HUA HIN

[webfact]

Death toll rises to 42 in California wildfires

By Dan Whitcomb

 

The skyline of downtown Los Angeles is pictured through smoke during the Wilson Fire near Mount Wilson in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The death toll from more than a dozen major wildfires still burning across Northern California's celebrated wine country rose to 42 on Wednesday, after search and rescue teams picking through burned out neighbourhoods found another victim.

 

Few details were available on the latest person confirmed to have died in the so-called North Bay fires, already the deadliest in California history.

 

Law enforcement officials said only that the individual had died in the Fountain Grove section of Santa Rosa, a city of about 175,000 people north of San Francisco that has seen nearly 5 percent of its homes destroyed.

 

Since erupting on Oct. 8 and 9, the fires have blackened more than 245,000 acres, (86,200 hectares), an area more than five times the size of Washington, D.C., and destroyed nearly 5,000 homes along with wineries and commercial buildings.

 

About 60 people remain missing or unaccounted for in Sonoma and Napa counties. Most of the over 2,000 people listed in missing-persons reports have turned up safe, including evacuees who failed to alert authorities after fleeing their homes.

 

Thousands of survivors, forced to flee the flames with little warning, remained displaced. Many would return to find nothing left, forcing them to make hasty plans for shelter.

 

Fire officials say that while 13 major blazes were still burning as of Wednesday, the flames were largely contained and no longer considered a threat to homes or communities.

 

"We have stopped the forward progress and movement of all these fires, we have line around them," Brett Gouvea, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection deputy chief, told reporters at an afternoon press conference.

 

A Santa Rosa couple whose house was destroyed sued Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) on Tuesday, claiming the utility failed to take preventative measures in the face of dangerous drought conditions.“PG&E failed to properly maintain and to repair power lines while also negligently failing to properly trim, prune and maintain vegetation near their electrical equipment,” attorneys for Wayne and Jennifer Harvell said in a written statement.

 

The couple seeks compensation for personal property losses and “emotional harm.” in their lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

 

Representatives for PG&E said that the utility was focussed on supporting firefighting efforts and restoring power

"We aren’t going to speculate about any of the causes of the fires and will cooperate with the reviews by any relevant regulator or agency," spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said.

 

Authorities say they were still investigating to determine a cause of each of the major fires.

 

About 30 vintners sustained some fire damage to wine-making facilities, vineyards, tasting rooms or other assets, according to the industry group Napa Valley Vintners.

 

About 90 percent of Napa’s grape harvest had been picked and escaped exposure to smoke that could have tainted the fruit.

 

Still, the toll taken on the region has thrown the wine industry into disarray. The group’s spokeswoman, Patsy McGaughy, said the 2017 Napa vintage would likely be smaller than previously expected.

 

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-19

[boomerangutang]

All the houses burnt were wood frame - and nearly all had plywood cladding.

More masonry should be used, including roof tiles.  

 

Instead of lawns around houses, people should be required to use sand and/or gravel or masonry tiles.   Landscaping could be with succulents instead of the types of bushes/trees normally used.

 

Houses are quite close together.  That's an item that can't be changed, unless some plot owners buy the adjoining plot, and build their new house in the middle (highly unlikely) - that would at least give them some added buffer space.

 

Interesting to note that there were several commercial places, like a McDonalds and a K-mart which burned to ashes - and each were surrounded by parking lots.   It's a mystery how they caught fire, unless one looks at what sorts of flammable items/building materials were part of the buildings.  Each commercial building should now have a designated professional whose primary duty is fire protection.    Banks have full time armed guards to protect against robberies, ....why not full time personnel for commercial building - to protect against losing the entire building.

 

 

[tryasimight]

11 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

All the houses burnt were wood frame - and nearly all had plywood cladding.

More masonry should be used, including roof tiles.  

 

Instead of lawns around houses, people should be required to use sand and/or gravel or masonry tiles.   Landscaping could be with succulents instead of the types of bushes/trees normally used.

 

Houses are quite close together.  That's an item that can't be changed, unless some plot owners buy the adjoining plot, and build their new house in the middle (highly unlikely) - that would at least give them some added buffer space.

 

Interesting to note that there were several commercial places, like a McDonalds and a K-mart which burned to ashes - and each were surrounded by parking lots.   It's a mystery how they caught fire, unless one looks at what sorts of flammable items/building materials were part of the buildings.  Each commercial building should now have a designated professional whose primary duty is fire protection.    Banks have full time armed guards to protect against robberies, ....why not full time personnel for commercial building - to protect against losing the entire building.

 

 

Obviously you have never seen a firestorm...it makes it's own weather and it is terrifying. A largish open space like a car park doesn't matter one bit. The heat produced can cause spontaneous combustion....the flames, as such, don't need to be even close.

 

I have seen the tops of trees explode when there are cattle underneath them  trying to hide, mind you, the cattle buggered off pretty damn quickly too!

[boomerangutang]

22 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Obviously you have never seen a firestorm...it makes it's own weather and it is terrifying. A largish open space like a car park doesn't matter one bit. The heat produced can cause spontaneous combustion....the flames, as such, don't need to be even close.

I have seen the tops of trees explode when there are cattle underneath them  trying to hide, mind you, the cattle buggered off pretty damn quickly too!

You don't know my experiences with fire.  I've interacted with large fires as much as just about anyone you can shake a faggot at.   Opine all you want, but don't assume you know my experiences.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.  

[Stargeezr]

For people who wonder how some places burned, well with wind driven flames there

can be also flaming debris blown into places like MacDonalds etc and the building goes up because it is a wood structure that burns. as well with flat roofs that have ashphalt all it takes is flaming debris to land and get the roof hot enough to ignite.    Seen it happen here in Canada.

Geezer