Is THIS the Real Reason More Homes Are Burning in Wildfires?

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Wildfires have been consuming homes at a staggering pace over recent years. In fact, structure loss in these fires has grown by 10,000% in the last 13 years! And as climate change further warms the air and dries out the land, this trend seems to be going the wrong way.
For decades, conventional wisdom has told us that fuels reduction is key to protecting communities. However, the latest research shows that weather actually plays a big role as well. In fact, the vast majority of structures are destroyed in wind-driven fires. Tune in to learn how we’ve been focusing on the wrong problem and what we can do about it.
Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.
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[@GamblingTimeKaraoke]

I'm a California native and left CA due to fires and fire risk - fires were literally my primary reason for leaving. The Paradise fire was very close to Chico, where I went to college, and I've known many people who've had to evacuate or in some cases did in fact lose their homes. I do not regret leaving and am glad I did. The reality is CA needs to make some hard, financially/politically unfriendly choices, and it needs to severely punish the four primary focals of doom: PG&E's utter negligence, the San Joaquin Valley mega farmers/water thieves such as "Wonderful" and the fuckers who bottle and sell CA water, continued suburban sprawl without meaningful rezoning or public transit investment, and smothering too many fires that would otherwise burn relatively safely until something monstrous and wind driven rolls in. These things must change. They will not change until it's too late. PG&E should be seized and nationalized, and its leadership team should be imprisoned for the massive loss of life and property their negligence caused and continues to cause. CA needs to invest in massive statewide infrastructure updates on the newly nationalized power grid to make lines safe, which would likely involve updating and/or burying thousands of miles of cables. Many of the massive ag farmers in the San Joaquin Valley literally sold the state of CA paper water and effectively can pump as much as they want, and they do. The central valley is literally sinking due to how much these legal thieves pump. They must be forcibly stripped of their water rights and they must be brought to heel to something reasonable. Outside the Valley, kick Nestle and other water bottling companies out of the state. They are sucking CA's mountains and natural reservoirs too dry. Suburban sprawl must be curbed. SoCal and the Bay Area are suburban nightmares and are highly unsafe when it comes to fire. Not to mention there's basically no reasonable housing in CA urban cores due to zoning restrictions. People in urban CA can often experience two hours of driving a day due to traffic, sprawl, and pisspoor public infrastructure. Zone up and create mixed use districts, restrict or kill construction of new strodes, add bicycle paths in urban cores, build local rail in cities and high speed rail to connect cities to each other. Restrict the legality of ornamental lawn grass and pay for landowners to rip it up and replace with native plants. Outside of urban cores, ranchers need to take responsibility for their land and keep it groomed. I grew up surrounded by people with cows and horses and their land was dangerously fire hazardous. I don't know how to solve 20+ acres of ungroomed land, but honestly my feeling at this point is if you can't responsibility keep the land groomed you shouldn't have it. Fire will not stop at your property just because circumstances or finances made it too difficult to keep groomed. Allow controlled burns. Luckily CA is starting to do this, but so much tinder is now out there from excessive fire fighting that even these are dangerous now. But these fires must happen and we must figure out how to coexist with them. I have an endless amount of feelings about CA and the water/fire crisis there. It breaks my heart to know what the state used to be like ecologically and what it's turned into. CA is the breadbasket state. It should not be allowed to desertify and burn to ash due to greed and laziness.

[@pongop]

I live in the Central Valley and totally agree! California needs to make some big changes and quickly.

[@sherryallen3650]

In my are of, central Ontario, we burn the grass fields and brush at the end of winter or early spring. This consumes the dry fuel from last year and encourages new fresh growth. I don't know if this is viable in the harshest areas of the US but it works up here.

[@jasonreed7522]

@@sherryallen3650 in NY we have lots of small brush burning fires, basically pick up sticks and burn your various woody plant trimmings. As far as the large woods are concerned, we are wet enough (the Adirondacks are almost rainforest levels of precipitation, except 1/3 is snow) that most wood simply rots instead of being fire prone. We also have burn bans in the weeks after winter where the grass isn't green so nobody accidentally starts a grass/wildfire in the period of greatest risk. (The state will also issue extra burn bans as needed, mainly during droughts)

[@HaldaneSmith]

A lot of good points, but the point of this video is that controlled burns won't help since lower fuel Chapparal areas spread fire at least as well as the woodlands. Hence the need to cluster WUI homes into more dense developments surrounded by natural firebeaks like vineyards and golf courses (watered with grey water).

[@sidstovell2177]

Thank you. Former Bay Area dweller.

[@eklectiktoni]

I guess because I grew up in California and knew most of the fires start in the shrubby grasses, I never even knew that people blamed forests for wildfires. 😮But I think two MAJOR things that could help is #1 DON'T BUILD TIMBER FRAMED HOUSES IN FIRE PRONE CLIMATES. Earth based materials (like stone, brick, rammed earth, adobe, earthbag, even concrete) are better suited for that climate. #2 landscaping should be done with fire prevention in mind (non-combustible mulch, keeping trees away from the house, planting fire resistant vegetation, etc).

[@jasonreed7522]

A forest creates its own rain, over half the rain in the amazon is from water transpired from the trees of the forest. Theoretically a well managed forrest should reduce fires and droughts. (Although since California isn't wet enough for most of the ground debris to rot small fires need to happen manly as the natural & controlled burns the trees are used to and depend on.) It also really should be common sense to not build wood houses surrounded by flamable non-native plants in a fire prone environment. (As you listed, lots of viable alternatives to wood framed buildings for the climate, like any of the traditional desert styles)

[@teemusid]

Timber framed houses do better in earthquakes. Fire isn't the only danger in California.

