I came across a video this morning with a map of the fires in Northern Ca. showing where they were located. There are now six fires raging, with a possible seventh starting. What is weird is that they are all in a perfectly straight line going down the coast. Even more strange is that each one is equidistant from the other.

IMO these fires are being set deliberately, possibly through the use of very high tech incendiary devices. It's human nature to dismiss something so egregious. But looking at history, humans are capable of horrific acts. ]Any thoughts? No flaming please. I have a right to my opinion, as well as anyone else. Thank you.

In my opinion, the chance that these fires are being deliberately set is close to zero because of the enhanced investigations going on with each one, to determine precisely how each fire was initially sparked.

PG&E (one of the main power companies in California) is going through bankruptcy because of the last series of fires which happened in their area. They know for a fact, and have admitted, that some of those fires began because of mishaps with their own equipment.

The Getty fire began when a specific tree toppled, falling on power lines.

In normal (pre Climate Change) times, there would have been less fires numerically, and those which did spark would have been under control far faster.

In the last several years, though, the entire terrain has dried out to a far-beyond-normal extent. If ANYTHING sparks the abnormally-dry brush and trees, a tiny flame of matchstick size can spread virtually "instantly," becoming a huge, out of control, fire before the time required to get fire equipment there.

Add in the powerful effect of the seasonal Santa Ana/Diablo winds in the spreading of any "dry tinder" fire, and the result is what is happening right now.

We all agree that raking (or vacuuming! ;) ) the natural lands is absurd....but so is watering, too. Just having normal rain for two or three consecutive rainy seasons would have a tremendously positive effect on the number and severity of fires during our seasonal winds (which come every single year).

So far as how the fires are placed, my guess would be that they either have something to do with power line placement, or else the wind patterns in that particular area (which vary according to the terrain).

Even were I to accept your hypothesis, I don't see the "up" side in any of this. There is no money to be made by anyone I can see, and there are no otherwise restricted lands which are brimming with rare minerals or other commercial products underneath (something I grew up knowing something about).

If there was a conspiracy of some sort going on, it would have to be an international one--and I think the chances of this, operating in this particular way, via wildfires, are exceedingly minute.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2019 05:54PM by Tevai.

...my brother is a Fire Captain with Cal Fire. He is also a certifying College EMT and Arson instructor for EMT and Fire candidates. He was also dispatched to the fires last year in the Camp fire. He said he has never seen thee fire irregularities as occurred there. He has 30 years of experience in arson work.

ConcernedCitizen 2.0 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...my brother is a Fire Captain with Cal Fire. He
> is also a certifying College EMT and Arson
> instructor for EMT and Fire candidates. He was
> also dispatched to the fires last year in the Camp
> fire. He said he has never seen thee fire
> irregularities as occurred there. He has 30 years
> of experience in arson work.

PG&E has already admitted their culpability in the Camp Fire.

Is your brother suggesting that there is something other than what PG&E is responsible for which is going on?

..."fire irregularities"...is the key here. Can you have "fire irregularities"?....yes. It could be individual power poles, single or three phase transformers, old and derelict connections/breakers etc. Remember that whatever is determined to be the cause will likely be a pre-packaged explanation to minimize company liability.

If there is something amiss, fire investigators will figure it out.

My sister-in-law has family members in northern California that have had to evacuate.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My sister-in-law has family members in northern
> California that have had to evacuate.

I am sorry for your extended family members, summer.

Very sorry.

Thank you, Tevai. Fortunately, there are enough family members that all of them have a safe place to stay. I hope that their homes will be safe.

They are a good bunch of people. I last saw them when they came en masse to my nephew's Maine wedding.

I am concerned how a power company is supposed to survive there.

I know there are crazy people. I realized during the last fires how fires could be an effective terrorist tool. Setting fires could be attractive to someone disgruntled in the same way a mass shooter acts out. These are frightening thoughts but no facts to support them.

They have apparently identified the cause of some of the fires. Plus the climate and winds could explain a lot.

I hope they identify definitive causes and can work to put more preventive actions in place.

This is heartbreaking to see the impact on animals too.

Just noodling it around in my mind, it makes sense that there are two types of arsonists:

1. The mentally somewhat deranged personality who would be considered an amateur arsonist, who do it for the Wow! factor, and,

2. The possibly mentally deranged personality who sets a fire or fires to punish either individuals or society.


In the case of all the CA fires, we know that there have been some set in the past that were "on purpose." So it's no big leap, in my mind, that some of the CA fires were arson. And it's likely that someone setting a fire would not care that the origin could be determined to be arson. In fact, some personalities would want that fact known. Otherwise, the victims would not know they were being 'punished'.

The stupidity of the human race cannot be overstated.

