According to Reuters, the CA wildfired were started by a hawk

[GreenPartyVoter]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Thousands of evacuees kept a wary eye on a brush-fed wildfire that forced them from their homes north of Los Angeles as temperatures rose and humidity plunged on Monday, fire officials said.

The Foothill fire near Santa Clarita, about 22 miles northwest of Los Angeles, has charred 5,710 acres and prompted the evacuation of 1,600 homes since it started on Saturday, a Los Angeles County fire spokesman said.

Fire officials traced the blaze's source to a red-tailed hawk that apparently was electrocuted by power lines and fell to the ground, igniting brush that has not burned since 1962.

The fire was 39 percent contained, but firefighters feared high temperatures and light winds forecast for Monday afternoon would send it toward nearby homes, the spokesman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040719/us_nm/environment_wildfires_california_dc

[4_Legs_Good]

1. Personally, I'd say the fire was started by electricity companies

and hold them responsible for the death of the hawk as well.

Grrrrrrrrr...

david

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Did you note they gave a date on when the brush was last burned?

Sounds like they are trying to bolster $hrub's scorched earth forestry management plan.

[4_Legs_Good]

5. The hawk obviously couldn't land on a nearby smaller tree...

...because it was blocked from view by some old growth trees, therefore, it landed on the electricity pole and started this devistating fire!

Hence, we must cut down all old growth trees too!!

I think you're right, scorched earth and logging.

david

[Spinzonner]

2. Wherever death and destruction have spread

look for a hawk.

Anyone checked whether this hawk was a Neocon ?

Nah, couldnt be, They never perish in the conflagrations they start ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. So true.

[TrustingDog]

8. yeah, it wasn't a dove, was it? n/t

[Cleita]

6. I used to live in Castaic which is a little north of Santa Clarita.

It's very hot and dry at this time of the year and there were always small fires starting, which fortunately mostly were put out before they spread. So the dry brush is very dangerous at this time of year. The canyon also known as the grapevine is very windy most of the time. Since we have been suffering drought conditions for the last five years in the southern half of California, I'm afraid any little thing will set off a fire and since the ground and everything is so dry, the fires spread rapidly.

Too bad for the hawk. We have a family of Red Tail Hawks that live in our eucalyptus trees. Maybe the electric company needs to check their wiring, or have they outsourced that to Asia too. If a hawk perches on one wire he's okay, but if he touches two wires at the same time then he will be electrocuted. The electric companies are supposed to make sure the wires are far enough appart to prevent this from happening.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. We lost a beautiful Bald Eagle in our neighborhood

when he flew to the dump and got tangled in the power lines there. :(

[Snoggera]

9. I heard that on the local news

and had a :wtf: moment. They can discover, while a fire is burning, that a hawk started the blaze, but can't find a tall Arab who requires kidney dialysis.

Sometimes, I have a one-track mind.

Good luck to all near the blaze. It seems for the most part that the country has been fairly lucky this year.