[@eklectiktoni]

@@teemusid Timber framed doesn't do better than earthbag or properly reinforced concrete in an earthquake. Additionally, as someone born and raised in California I can personally vouch that there are centuries-old adobe structures in southern California that have withstood many earthquakes.

[@eklectiktoni]

@@teemusid "Ductility describes how well a material can tolerate plastic deformation before it fails. Thus, materials with high ductility can absorb large amounts of energy without breaking. Structural steel is one of the most ductile materials...Researchers have also developed creative solutions that show how structural steel is not the only earthquake-resistant material worth considering. For example, *scientists engineered a fiber-reinforced concrete with properties similar to steel.* They called the material eco-friendly ductile cementitious composite. Experiments showed applying a 10-millimeter-thick layer to interior walls protected them from damage during a 9.0-magnitude simulated quake." - Civil + Structural Engineer Magazine "May 5, 2015 -- Cal-Earth Institute today announced they received confirmation that *the Superadobe/Earthbag orphanage project built for the Pegasus Children’s Project in the northern Khathmandu valley in Nepal survived the 7.6 magnitude earthquake on 25 April 2015, and the structures are all still standing.* The Superadobe (sandbags/barbed wire) building system developed at Cal-Earth...integrates traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements, and passes severe earthquake code tests in California. The technology has been published by NASA, endorsed by the United Nations."

[@composthis]

@@eklectiktoni yep you are right on all counts! I live in an earthen house and I've worked on more than one Superadobe building and it really is a great system. I have lots of friends in the natural building community in northern California and there are many examples of earthen homes (or even in one case, strawbale with earth/lime plaster) being the only structures that survived when a fire went through. Not to mention using constructed wetlands to treat greywater that double as firebreaks, etc etc etc... ecological design has so many of the solutions we need!

[@jiainsf]

Urban development has been sprawling out for far too long and now we are paying the price. If states like California keep refusing to densify around transit centers then we will only see more wildfires, more people displaced, and a strain onto a planning system that cannot handle it.

[@b_uppy]

The problems with city planning are much worse than that. Merely increasing density just adds to wealth stratification, increases water poverty, homelessness, degreening of spaces etc. This is ignoring all the problems with cities and says 'let's do more bad planning.' We need a lot more mixed use; train systems connecting up smaller towns with bigger ones; water harvesting strategies everywhere, that also decrease heat, add to fresh local food, regreening, beauty, intimacy of spaces,, etc...

[@billgreen1861]

@@b_uppy I never heard about homeless people being inconvenience by wild fires. It would have been in the news, yet I can't find one. So what might you be talking about ?

[@b_uppy]

@Bill Green You started off specifically on urban development, and I said that city planners err in many more areas. I was talking about ignoring problems bigger than wildfires. I am blaming planners for creating homelessness. That said, homeless camps can be problematic due to cooking in highly flammable tents, as well as drug use that involves cooking. Data Shows Explosive Growth in Homeless-Related Fire Calls (article is out of San Diego)

[@billgreen1861]

@@b_uppy It seems that I read your post in a different sense than what you meant. My apologies, I get now what you mean. Thank you for taking the time to bring me up to speed.

[@arthas640]

@@b_uppy degreening isnt that big of an issue though without suburbs, since you get forests and parks outside the city centers and dense land usage makes public transit cheaper allowing people to still easily visit those parks. You can also still keep things like trees on road sides and medians, and you can still have green spaces and parks but just smaller and fewer. Dome western european cities are pretty good at this

[@Puzekat2]

The same problem with floods. Too much buildings are in the overflow of rivers, creeks, etc.

[@slconley]

I live in Utah in a very fire prone area. They are currently leapfrogging new development in grasslands. I don’t really see Utah paying as much attention to building responsibility as they should. I’ve thought for the past several years that we could start building in cob again in the southwest. It’s less likely to catch fire than other construction types and doesn’t require as much wood. And the cost is a fraction of other building materials.

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

6:50 Only an American could call that sprawling, single-family-zoned development "high-density" lol

[@b_uppy]

Depends on where she went to school, more likely.

[@StephanPitois]

“How suburban sprawl is making wildfires worse” would have been a better title. Good video otherwise.

[@b_uppy]

The name would certainly encapsulate the bias.

[@JimAllen-Persona]

@@b_uppy What bias? That's like saying New Orleans has more flood damage because so many houses are below sea level.

[@dynamicworlds1]

@@b_uppy when you see acknowledging reality as "biased" that's a red flag that you have become the problem.

[@b_uppy]

@@JimAllen-Persona Because it has a very narrow focus, and only looked at some factors. That constitutes 'bias'...

[@b_uppy]

@DynamicWorlds And when you see only what they show you instead of the bigger picture, that shows *you are the problem.* It's a fallacy called 'framing', and also falls under 'half truth', or 'hasty generalization'...

[@UtahSustainGardening]

This is such a complex issue! And with water shortages in the west and the attempts to buffer wildlife from expansion pressures makes it that much more complex. But I will tell you, new golf courses in already drought prone and drought suffering areas is NOT a viable solution.

[@b_uppy]

Think the video is simplistic and ignores factors that contribute. Golf courses can be modified to include trees and bioswales, if you push the users about them being harmful, they may change their practices, and include going organic. Additionally there are now water shortages occurring in the East and instead of using rainwater harvesting earthworks they are looking at goofy, expensivcut and paste solutions that create problems elsewhere.

