Speaking from personal experience (here in the desert we got smoked out by
the Old Fire at Big Bear, a friend nearly lost his house to the Grand Prix
Fire) when the Santa Ana wind gets blowing downslope at 50 knots, the
humidity is below 10%, the temperature is in the 90s (F), and the local
chaparral vegetation is laden with flammable resins like creosote to make it
unpalatable to browsing animals, then NOTHING is going to make that fire
slow down. Been there and seen that too many times. Water bombers can deter
fires from certain areas but they cannot "save California". If you haven't
seen it with your own eyes, you can't truly grasp the power and the
magnitude of a raging brush fire.

As long as people insist on living out there in the brushy manzanita covered
hills of Southern California, there are going to be houses lost in fires.

Anyone who builds a house in that environment is taking a big gamble, and they
only have themselves to blame. Maybe an IL-76 in that situation would have
saved some houses. Maybe not. If someone wants to go live in their own
private "stupid zone", its their own business, except for the fact that
firefighters and pilots get killed while trying to help.


Ron
Pilot/Wildland Firefighter