California Wildfire Burns With Ferocity Never Seen By Fire Crews

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- A wildfire with a ferocity never seen before by veteran California firefighters raced up and down canyon hillsides, instantly engulfing homes and forcing thousands of people to flee, some running for their lives just ahead of the flames.

By Wednesday, a day after it ignited in brush left tinder-dry by years of drought, the blaze had spread across nearly 47 square miles and was raging out of control. The flames advanced despite the efforts of 1,300 firefighters.

Authorities could not immediately say how many homes had been destroyed, but they warned that the number will be large.

"There will be a lot of families that come home to nothing," San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said after flying over a fire scene he described as "devastating."

Read more: http://cjonline.com/news/2016-08-17/california-wildfire-burns-ferocity-never-seen-fire-crews

[Abouttime]

1. And right wing fools still deny climate change

Fires in the west worse than any in history, unprecedented flooding in the south NASA says today that 2016 so far is the hottest on record yet republicans sit on their hands and do nothing.
I know it sounds crazy but rebuke isn't enough, climate deniers must be silenced so we can really do something about climate change.

[SDJay]

2. Silenced and Mocked Mercilessly

as no more intelligent than those who insisted the earth was flat.

I agree - these idiots are doing a lot more harm than I think people realize. It's these screamers that are keeping us from doing what needs to be done, and that's going to destroy our planet.

I know a few climate change deniers and I've verbally tortured them every time they say something stupid like, "See? It's a blizzard in the Midwest! How's that 'global warming' going for you now?" If possible, I show them this video and talk to them like the child they are acting like at the time:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[GreydeeThos]

3. The deniers will tell you it is 'just natural cycles'

I never hear them explain why this 'natural cycle' has just kept getting worse for the last 40 years.

[villager]

4. Are stupidity-caused extinctions part of a natural cycle, too?

Evidently, it would seem...

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Oh man, that is scary. Those fires are bad enough in "normal" times....

tho now times seems to be normal.

I am so glad we got out of Cal. when we did. From the ocean back into the deserts and up into the scub hills, there is so much fuel for fires.
Lots of eucalyptus trees, torches waiting for a flame, in the area I lived in. Seeing those fires that jumped the freeway and burned vehicles, threatening the drivers, really was astonishing. But there is such a population density that people are gonna need evacuation from any fire now.

and later, flooding on the burned out soil.

[Hortensis]

8. Few areas have anything like the risk those

mountain canyon and ridge areas do, of course.

Those who've lost their homes have my sympathy. But for those who haven't lived out there, the fact is,most of those homes would never have been built if government-subsidized insurance far, far, far below market rates had not been available. Yes, lovely views on those sites are normal, often spectacular, making many who could afford them want to live there, but many of these properties were simply not insurable on the free market, and others would have been priced well beyond the willingness or even ability of most to pay.

Sensible people knew, of course, that building in high-risk locations should not be encouraged by having taxpayers shoulder the burden of paying for guaranteed losses each year, or even allowed by zoning for building. The issue was discussed with every major fire, but those people vote and irresponsible politicians refused to risk the blowback that putting a stop to it would have caused.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Ditto for every owner of wildly expensive homes on the barrier Islands in the Gulf of Mexico

and along the shoreline of hurricane/flooding targets.

There has been talk, years before Katrina, of no more permits for housing on the barrier Islands down here...which are inches from sea level, and which get damaged in any heavy storm.
Then the home owmers and realtors DEMAND that the county dredge sand to rebuild the washed away areas, but the dredging just increases erosion during heavy waves in the next storm.

Insanity.

[Hortensis]

10. Yes. A good deal of corruption of all types is

demanded by local electorates. "The people." And those in neighborhoods that donate and vote or sometimes just vote, often get what they want.

[adigal]

13. Welfare for millionaires- after Sandy, owners of million dollar homes

were all given government monies to fix their homes. Meanwhile, I can't afford to buy a camper down there. It's messed up.

[ripcord]

15. There are very few millionaires in that area

San Bernardino County is one of the poorest counties in the state and that area is particularly depressed. There are not many expensive homes in Cajon or Lone Pine canyons, most of the places are actually pistachio orchards. And Phelan probably has more pre fabs and trailers than houses. We had to evacuate my niece and her baby from Wrightwood ahead of the fire where they live in an 860 sq ft cabin and live on public assistance so dont believe everything you hear.

[Wilms]

11. Well said, Hortensis.

They always like socializing the losses.

[Hortensis]

12. Like pay scales that result in full-time workers

applying for government assistance to eat.

[Hekate]

6. The area names shocked me: Lytle Creek, Baldy Mesa. Cucamonga is below that...

...my family lived there for years.

It just blew up so damn fast.

[eggplant]

7. For those of you playing at home...

...here's the play-by-play.

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4962/

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Oh, I could just hug you.

Exactly what I was looking for.

[eggplant]

17. Yea, INCIWEB is where it's at.

When there are wildfires around Boulder, it's helpful for figuring out if my friends are at risk.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Last year's Lake County Fire in Cal put my BIL at serious risk

and we are sitting here in Ala. pouring over the maps, trying to figure out where they are in an isolated canyon, where the fire is, etc.
and no cell phone service because of the fire.
Horrible, all the way around.

[ripcord]

18. The road closures were a joke for locals

My niece needed some things so we went to get them, sheriff's deputy wouldn't let us up the back way to we just took dirt roads. That deputy wasn't even surprised when we came back down past him

[mnhtnbb]

14. We were just in L.A. for a couple of days

on our recent trip to SoCal for a family wedding and then we headed north to Seattle and Victoria, BC.

I lived in SoCal for 23 years from 1965-1988. It really struck me how dry and brown everything is there now. But, it's desert. It always has been.