[@KRYMauL]

@@b_uppy Honestly, gold courses should be used for storm water management and transportation

[@b_uppy]

@@KRYMauL Lol. The current strategies for infrastructure are ridiculous. Stormwater management should be occurring at all properties instead of pushing it off and dehydrating landscapes further. Look at the strategies Brad Lancaster uses in rural and urban settings. At least golf courses allow water to seep in, though they could modify some practices. Transportation infrastructure adds to the the heat island effect, further congestion, makes less land available for housing, contributes to sprawl. etc. What would be better regarding development is a lot more mixed use development.

[@KRYMauL]

@@b_uppy How about you watch the not just bikes video where Jason spent the entire talking about an office park needs a drainage system.

[@b_uppy]

@@KRYMauL I watch 'Not Just Bikes,' among other shows. Well, aware of how parking lots have problems, I've seen how government plans badly address them, even with swales. NJB is a bit simplistic in solutions, however. He has zero permaculture perspective which would solve some issues that city planners ignore.

[@billgreen1861]

This young lady kept my attention the whole time she is very effective in speech and story telling. I enjoyed this program very informative.

[@jordankloosterman2966]

Wouldn't it be more apt to have the title be "How The lack of City Planning Is Making Wildfires Worse" than "How The lack of City Planning Is Making Wildfires Worse" since the low urban sprawl is literally the non centrally planned option, where developers just do what they do.

[@ratoh1710]

Like so many titles the reason is that a title like that won't get people to click. You will get the city planning crowd but less of the general audience.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Um...those are the same phrases in the quotation marks.

[@b_uppy]

The choices look the same...

[@b_uppy]

@@dynamicworlds1 But it got 15 likes, lol.

[@Tsukonin]

There actually IS planning, it's just that the only possible model by US law is detached single family houses.

[@sandwichmeats1753]

TLDW: Stop building suburban and exurban sprawl and do infill development and densification instead.

[@LindysEpiphany]

I live in Southern Oregon and was in the Alameda fire. I was at my girlfriends house which was in a mobile home park next to the I5 freeway in Phoenix, OR. I could see a plume of smoke just starting to rise miles away when I got to her house. The fire had just started 10-15 mins before so I really wasn't concerned about it. I figured it would be put out before it ever got close. But it just so happened we had record breaking winds that day, Sept 8th, 2020. I'd only been there about 15 mins when evacuation information started going out over the tv. But it was happening so fast we weren't getting timely information. Next thing the fire fighters started to drive thru the park with a bullhorn saying we had to evacuate NOW! Well my friend grabbed a few things and stuffed her cat in the cat carrier and we walked out to her car. There we discovered the fire was less than 100 feet away! Things from other yards and garages were exploding and huge embers were blowing into her carport! It was on us unbelievably fast! So my friend is digging through her purse because she can't find her keys! She panics and becomes useless so I start searching for her keys. I looked tthrough the house twice couldn't find them. I'm starting to think I may have to throw her over my shoulder and run. BTW my car is loaded with stuff so no seats are available. I debate empty my car or look for keys. I decide to look for keys one more time and thankfully I found them! As we are driving out half of the park is fully engulfed and its still moving fast. There were no fire trucks or fighters trying to put out the fire, they were only there for evacuations. We found out later that 2 fatalities had already happened, a 98 year old lady and 55 year old man who sent his wife away but stayed to protect the house. But there was no saving any homes. Especially mobiles they are like kindling. She and 3000 others lost everything that day! Even my mom and dad who lived a couple miles away lost everything! Patti swears that I saved her life that day! That she would have never made it out of there without me. Whats crazy is i normally would have still been at work but I happened to finish early and decided to go visit her instead of go home. Devine intervention? It was devastating for sure. There was another fire that started that day at the other end of the valley which happened to be where I lived. So I had to rush home and pack up stuff in case of evacuations. Thankfully I didn't have to. Instead that night I found out my mother in law was in the hospital dying. She passed on the 11th of September and then on the 13th I had a hemoragic stroke and spent 14 days in ICU up in Portland. Only 50% of stroke victims survive so somebody once again was watching out for me!😃 I think I needed to vent, sorry about the long story but it was cathartic.😉

[@sidstovell2177]

What a story!! Glad you made it, so you could tell your story. I watched the Paradise fire on KZbin while sitting listening to the rain in southwestern Mexico. Stay well

[@davegordon6943]

That's scary. You must have an angel watching over you

[@LindysEpiphany]

@@sidstovell2177 Thank you!

[@peggyjones2727]

So glad you're safe. It's quite a story and a good lesson for others.

[@dugfriendly]

I ride the Bear Creek bike path from Medford to Talent and back almost every day. The fire was horrific. Nothing but foundations left for blocks. Mobile homes burned to the chassis. So awful.

[@khdayskh1314]

Another reason to change zoning laws to allow for more mixed use housing instead of only single family low density housing.

[@mrsmucha]

Yep.

[@KRYMauL]

Let’s not forget that suburbia is the most subsidized form of government.

[@b_uppy]

You're missing other solutions. Look into Brad Lancaster on urban and rural rainwater harvesting.

[@Amalgamotion]

Also as a solution; building a wider variety of homes within the developments so you don't have to sprawl so fast. Not everyone wants a yard and a garage, but everyone needs a place to call home.

[@b_uppy]

Mixed-use zoning would solve a lot of sprawl issues. That developments are allowed is a part of the problem. They are inflexible by nature and even those with 'a wider variety' reflect a lack of imagination on the part of the developers. Self-building should be promoted over developments as they would address many more problems and get more personal solutions, reducing waste and getting rid of cookie cutter planning...

