LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

Re:LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed by cameldrv on Wednesday January 08, 2025 @06:22PM (#42639643)

Buying more firefighting equipment is like building a dam higher and higher every year as the reservoir fills up, instead of letting it drain out gradually. The natural cycle in California is for there to be periodic fires, but due to the policy of suppression, they haven't happened for 70 years or more, so now when they do, they are these massive infernos.

Better and better fire suppression tech over the years that enables a quicker response, like aircraft, satellite monitoring, remote video cameras, etc, has just served to make the problem worse in the long run.

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Re:LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed by nradov on Wednesday January 08, 2025 @09:21PM (#42640927)

That's not quite what's going on with these particular fires. They weren't caused by excessive fire suppression. Most of the terrain involved is chaparral rather than forest. The previous two years had relatively high rainfall which caused a lot of fast brush growth. This season has had much less rainfall so everything dried out, creating tinderbox conditions. In those areas we have to rely more on clearing defensible space around structures.

https://youtu.be/gunenpZ5JuE

The forest management issues are valid but apply more to other parts of the state.

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