Discuss

I dont understand how you can say that the air tankers do not help at all. If they were to no help, they would not use them! If there was no such thing as CNN, guess what, they would STILL drop their loads. The whole reason for them is to create a fire line, and yes, sometimes it doesnt work, but when it does, then its done its job. Im so tired of everybody thinking everything has to do with politics...

Austin @ 6:52 AM PDT, Sep 13, 2008

In areas where there is federal insurance, the feds should stop writing insurance and write puts instead. Then, if a property burns (or floods, in the Mississippi River valley) the property owner exercises the put, making the government buy the property at the put price. Then the government, now the owner of the property, can turn it into forest land or similar public land.

zxdfmlp @ 4:54 PM PDT, Aug 31, 2008

Able-bodied homeowners who have created defensible space around their homes should emulate the successful Australian strategy of Prepare, Stay, and Defend. The Australians have learned that people protect homes and homes protect people. Some communities in Montana and California are already implementing this practice of Go Early or Stay and Defend.

Bob Mutch, FireSafe Montana @ 11:18 AM PDT, Aug 26, 2008

The answer is for residents to be a major part of the solution. Three facts should guide actions: (1) fires are inevitable in fire-adapted ecosystems; (2) when fires arrive under high to extreme burning conditions fire services will be overwhelmed and unavailable; (3) but when the resident has created and maintained defensible space, the home will survive even when fire service personnel are absent. The fire services have an important role in educating the homeowner in implementing this strategy.

Bob Mutch, FireSafe Montana Council @ 11:14 AM PDT, Aug 26, 2008

As a Captain in a Country Fire Authority Brigade here in Victoria Australia, I found the articles very interesting. The promotion of the Stay or Go policy by the CFA certainly works as evident in the last two fire seasons here. Very few homes were lost or lives. Further information can be found on the CFA website, www.cfa.vic.gov.au

Peter Thomson @ 4:48 AM PDT, Aug 22, 2008

I live in Camelot in Concow in Butte County. I stayed and fought for mine and my neighbor's home on July 8 when the Camp Fire bore down on our community. I was trained years ago with the Forest Service and had a safety zone nearby to escape into if things had not gone well. I fully concur with the 'stay and fight' idea of the Australians and think it should be encouraged here as a means to use trained able-bodied civilians to assist a State firefighting force strapped by the increasing intensity of wildfire in California.

Bob Modell @ 7:22 PM PDT, Aug 14, 2008

The Police should stick to policing not firefighting, and what are their commanders doing putting their employees at serious risk of death and injury, when they are not trained or equipped, surely by ordering their people into that situation they are leaving themselves open to compensation claims or even criminal charges? Education and training of people in fire prone ares is the way to go, and surely it is an owners right to defend their property?

Les @ 2:11 AM PDT, Aug 14, 2008

Big business making big money, building new neighborhoods out some place that's a long drive to anywhere- in areas that burn regularly- should be held more accountable. How do such ridiculous plans even get approved? Local govts want our taxes and our votes, but don't want to stand up for what's right, what's best for the public they "represent". Instead big companies like Tejon Ranch are issued permits to create more problems. It can't just be simple ignorance, stupidity. There's more going on behind the scenes than sex scandals, but that's what we hear about. Too bad media has to fear big business, afraid of reporting more real news.

Ella @ 5:00 AM PDT, Aug 13, 2008

Your article is a good mix of policy and the human experience and I'll be promting it as part of our community fire safety education programs in South Australia. It does however fail to highlight that the decision to 'Stay and Defend or Leave Early' needs to be part of a written family Bushfire Action Plan. A template for this plan is available from the CFS website 'www.cfs.sa.gov.au' for those who may be interested. Thankyou

Leigh Miller @ 5:24 PM PDT, Aug 12, 2008

The 2003 Old Fire and the 2007 fire would not have been so devastating to the mountaintop communities if these "Conservation" groups would have agreed to a plan drawn up 10 years before the Bark Beetle Epidemic by local agencies (including Fish and Game, Fish and Wildlife, CDF, USFS and others) which called for thinning of the forests. You couldn't even cut down a dead bark beetle tree before the Governor's Proclamation.

Georga @ 6:43 PM PDT, Aug 11, 2008

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