[@davidhenningson4782]

For maximum density... I suggest 'tent cities' with reflective tinfoil exteriors... when the fires come just pack up en masse... and run😊 no homes lost... the ultimate mobile solution 😎👍

[@b_uppy]

@@davidhenningson4782 Since it seems we're now 9n the subject of homeless people: How about supervised homeless kitchens, trash, and bathrooms with biohazard containers and sheds big enough for a bookcase and bed (4×8), until they get back on their feet? Supervised because this group is a likely cause of many of the fires. People with serious criminal records can be placed here as well. Until individuals from these groups are deemed as fully back on track, they can continue to stay. These places are safe and add safety to the areas at large. These people are better placed in urban areas away from schools, etc. For those that are disabled but have some ability, partial self-builds where they can build a little equity. For those that are fully functioning but poor, assistance with planning, engineering, etc so they can build equity instead of being in the throes of government. Cob, strawbale, wattle and daub are all low-cost, low-environmental impact but durable homes that can be attractive and effective housing. The tech is simple. The last two groups would be much easier to place in various neighborhoods. Veterans could have separate developments as an added option *to/for them* if they feel they would do better among their peers (This would different than insisting they stay in groups).

[@davidhenningson4782]

@@b_uppy it's a complex problem. Managing homelessness requires as a first step, a willingness of government and citizens to lay out any beneficial framework to support this diverse group of individuals. NIMBY is a real problem, even for affordable housing solutions for poor but otherwise well behaved individuals who merely need a roof over their heads and earn income from pensions or part time work. Homeowners like to see property values go up not down... and these are the ones who vote mainly. When you look at those with addictions or other behavioral problems or criminal backgrounds... these are people who may not even return to their 'designated' rooms/ apartments and could literally end up anywhere (thumbing rides to stay with relatives only to go in the wrong direction etc.) It's a complex problem, there are also those who like the freedom of living in a tent by a river or railway track, and won't move into a building with others like them for concern for their personal safety (especially if you ask some of the younger homeless) or because they'll be giving up their personal connection with nature... or losing their sense of freedom (adding responsibilities and a structured routine takes this perception of freedom away from them.) I say 'managing' homelessness not 'solving' it... because there is no appropriate blanket set of solutions for this problem.

[@b_uppy]

@@davidhenningson4782 'Homeowners like to see property values go up, not down...' That's where shortplatting is such a crime. Farmers used to be able to sell off a small section of land to support them during a bad crop year. They didn't care about how 'pretty'a property was next to their farm after it sold. It worked well. Zero impossible CC& Rs, zero protectionism of rich homeowners. Just two people making a mutually beneficial deal. Property kept very affordable this way, farms kept more land for farming this way, as well. It worked really well. Now we have realtors, developers and flippers dominating the housing market (and exerting undue influence on local law, as well) and we have a lot more homeless. It is bad local governance and it must change.

[@veggieboyultimate]

We need to stop building houses outwards and more upwards.

[@nonewherelistens1906]

Good luck getting county and township supervisors to manage or discourage development in their little fiefdoms. Rural politics operates on short-sightedness.

[@freeheeler09]

My business is shut down by and I am currently evacuated from my home by the Oak Fire, near Yosemite National Park. This fire for its first two days burned mostly burning in shrubland, oak woodland, and grassland, and it ignited along a highway on private land. Winds are low, temperatures, for around here, are moderate, mid 90s. The big deal here is climate change. Hundreds of thousands of trees around here have died because of the climate crisis, and our heating and drying climate. Housing in Mariposa is infinitely more vulnerable to fire than that shown in this video in Southern California. Here, houses are built on large lots, five to over 20 acres each. Thee area is a mix of pastures cut out of chapparal and oak woodland and mixed coniferous forest. About 80 percent of our conifers died from heat and drought and insect infestations resulting from the climate crisis from 2012 to 2015. Now, the remaining oaks, manzanita and ceanothus are stressed by drought and many are dying. There are 17000 residents in Mariposa and perhaps 5000 houses. At least 21 have burned down this week. As the climate crisis gets worse, and California becomes hotter and drier, soon, hundreds of homes will burn down each year.

[@maiyamay_]

Charlie, I am so sorry that your business and life have been negatively affected by this fire. But I do want to thank you for sharing your experience and this vital information. You’ve painted a very detailed picture here, and it’s not the prettiest but it is one that people need to see. We definitely appreciate your support and engagement as it will ultimately help us make more episodes so we can dive deeper on topics like this!

[@frankperez1953]

Thanks for producing thus enlightening documentary about wildfires. I've grown up in California. When I was a preteen, in the mid-1960's, our home and neighborhood in Simi Valley were threatened from two directions by wildfires. About the same time, my Aunt's home in Beverly Hills just missed destruction during the Brentwood fire. As an adult, I lived in a house in the mountains above Berkeley, California, which was close to my office in East Oakland. During Fall 1991, there had been dry, hot Santa Ana type winds. One Sunday morning that October, I went back to bed at 7:00/am after reading the San Francisco Chronicle (I was reading a book until about 1:30 am). I awoke at 9:00 am to the cries and shouts of some neighbors who lived about 200 feet away. All of the homes here were widely separated by a forest of mazanita, eucalyptus and pine trees. (The forest floor was covered with a thick layer of dead wood and leaves.) Anyway, I jumped out of bed and noted that the sunlight filtering into my second story bedroom was crimson red. I also heard the roar of a windstorm. From my backnwindow, I spied very thick black smoke billowing from the hillside a hundred feet behind out home. Then I panicked. I just had time enough to put on a t-shirt, walking n shorts and my tennis shoes. I grabbed my checkbook, wallet, glasses, car keys and brief case. My plan was to proactively grab the essentials, run to my car up the road and then drive along the mountain top to determine how close the fire was. When I jogged to a point on our one way road, I could see flames about 60 feet in height behind the houses and fire had already blocked the only road that we used to drive down the mountain to Berkeley. I ran back into the house and warned my room mate that he had to evacuate. Then I ran across our street and through a neighbor's yard. I slid down a 50 foot embankment to get down to the road below our residence. There I saw a young man evacuating his house. I caught a ride in his mini-truck down into Berkeley- about an eight minute journey along a circuitous road. At an intersection close to the Claremont Hotel, a stranger and I stopped each vehicle that attempted to drive up the one way lane into the fire area. We warned the drivers that they were heading into the fire. Nearby Police.Officers stood chatting. When I asked them if they could help us, they said they didn't have any orders. For several hours, I listened to the sobs of residents whose homes burned up. I heard dozens of deafening explosions- heated structures imploding. I saved my room mate, but I don't know whether my elderly neighbors escaped. I read.that about a dozen people lost their lives close by in those mountains (firefighters and police officers included). I lost one car and all of my property. The rental home was a beautiful custom built three story English style house with a wooden slate roof. The roof had a sprinkler system, but when I activated the sprinklers, the low pressure system only produced a fine mist. Then I had to run down the mountain! A year later I moved back to the San Fernando.Valley, where I became an elementary school.teacher. During two decades of teaching, my students and I were affected by numerous fires that occurred in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

