California Fires

So I'm in the phone business and yesterday (Friday July 11) I was working on turning up a PRI (look it up if you are interested)trunk for a property in Denver near the airport. The supplier of the service was AT&T and there are processes that have to be gone through to turn up the service. There was someone on site, I was into the phone system via the internet (pretty cool - no more dial up modems) and the tech from AT&T was in Sacramento, CA.

All three of us are conferenced together and while we are all waiting for the circuit to come up the guy on site in Denver asks the AT&T tech in California what is going on with the fires - a couple of the big ones are near Sacramento. Well she launches into a tirade about all the "tree huggers". Now she didn't use any invectives, but you could tell she was having a hard time controlling the urge to do so. We stared talking about how some of the greatest property and life loss from fires in California could be directly linked to the "environmentalists" blocking controlled burns and underbrush clearing for totally idiotic reasons.

The majority of property loss in Lake Tahoe last year was caused by the local government enjoining the residents from clearing pine straw from underneath the trees on their property. And why was this done one asks. Let me enlighten you - it was because in the absence of the pine needles on the ground rain could cause runoff of dirt into the lake causing it to look "murky" until it settled to the bottom. In other words it would be "yucky" to look at for a day or two after it rained.

A few years ago fires in Riverside County, California got out of control. Environmentalists managed to stop the forestry service from clearing proactive fire breaks because a species of Kangaroo rat would not cross open ground over 6 feet or so and it was thought this might endanger their procreation. (Hey don't expect to see this reported in the mainstream media). So fire breaks out - no fire breaks - fire rages for a few weeks. Did anybody stop to think that if fire DID break out it would fry the little critters anyway? Rat Kabobs anyone?

Well, the list goes on and on. And lest anyone think the woman was just another angry conservative like me who cannot understand (just on the face of it) the idiotic reasoning which can have such devastating consequences it turns out the AT&T tech had been a California firefighter for nine years. Putting her life on the line (and watching her friends do the same thing) because any kind of preventative measures were nixed by the "tree huggers" (her words not mine). It's like asking a trapeze artist to work without a net - then tell them they have to have their arms tied behind their back and after executing the death-defying triple somersault - catch the other bar with their teeth.

I guess she'd just had enough. I don't blame her. Putting out fires in the phone business is a lot less difficult and a little less frustrating.

And don't forget every time some huge fire rages out of control - one that could have been prevented - and destroys untold millions of dollars worth of property it raises the insurance rates for every homeowner in the country. Down here in Florida (and other places along the gulf coast) we pay a "hurricane recoupment fee" for the storm payouts of three and four years ago - as well as paying increased premiums. That's okay. We live here so we should pay for it. But I'd bet the California people don't pay a "forest fire or mudslide recoupment fee" and if the insurance companies tried to collect it I'd bet the state of California would block it. Hell let the rest of the US pay for it. So while you are paying your higher property insurance bill in Iowa, Nebraska, or Colorado just feel content in the fact that, after rebuilding their two million dollar homes on the shores of Lake Tahoe with their insurance payoff, those folks will be able to sit on their deck (with more square footage than your whole house) and sip a cocktail or glass of champagne while looking at the crystal clear lake - even just after it rains.