People keep moving into Ponderosa Pine forest, and most refuse to keep an adequate firebreak (1oo yards) around their house.
Then they expect someone to rescue them when fires do occur, as they have done every 10-20 years for the past few million years.
This house in Colorado burned last month.
People also build houses in flood zones, hurricane alleys, tornado alleys, and in volcano lava paths. In most of these area they need, AND GET, building permits. Some people are really stupid..
I had the regional flood control manager tell me that it is ok to build in a flood zone as long as people are properly insured! She did not like my reply as I told her that was BS! Building in flood zones creates problems for more than just the idiots that build there. Same with building in fire zones, hurricane zones and all the other known hazardous areas. It is ok to build as long as proper precautions are taken when planning and building the house.
Unfortunately, mike1947, I have heard other similar stories. I had a geology prof at university who would shake his head and gasp when he related some of the things he knew first hand. He said you could say it will flood, erupt within x years, and it would – and wipe out lots of houses, buildings, farm, roads, etc. He rightly said LOTS of disasters could not be predicted (eg the recent flooding Alberta and BC, Canada)
All those guys who died in this fire were sacrificed on the alter of political correctness. , and a certain laziness on the part of bureaucrats. Oh, well.
There is so much open land in Arizona that there was no reason to build a city in that forest. Land speculators sold people on the idea of living in the forest and sold land at minimum down and minimum a month. But look at the area around Flagstaff to see more of the same. I drove through there in April and saw disaster waiting to happen.
I am hoping for a full investigation, this looks bad to me.
It is the firefighters responsibility to decide what is safe. Prescott Hotshots drop in front of the fire and cut a line. They routinely do what we tell our guys to NEVER do.
These guys do take big risks, and make mistakes…IC stated he believes they chose too small of a safety zone.
One of my guys was on a fire with them and saw them get burned over just a few years ago…but that time it was light fuels and they had an adequate rocky safety zone.
This has been changing starting about 15 years ago – many rural and semi-rural fire districts are now mandating fuel-free zones & low tree-density zones (and imposing fines for non-compliance).
It will take some time to get everyone on board; in the meantime, many people in fire-prone areas still complain bitterly about the smoke & ashes every time the Forest Service or other public land agencies do a controlled burn to limit fuel build-up. Idiots.
I wonder whether the deaths of those firefighters would have been prevented if the USFS still had access to the six big P-3 Orion aerial firefighting tankers which the Obama administration capriciously dumped in 2011. Losing the Orions drastically reduced the aerial firefighting capability of the USFS, and increased the risks faced by firefighters on the ground.
Don’t know about the codes and restrictions in Arizona, BUT, here in the People’s Republic of Californication you usually CAN’T get permission to clear the dead wood, brush, overhanging limbs, and other NATURAL FUEL because of ECOWHACKTARD rules ESPECIALLY on Federal Land!!!
I am still asking why they refuse to mobilize the Evergreen 747 Supertanker and other assets when conditions are such that it is POSSIBLE that they may have a fire go out of control!! Why wait until after homes are burning and people have died to ready the best tools for stopping the fire?!?!!?
Exactly. Here in Oz the greenies have such control, when a homeowner used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak (with the fire bearing down on a rural suburb), he was fined 50K by the local council.
Maybe he should rethink what he uses the bulldozer for. The council building wouldn’t be standing now had it been me.
Hate to see anyone die, but there is some irony that these were self proclaimed “hotshots”. A little less bravado and arrogance, plus a little more common sense might have gone a long way toward saving them.