[@BigBirdy100]

How about how using flammable asphalt shingles is stupid.

[@michaelmayhem350]

Or building homes from wood & consumable materials. I live in the tropics we build our homes with concrete. I laugh every time the southern USA gets hit by hurricane and all their wooden homes are washed away or flooded and have to be torn down. Then they rebuild everything & it happens again. It's just asinine. I know wild fires are different from hurricanes but it's the same. Everything burns down them rebuild it exactly the same and repeat ad infintum.

[@b_uppy]

And what would be the viable alternative?

[@KRYMauL]

How about the growth Ponzi scheme is stupid.

[@BigBirdy100]

@@b_uppy A metal roof with no gaps. Need metal screening over eave vents

[@b_uppy]

@@BigBirdy100 That is a lot more expensive, but then you could also harvest rainwater for drinking, then. Great in earthquake country... Think curb cuts to harvest water runoff and bioswales to put the water were you want it would help, too.

[@imberrysandy]

This video is very timely. The Oak fire is near my county, so sharing this video will help people understand why this is happening to us

[@maiyamay_]

Thanks for sharing!

[@b_uppy]

It's got framing issues, logically. It ignored looking at other factors and now people are hyperfocused and ignoring fixing the bigger picture. That can be costly...

[@davidbryden7904]

Still smokey here in Sac today, stay safe!✌️

[@elizabethdavis1696]

Shouldn’t the title be how BAD city planning is making wildfires worse. Not all city planning is the problem!

[@b_uppy]

The CCC put in swales to repair and rehydrate during the Dust Bowl. They still exist. They could add them to forest and desert areas so the water table is higher. In cities instead of trying to drain water to underground pipes and away, curb cuts could be used to rehydrate bioswales, which would bring a lot of benefits including cheaper water bills to maintain plants and prevent them from being so flammable.

[@jamesmccreary2442]

@@b_uppy Interesting I haven’t heard of bioswales before. Have any recommended resources handy to look into?

[@b_uppy]

@@jamesmccreary2442 One of the best teachers is Brad Lancaster. He started with a pernaculture design course and realized we need a paradigm shift. He started looking at low cost, high positive impact strategies. He gives practical, well thought out strategies for rural, urban, agricultural and forest lands. If you question rainwater harvesting earthworks durability, look at what the CCC did in the Sonoran Desert with swales. The swales themselves are lush, and will last for a long time after. They've also brought up the water table and regreened a landscape devastated by the Dust Bowl

[@b_uppy]

@@jamesmccreary2442 Additionally 98% of city planning is cutand paste and ignore whole areas of problems. They lack nuance.

[@beast_boy97]

Adobe houses. Cheap material, keeps the interior cooler in hot climates, and much less flammable than wood. It's a shame they aren't as popular. It's true that they don't do well in earthquakes, though with some reinforcing an adobe house could probably hold up just as well as any modern house does.

[@b_uppy]

Cob, and strawbale homes can do well because you can reinforce them with rebar and bamboo respectively. They both work great, are low cost if self built, attractive and fairly fire impervious done correctly.

[@John-Smith02]

@@b_uppy did you mean to say rebar?

[@b_uppy]

@@John-Smith02 I did say rebar, autocorrect changed it.

[@b_uppy]

@@John-Smith02 Fun thing about autocorrect is that it will substitute a word spelled correctly in context, to a different one spelled correctly, out of context. Not sure if you've noticed...

[@John-Smith02]

@@b_uppy you can edit your KZbin comment so it says rebar

[@orchdork775]

I wish more of the terms in the video, like "edge," and "leapfrog islands," were properly defined and explained. What does it really mean for a development to have more edge or for a development to be a leapfrog island? There are context clues that help to get an idea of what the expert was saying, but I really would have liked a more indepth explanation so I could know for certain what was being discussed. I feel like this video gave just enough information to make me realize how complex the issue is, without actually explaining how any of it really works, so I ended up feeling frustrated that I couldn't follow along as much as I would have liked to. I know I can just go and research these terms on my own, but it just would have been really helpful to have some quick definitions put on the screen so I wouldn't have to pause the video and go do research just to be able to follow along with what is supposed to be introductory level video. Anyways, I still appreciated the video an will continue to watch, I just thought maybe some feedback could be useful.

