Re: thinking of anyone here in SoCal

"Taria" <tariawilson2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Fm2Ui.21809$od4.18042@xxxxxxxxxxx
So what do you do with the zillions of houses already built?
I have seen a couple of houses built in fire areas of concrete.
The risk of earthquakes and I would imagine costs are prohibitive.
My sil lost her house 4 years ago in the big SD fire. The rebuilt
house was done to all the new fire codes. 2 days ago the fire
came to the back door but the house did not burn. Both of her
houses were built with stucco. It doesn't burn.

Stucco doesn't burn but the exterior building material isn't necessarily any
protection. I've seen lots of brick, mudbrick, concrete block and stucco
houses that have been burned to the ground. The fire usually gets in
through either windows or external venting of some sort (subfloor, soffits,
under roof tiles etc, etc) A few years ago we lost 500 houses in our
national capital right in the suburbs about 3 miles from our Federal
Parliament building - rather like the burbs of Washinton going up

There are just
too many people here in places they shouldn't be. Fire codes are
pretty strict for new construction but there are just a lot of
people and houses already here. I'd rather risk losing my house
to fire than dying in it during an earthquake. Fire usually allows
evacuation. No warning on earthquakes.

I can only guess that Eucs are planted because they grow well with
little water in this climate.

Yep. Rotten things in the burbs.


WHen I was a kid there were rows of
them along the citrus and avocado groves as windbreaks. It worked
but the groves have been taken out and housing tracts planted in
their place. Some of the lines of eucs remain. There is a area
in Orange County that the railroad planted completely with a eucalyptus
forest. They were planning to use them for railroad ties and then
the nitwits found out the wood would not work.

:-)) Obvioulsy got the wrong variety. I use old railway ties to edge veg
beds with when I can get them. Brillaint as they are as tough as old boots
and last forever.


That was in the
middle of nowhere at the time but people just keep coming here
for the climate and the opportunity. Now there is are probably
thousands of houses built among those eucalyptus trees. The biggest
problem here is the fires are going into areas that do not typically
burn. This wind event was the worst I ever remember. I have lived
in So Cal. nearly 50 years and it has followed a really dry couple of
years. 3-1/2" of rain in LA last season.

Yes. It's those filthy winds that do it. When the houses went up several
years ago, my lawn was covered in burned Euc leaves. They'd been wind blown
for a very logn way, but they also have a reputation for causing spot fires
well ahead of the fire front so I was thankful that they had to been carried
so far on the wind before they got here.

Loss of life this go round has been really low. That is something to
be thankful for IMO.

Yes. The fires in Greece this year seem to have been particularly bad for
loss of life in comparison to the relativley few who have died in this round
of fires in California. It would be a horrible way to die.


.

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