Australian bushfire season is just kicking off. We have fires every year that are deliberately started as well as those started by lightning strikes and occasionally from malfunctioning power lines.

Most arsonists appear to have mental problems and a fascination with the power of fire, rather than malicious intent. Sometimes they are people who have joined the volunteer fire brigades to indulge their interest in fires.

Remember the terrible fatal San Bruno explosion? The line had not been maintained. Lives were lost as well as many homes.

Shortly after that, a similar incident happened in Walnut Creek close to where my son and his wife lived. People died and homes were lost. My son and his wife moved to Nevada partially for safety sake after the horrible fire that almost killed them.

Last year my daughter in Paradise lost everything she owned except a backpack and the clothes on her back, again due to PG&E refusing to check on a complaint of a sparking wire over dry weeds.

The retirement community has complained for over a year about that same problem. Finally, it was written up in the paper with pictures for proof. They finally came out to fix the problem, hopefully.

We had a blackout in our neighborhood a year ago. The crew finally came out after 12 hours to work on it, but they said their shift was over and left with us still in the dark. The next crew came out hours later and finally got the lights back on after another hour of work.

The big fire raging up North was started by PG&E failing to turn off the transmitter when they turned off power to all of the customers.

My own town had a fire a couple of days ago due to poor maintenance as admitted by PG&E. Acres were destroyed as well as two homes and another building.

PG&E is a nightmare. Their good well trained workers have largely retired and have not been properly replaced. Priorities are askew with safety going to the bottom of the list except for turning off power. That's no way to run a company to withhold service because of poor management.

The winds and other conditions are about the same as usual. It's how they're handled that has changed. The company needs outsiders to take it over and do it right. Those in charge now are incapable of doing the job.

Having no power for days on end is dangerous to some and inconvenient for everyone. The basic problems need to be addressed, now not in ten years as they claim will happen. Ten years won't fix the problems. We need hard work and better management.

Ten years will "fix" the current management team's problems: they'll have retired!

Our neighbor is the star witness for the start of the secondary Thomas Fire: she was making dinner and saw the transformer explode outside her window in the high winds.

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Our neighbor is the star witness for the start of
> the secondary Thomas Fire: she was making dinner
> and saw the transformer explode outside her window
> in the high winds.

She is going to be a VERY valuable witness!!

...the argument for undergrounding electric utility service has been around for decades, but always dismissed as "too expensive". OK, so having massive fire events is cheaper? Think FEMA bailouts and subsidies, overtime for Cal-Fire and local FF's, insurance claims, real estate market collapse, etc. Utility companies SHOULD be on the hook....they make millions.

If you were a 55 year-old PG&E high ranking executive, which would you prefer to do best with the money available:

1. Increase the frequency and extent of your bonuses?

2. Increase the amount of your retirement bonus and benefits?

3. Spend to update service that already is sort of already working?



Well, guess which choice(s) PG&E executives made, based on their knowledge and wisdom...

PG&E is notorious for not investing in upkeep and prevention. The underground lines you mention are a no-brainer and should have been installed decades ago.

Bankruptcy is not enough. The company should be shut down, the shareholders lose everything for investing in an irresponsible business (that's how capitalism is supposed to work), and the executives should be scrutinized for negligence and the predictable consequences.

PG&E kills people on both sides: those that die from the fires, and those (elderly and otherwise vulnerable) who die when the electricity is unpredictably shut off.

,,,stop it. That's hate speech.

...what most people don't know is that in the 20's and 30's, small communities and areas outside of the urban power producers, had their own power production ability; diesel or natgas generators. The town I live in at one time produced their own electricity with a local housed diesel generator, not relying on the "grid". The "grid", going forward, having major wireless and internet control, will be a hazard to consumers going forward.

The San Bruno and Walnut Creek explosions and deaths were caused by poorly maintained underground lines.

..... where the connections are situated? Not likely a fire could erupt from a concrete pit.

In an underground wiring scenario, the underground wiring connects to a concrete pit, which routes the feed to utility subscribers. Maybe, but unlikely.

But I've seen PG&E workers digging here and there and everywhere to find and change electric lines. They don't have good maps for where these are located and sometimes people dig them up when they're doing other work. This is very dangerous.

As I said, PG&E is infamous for not investing in the upkeep of its existing facilities--which is a reference to the underground lines in urban and suburban areas.

The situation in rural and mountain/desert areas is different. Most of the fires that have occurred there would not have happened if the power lines were buried instead of exposed to winds and weather.

Utilities in many Third World countries do substantially better than PG&E.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2019 05:45PM by Lot's Wife.

We have buried wires in my community and it is definitely a blessing. The power almost never goes out. And we don't have to worry about tree branches impacting wires, damage from storms, or the danger of having wires down. The wires have been buried for more than 20 years with no issues. It is definitely the way to go.