[@b_uppy]

It would be nice if they has considered other factors such as drought, heat, tentative dryness, relative fire department locations, etc. Very narrow, limited focus video that blinds us to other solutions.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

In terms of property loss, the Marshall Fire in Colorado on December 30, 2021 was the most damaging ever seen in the state, with 1084 structures completely destroyed and 149 others damaged. There is zero forested land surrounding Louisville and Superior, the two towns that suffered the most damage. These areas are totally grasslands. Extremely dry conditions and high winds coupled with above average amounts of grass growth the previous wet spring led to the hazardous conditions. No trees necessary. No need to 'rake the forests,' as some idiot once encouraged.

[@rdean150]

I had a conversation with someone from Singapore about our wildfire problem and she basically laughed and pointed to the fact that our houses are basically tinder boxes just waiting to go up in flames. We build our homes out of wood yet are baffled about what to do about all the fires. Stop building housing out of entirely flammable materials. Seemed just crazy enough to work, but it's the kind of approach that really needs full community buy in to make effective. Its sort of a herd immunity thing. Even if your own house is pretty resistant to fires, if the houses that surround yours aren't, you're probably screwed anyway. But if all of the houses are reasonably fire resistant, and you have a tiny bit of buffer from raw wildland and the edge of the community, you probably can get away with some wood elements here and there.

[@murdoch3396]

I’ve been watching a lot of these sort of depressing videos and one thing holds constant. Maiya is so beautiful and her voice is calming and sweet.

[@dhindaravrel8712]

Urban sprawl is bad for a variety of reasons, not the least of which making it harder for people to go places by bicycle or public transport. However, the most important fire safety rule should always be to build your homes out of materials that don't burn. Brick and tile, not plywood.

[@b_uppy]

There is also adobe in areas where earthquakes are less of a concern and reinforced cob and strawbale, where you use rebar and bamboo respectively, to reinforce walls. Better insulation and mass. If self build much cheaper too. Important with today's high prices.

[@dhindaravrel8712]

@@b_uppy It is better to have houses with several self-contained units. Flats are much more economical for space use, heating/cooling cost and with keeping distances short and walkable. Single family homes are a sign of decadence that we just can't afford. Give that space back to nature.

[@b_uppy]

@@dhindaravrel8712 That assumes everyone's needs are the same. It certainly dismisses them...

[@FNLNFNLN]

Missed something that would help: Higher density housing. It'd make it easier and more efficient to utilize already developed land, plus it'd be relatively cheaper to harden per unit housing = Hardening cost is proportional to the external surface area of the structure being hardened, while the usable space is relative to the internal volume, and while surface area only goes up with the square of the size of the structure, volume goes up with the cube.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

We don't have a housing shortage, we have unbridled greed coupled with a total lack of compassion.

[@bathsheba9581]

Calif is such a beautiful state. Big Sur is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is heartbreaking to see it end like this.

[@robbabcock_]

Politics has become a huge driver of fire. It starts when a growing percentage of people don't believe in expertise, the very idea that you can learn from research a study. Denial of climate change springs from this well of ignorance. Gentrification and inequality drive it as well as wealthier people push development into wild areas, then use their wealth and influence to create an expectation that government services will be mobilized to preserve their monetary investment no matter the impracticality of it.

[@b_uppy]

It doesn't help this study ignored the effects of other factors. It makes it feel agenda driven. That makes it a lot harder to trust...

[@ZOMBIEHEADSHOTKILLER]

cutting down the few nature areas in an urban or suburban area, to build more housing, is stupid......... expanding into the wild isnt better either..... instead of building more housing, we need to use what we have first. There are more vacant houses in the US, then there are homeless people....and thats just houses, not including apartments, condos, trailers, hotels, and other options...... lets make sure every one has homes, before we worry about building more homes....... lets make the homes we already have, better, before making more, as well.

[@b_uppy]

We need to abolish things like shortplatting. They allow large pieces of land to be split in half every time it is sold. This disallows a farmer going through a bad season the ability to sell a smal plot to stay solvent. It certainly greatly contributes to sprawl. They demand most lots to be a minimum of an acre and a quarter. Streets with low traffic are allowed to be 60 feet wide. We ignore that we are sending huge amounts of water into storm drains when we could be using it to fireproof and rehydrate land, as well as regreening, rehydrating it, and adding beauty.

[@MyKharli]

Media needs to be held to account for bending facts on a multitude of issues .

[@edbouhl3100]

I live in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County. We have hot, dry, seasonal ‘Santa Ana’ winds. My preparations assume that at some point there will be an urban fire upwind that generates embers that will blow into my neighborhood and lot. Everything is being screened against ember entry. When I look at landscaping plants I see ‘fuel’. I’ve had all the juniper trees removed from my yard. My neighbor also agreed to let me remove the junipers from her yard (our trees were next to each others garages). The junipers are replaced with cactus and succulents that will eventually provide some privacy. My adjacent neighbors have agreed to let me remove the wood fence between our houses and replace it with a precast concrete wall (in process). The yard is mown short and eventually will be mostly gravel. I also plan to install water sprays along the eaves of the house and garage to wet the building perimeters and put out the wind blown embers. This will have its own water tank, pump, and backup power supply. This is also earthquake country and ‘The Big One’ could take out water and power and at the same time start fires. This region‘s fire authorities anticipate that the dollar damage from earthquake caused fires will be larger than the dollar damage from the shaking itself. I’m a retired engineer. Why don’t I move? Where? All the spots that were climate sanctuary candidates 10 years ago are having their own problems now (New Zealand, hurricanes and flooding. British Columbia, fires. And so on.) At least California is taking this seriously and has real programs. Most US states do not. There is very little I can change about climate change and extreme weather. But I can strengthen my home and have backups for all utilities so my wife will at least stay comfortable during our remaining lifetimes.

