So how did the Thomas fire become such a monster? Heavy winds are one factor. But another is the thick brush that has not burned in a century, providing fuel.
“The fuels in there are thick and they're dead, so they're very receptive to fire,” said Steve Swindle, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.
The fuel can spread the fire even when winds die down.
“Since it’s so dry out there, it doesn’t take much in the way of winds to create those critical fire weather conditions,” said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We’ll see wind gusts in that ... area between 20 and 35 mph, maybe a few mountain sites might see up to about 40, but that’s the most we’re expecting right now.”
When the fire shifted toward the coast Sunday morning, Monroe said winds were not necessarily the driver.
“Wind was probably not the biggest factor last night to this morning — it’s probably more the complex terrain, very dry and possibly widespread fuels for the fire and the fact that it’s a pretty large and ongoing fire,” he said. “The light offshore winds are certainly a factor, but not as important as they’ve been, say, earlier in the week when we saw much stronger winds over the fire.”
The last time some of the slopes and canyons burned in the mountains east of Santa Barbara was in the 1970s, when four firefighters operating bulldozers died in a rollover accident...
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3 comments:
When you have a fire being fed by arson, then you can understand what is happening with the fires in Calif. The other thing is that the environmental crowd refuses to let the natural resource managers fire proof the more dangerous brush areas. Then add the fact that governor moonbeam says that building homes which might deter wild fire getting started under their eaves is too expensive for the home builder. Years ago there was a documentary called "Design for Disaster" how homes in Calif just added to the problem of containing wild fires. California is full of deaf people.
Anonymous said "When you have a fire that's fed by arson.."
...if you're familiar the Hammond's situation...you might wanna take some blood pressure pills before reading any further...
-- #3 on this article's list of CA's fires is the 2013 Rim fire near Yosemite - started by a hunter's illegal campfire - when rescued he lied - changing his story twice by blaming other people for the fire before he finally admitted to starting the fire himself...one air tanker crashed fighting that fire - killing the pilot.
....charges dropped.
-- Another arson fire, the 2014 Boles fire in Weed, CA, burned 500 acres & over 150 homes...one woman died of heart attack while trying to escape.
Fire started by homeless man with prior run-ins with the law, but, because of his youth the judge sentenced him to 3 years in jail.
...released out on parole after serving only 18 months.
-- That same year in Ono, CA, the Bully fire, an illegal pot grower - who's last name was Smoke - was delivering a load of fertilizer to his 'garden' & drove a rental truck thru dry grass on a windy day - sparking a 12,000 acre blaze that killed one person and destroyed 20 buildings.
Facing arson & involuntary manslaughter charges, Mr. Smoke posted $10,000 bail & high-tailed it out of state.
Re-arrested 2 years later in Indiana.
...5 year sentence...eligible for parole after 50% time served.
But...unlike the Hammonds...none of the above arsonists are guilty of having a 5 mile long by 3/4 mile wide belt of uranium underneath their ranch...
...it's a 5x larger & richer source of U3o8 than the nearby Aurora mine owned by Uranium One - and the smaller Aurora mine could supply 30% of U.S. needs...
...currently all U.S. mines only supplying 9%.
Theoretically, then, the Hammond's land on the Steens Mountain could put U.S. supply well over 100%.
...any wonder why the BLM demanded rights of first refusal..?
Remember the second Los Alamos fire which burned a good portion of the homes there? The fire was set by the National Park Service in the interest of doing a controlled burn DESPITE the adverse wind forecast for that day. Barely a slap on the hand.
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