I don't know maybe help clear the road and help people evacuate....
I have no experience with fires except campfires but have lost an Aunt , Uncle and two nephews in a house fire and I'm paranoid of them at my house....

You’re right about this. The Santa Ana winds are quite unique. They blow incredibly strong, downhill, into the communities in the foothill.

From what I have been seeing, the winds are blow way to hard at time, its ground aerial resources, and pretty much making any tactical efforts on the ground ineffective.

People are best of getting out of there, but too many home owners, understandably so, don’t want to leave.

I don’t think a lot of people understand the steep grades of what they call “hills” and the massive elevation changes in and around LA. I would be willing to bet that their place where smoke jumpers have skydived into an area while they could still see the LA skyline. Many places, you just can’t get 50 firetrucks there to battle a blaze.

It’s truly amazing.

I checked flight radar 24 a little while ago and there were about 30 helicopters over it.

The mountains around LA are definitely rugged and the over your head high manzanita and chaparral makes travel very slow.

I’ve been down there a few times in the fall when these winds are blowing with a crew. Between LA co and Cal fire they have a lot of skill protecting structures a lot of times 20 person crews will work alongside them to do clearing and improvements around houses, sometimes deploying sprinkler systems. Burning out around houses ahead of the main fire getting there, etc.

You’ll probably continue to see the fires increase in size until dozer lines get put in on ridges that are advantageous for crews to burn off, that can take a lot of time. These fires often get fought with indirect attack, burning out, and holding.

Contrary to a lot of the negatives in the news,California is quite well equipped to fight these sorts of fires, they have skilled fighters, they employ quite aggressive tactics to include running helicopters with buckets at night, something not done anywhere else in the world. Contrary to what trump is twittering, there are a good amount of aerial resources assigned down there, including some Canadair 215’s the scooper planes, that are quite effective in that area of brush.

I’m not sure what to think about the empty fire hydrants and whatever, that seems strange. Newsom and the mayor certainly aren’t going to do anything. I remember when Arnold came out to a fire we were on, what a clown show, but good for morale, haha.

Yeah hearing wind gust at 100 mph this is tragic but seems to happen to much...

Is it climate change ?
Or will cleaning brush help ?

Clearing brush will certainly help some, but that process isn’t so simple. If you remove the brush, there will be brush that still grows back fairly quick, so there is an expensive/cumbersome process of constantly removing brush. I’ll hand it to CA, they have convict crews that do a lot of this work, it’s a perfect job for them.

After the brush is gone tall grasses that can obviously spread fire quickly grow in its place.

There is a lot of urban sprawl into the foothills around LA, a lot of narrow winding roads, that are dangerous for fire engines to be on, because they egress can get cut off easily.

It really is probably one of the most complex places in the world to work on wildfires when these winds blow, I hope everyone stays safe.

Thanks for your input on this subject. Very interesting.

Mark Perry and Doug Renner only regale us with homeless encampment burn barrel fires and broken toe ambulance runs. Lol

Call me simple but I'm not buying this whole no water problem. Hell the Pacific Ocean is right there, I could McGyver a pump system to move water from point A-B so surely there's a group of engineers that can figure this one out.

It’s about to get politcal now.

Weather Channel is showing some really scary video of cars jam packed and going nowhere on the roads adjacent to the fire lines.

Most of the guys i started with moved to the structure side, way better work/life balance and pay. A lot of the guys that stay with the feds wind up disgruntled and divorced, high suicide rate. I’m sure everything isn’t all rainbows and unicorns on the structure side, but the pasture is greener than the one the wildland guys are grazing in. IMO.

Thanks for all the input but one more question
Would wild goats help ?
I know it sounds stupid...

Shouldn't have to be, there is no reason to inject politics into rational thinking...

I don't think you understand the corruption levels when it comes to water in Calif . Norcal VS SoCal etc.... Look up the connection between the Resnick family and Two former Governors ---Pat Brown and his kid Jerry.
4 large AG corporations control most of SoCal water diverted from Norcal . In fact , the corruption was so bad --secret deals were purposely hidden under lock and key for decades and still are . PBS did a special a few years ago and it was scary . The corruption levels in calif are insane and it's all pay to play and has been for decades . add in stupid politicians and you have insane scenario's currently playing out .