[@destineemitchell8734]

Thank you for keeping us informed!!!

[@maiyamay_]

❤️❤️❤️

[@fredericfillion6148]

This is your best episode yet, thanks a lot for your work.

[@babyatemydingo574]

Last I heard, we don’t have a housing shortage. We have more people than houses. Now, whether people can afford the houses that exist due to corporate greed is another issue

[@woodmanvictory]

Maiya is my favorite online PBS host.

[@rogerscott529]

In the Marshall fire in Colorado the high winds (gusting up to 100 mph) caused the houses to burn so hot that they literally lit neighboring houses by radiant heat. In this situation using ember-resistant building materials doesn't save you -- you either need to build houses farther apart (very expensive) or build their sidewalls out of something with a much higher ignition temperature. It is also important to understand that Superior and Louisville are not immediately adjacent to wildlands. The fire, whose cause is still, nearly a year later, officially unknown, spread across adjacent open space that was covered only by relatively low quality grass fuel. At one point the fire jumped a six-lane highway. Defending against fire in extremely high wind conditions is nearly impossible.

[@markschuette3770]

most of our homes are poorly designed- all wood, exposed wood, energy inefficiant, sighted poorly, can't even face south to collect winter sun and for PV panels, and more.

[@houseplantnerd2872]

60% start on private land. Private home owners need to be held accountable for fire prevention and weed abatement. Goats!!!!!!!! Fire goats!!!

[@pbsterra]

Yes to goats! Also, most of that private land isn't homeowners. Lots of it is industrial, especially industrial forest land. Still, homeowners should prepare their homes... but what about renters and mom and pop landlords?!? The issues are deep and likely need public investment to be addressed.

[@cherylcook1942]

I am from Santa Rosa. The winds that night were beyond something Id ever seen. If you could look at a map of the burn area, and overlay it with a map of the previous fire there 100 years ago, youd see that both of them followed mark west creek into town. Traditionally, in california at least, we had left the creeks natural and wild. They were full of brush,dead trees, tall grasses. And a majority of it was not easily accessible. So the fire started to the east of town possibly by poorly maintained power lines whipping in the winds. You did mention keeping maintained and manicured buffers between communities and neighborhoods. Coffey park was a beautifully maintained green and luscious park, it burned so badly that the irrigation pipes beneath the ground melted. Fire services were overwhelmed, they watched as commercial businesses and neighborhoods burned to the ground. Many vineyards survived because they are set up with their own water sources and irrigation. And many of the workers live on site, so they had a built in fire department. Now I live in a wildland interface. The insurance cost is horrible. I have no trees within 50' of my home. I have several 3,000 gallon water tanks and am strategically placing more around the property. We clear brush and cut wild grasses every year, but theres still much to do. The local fire departments are volunteer, but cal fire has stations locally and the airport hosts fire copters and planes during fire season. These fireman here are top notch. They are on top of their game, theyve seen first hand how bad it could get and how quickly. There was also a major fire here in 2017, many homes and lives were lost. There is no panic like hearing those copters rushing overhead,with their buckets spilling water theyve just dipped from the lake. Be safe.

[@rosabellavitaalvarez-calde5836]

How is it that nobody thinks of "dramatically curb the construction of car-dependent, single-family tinderbox sprawl into areas that are likely to suffer from wildfires" in the first place?

[@jacquelinepaddock7535]

A week ago on the day when the highest UK temperature in record multiple fires broke out. One out break in the Greater London area .was traced to spontaneous combustion in a compost heap.

[@imogen1]

Y'all need to stop calling it "urban expansion." It's suburban expansion, and you're continuing to drive up animosity toward the cities for the actions of the suburbs. The Suburbs are not the cities. They might be legally organized as municipalities, but to claim that makes them a city is patently absurd.

[@pbsterra]

Fair. Cities, especially infill is the safest type of development. Tks!

[@AnimilesYT]

I live in the Netherlands and there's a low risk of wildfires. Especially where I live. This is mostly because we have hardly any nature left here xD

[@b_uppy]

Pretty sure it's because it is a lot wetter there..

[@KRYMauL]

There’s a ton of nature outside the cities.

[@Metal0sopher]

Don't worry, you'll drown

[@petrairene]

One question. The US population is not seriously growing right now. Why exactly are there masses of new houses built into these natural areas?

[@tyleraxam344]

Thanks Maiya, always appreciative of the planet helping environmental knowledge 🌊

[@CreatorDrews]

Thanks for reporting on such an important topic.

[@b_uppy]

Think it could have been broader and thus fairer in their research and reporting.

[@Phlegethon]

Not sure what the surprise is, building homes on wetlands and then complaining about flooding, building homes in cut forests and blaming wildfires

[@Phlegethon]

Building homes next to the beach and complaining your home was washed away

[@pbsterra]

Fair but where are we building these days?

[@FuzzyGecko]

I live out by the poconos on the Appalachian. We have a couple fires every year and 90% of them start on farmland.

[@nicevideomancanada]

Don't put Asphalt shingles on your roof, or vinyl siding. Don't grow Conifer trees next to your house.

[@Tsukonin]

It's SUBURBAN sprawl, not urban sprawl. Single family detached houses (which are de facto all low density) are the problem, not medium and high density neighborhoods. Also golf courses are certainly not (never) a good solution to anything.

[@meejinhuang]

They're building homes in former fire plains that used to seasonally burn. The developers get rich and the homeowners suffer.

[@b_uppy]

It doesn't help that in places like California rainwater is diverted to storm drains instead of water harvesting earthworks and cisterns. Instead they insist on getting more water from elsewhere and suck those places dry as well, contributing more to waterless wastelands.

