[ExI] why worse necessarily?

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
.

 

>…Spike, I'm very glad that neither you nor any member of your family were hurt by the wildfire…

 

Thx John. 

 

> Our recent fire catastrophe in Spokane was human caused, but nature also played a big role: the wind enabled a lone arsonist to destroy hundreds of homes…

…

 

>…But there is an INVERSE relationship between the strength of the Pacific El Niño and Atlantic hurricanes; the stronger the El Niño is the dryer and more fire prone Spokane becomes however thanks to El Niño…John K Clark

 

 

Ja, they had a dry spring this year, but there was another important factor.

 

I agree there will always be an ignition source.  Out west of town there are trails out thru the woods, where a prole can backpack and camp anywhere he wants.  Campfires can get away from them.  Of course there are firebugs, as was the case this time.  There are occasional big winds, as was the case this time.

 

But the biggest factor this time was the fire getting in these trees shown in the photo below, ponderosa pines.  These are controversial, since they are known fire hazards.  They are native to this area: it was a ponderosa pine forest before developers built the neighborhood in the late 1980s.  They thinned the forest, took out the biggest (most dangerous) of the trees, but that species grows a foot to a 1.5 ft per year.  It has been 37 years since the area was built up.  The trees had nearly ideal growing conditions, since they had been thinned (fewer competing trees) and had plenty of water from being in irrigated lawns.  

 

I mentioned the trees were controversial.  The environmentalists argued that the trees were far less susceptible to structural failure and fire because homeowners took out any which were infested by pine beetles and the lawn trees had plenty of water.  However… even with those advantages… those trees were prone to breaking off without warning.

 

I took the photo below about one minute after we began evacuation.  Note the right side of the photo, there are four trees and one stump about the height a tall man can reach.  That tree broke off without warning about two months ago.  The tree fell across the road.  It was not infested with pine beetles.  It just broke off, as these trees do.

 

My FIL originally had four ponderosas in his yard.  He removed two of them about 20 yrs ago after it became clear they were a hazard to the neighbors.  About 4 yrs ago, I convinced him to remove the remaining two because of the fire hazard, however there were still pleeeenty of those trees in the neighborhood, which had grown very tall.  Compare the height of the trees with that two story home on the left of the photo below:   

 



 

As we evacuated downwind, I could see there was a great risk of a crown fire in those trees.  If the foliage catches fire, it burns quickly, then rains down hot embers on the homes below for hours.  Less than one minute after I took this photo, an ash glob about the size of a ping pong ball fell on my windshield.  It burned a notch in my wiper.  When I saw that, I knew what was coming, but didn’t know how quickly it would happen.  

 

The neighborhood burned because homeowners refused to get rid of those accursed ponderosa pines.  Those pine tree keepers are as much to blame as the arsonist.  If you have one in your yard, I do sincerely encourage you to get the hell rid of it.

 

spike

 

 

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