what to look for to even tell the fire went through there.