Re: San Diego fires (was Re: "He was a masseuse"?)

Robert Bannister wrote:
John Holmes wrote:


We had especially bad summers for fires in south-eastern Australia in
2002/3 and 2006/7. In each of those over a million hectares was
burnt in Victoria alone, and this summer is tipped to be bad again.
The frequency of these events appears to be increasing as a result
of global warming: http://www.csiro.au/science/ps17j.html

Global warming aside, I can't help feeling that the fire hazard is
also increasing because there is less burning off, which seems to be
the fault of a lot of city people who, lacking understanding,
complain about the smoke.

No, that couldn't be more wrong. There is more fuel reduction burning done now than in earlier years. Studies have shown that it is effective in retarding the spread of fires under moderate fire conditions, so it is worth doing, especially close to private property. But the same studies show that it has no effect on the spread of fires under extreme conditions such as we are discussing here.

Also, the length of the fire season has been increasing, so there is less of a window in which FRB can be done safely. There have been a number of cases in recent years in which prescribed burns have suddenly got out of control because the unexpected arrival of unseasonally hot weather.

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au

.

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