[@richfairbanks1927]

I have been following Syphard's research for some years now. Brilliant work on a very complex problem.

[@anthonynicoli]

So I’m glad you are dealing with this topic. You refer us to a previous video on hardening one’s home. I watched it and found it lacking in practical steps to take to improve the robustness of a home to fire. Like so many modern video articles, it was long on drama and emotional triggers, short on what one should actually do. A grade of C+ at best.

[@adriennefloreen]

Look up how Chris Arai fireproofed his home, it was the only home in his neighborhood that survived the Kincade fire. It's silly they did not mention it in this video when talking about "home hardening."

[@pbsterra]

You're right about the video we linked. It was the first one this team made and I'm so glad our audience wants deeper knowledge than we presented at first. Still, it has a cool animation about home hardening that we wanted to share. Thanks for watching! We're not really into the specifics of how-tos on this channel but maybe we should be on this topic.

[@c.javierrodriguez9526]

its not a housing crisis its an affordability housing crisis...

[@pbsterra]

Agreed, but also, more units leads to more affordable housing so when houses burn down, prices go up. We saw that very clearly after the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA

[@Ef554rgcc]

I think fire is the problem with wild fires, not forests.

[@cguy2guy511]

Just like continuing to build on floodplains when we continue to build in fire areas we're going to get ruined houses.

[@adriennefloreen]

If many of the fires are starting on private property, then perhaps owners of private property should not start fires. I am sure the logging industry is well aware the forests are not the source of the problem, but if they promote that opinion they will be allowed to log some of the valuable trees that the forests are a source of. You should have mentioned Chris Arai who's house survived the Kincade fire in California because he fire-proofed it so well. If he could do it anyone could to it. They could pass a law that houses in fire zones have to be more fire proof than they are, in California where they regulate everything. Instead they are cutting down our forests to build flammable wood houses in fire zones.

[@pbsterra]

Amen. And thanks for the tip on Chris Arai

[@adriennefloreen]

@@pbsterra Thanks. I actually found out about it from a republican criticizing California's fire management policies and looked it up and it was a real thing which is kind of weird but the reason I watch and read news sources on all sides of issues. The republicans used that man's story as "evidence" that California was causing fires by not letting the logging industry to cut down trees in our forests, but while doing so they did unintentionally raise awareness about how to fireproof a house like a pro.

[@smokin19861]

The 2 worst problems are the environmentalist stopped loggers from being able to manage the forest to keep the brush from building up to wildfire fuel and the people are building homes in fire prone areas and not clearing away the combustible materials away from them. Wildfires are as natural as tornadoes and hurricanes, so they are not completely preventable, but common sense would help make these smaller and less deadly.

[@pbsterra]

Yep, that's just the facts. How do we change that?

[@felixyusupov7299]

I'm engineer. I think why is it legal to build with combustible materials in an area prone to fire? Code should require a steel roof, steel framing, gypsum sheathing, rock wool insulation, fiber- cement siding and/or stone exterior and retractable window covers like every house in Germany has. Sorry but if you build a house from non-combustible material you might have some damage but the house will not burn down ever. Yes it will cost more but suck it up.

[@jennifertarin4707]

We aren't building the right kinds of buildings nor are we using the right types of materials nor are we building where we should (not spreading out further from cities, building on mountain tops, etc..)

[@rogerscott529]

It is disappointing that a science-oriented presentation like this would say "there are a lot of homes burned in California", which is simply an observation that California is large and/or populous, rather than normalizing the data against area and population density and saying, e.g., "Utah loses the most homes to fire, per capita, per acre". Unnormalized data like this is almost never meaningful, and very often misleading.

[@B.D.F.]

It’s unfortunate this episode isn’t longer, there’s so much more to this story. Also, I think it’s important for the speaker to clarify between “high density single-family housing” and “high density housing” as the two have very different burn characteristics.

[@b_uppy]

They also ignore how dry the vegetation, fire department accessibility, lack of cisterns or rainwater harvesting earthworks, relative shade, etc.

[@maiyamay_]

We try to fit as much information into our time limit as possible. We definitely want to dive deeper on this topic, and your engagement and continued support will ultimately help us do that! Thank’s so much for the feedback. Our producers read through comments but I’ll make sure to pass this information along as well!

[@freedomle4022]

Maybe build fireproof homes and start taking care of nature instead of neglecting it. Plant more native plants. Better yet dont build homes next to dry woodlands.

[@pbsterra]

Yep yep

[@ArcFixer]

The most fundamental problem is that rather than a government Of the People, by the People, and for the People, we have a government Of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Rich. Limits on campaign spending should be the first step to address both the housing shortage and the fire problem.

[@juliatarrel1674]

Look inside the towns near the edges. There may be places there where you can put homes without breaking up existing communities. Push for the urban sprawl to sprawl into and among the places already not in edges, instead of up against the wildlands.

[@jeffr2643]

Don't build in fire zones. Gosh! Logic!

[@paulmaxwell8851]

Homes CAN be built to resist wildfire. We don't because running away in terror has become standard practice. The vast majority (over 90%) of homes ignite because of the relentless onslaught of wind-driven firebrands (some people call them 'embers'). If those firebrands cannot enter the home (usually the roof structure) or ignite patio furniture, door mats etc. the home will survive just fine. The reason entire subdivisions burn is radiant heat from neighboring homes. Sub-standard homes ignite and then a domino effect takes over.

[@aaronarcee]

This is absolutely nothing new, for years we have seen idiots come out here and build gated communities in these fire stricken areas.

[@peterjones701]

Holy cow! That was a very pink tree near the end of the video!

[@ajm2193]

Looks like it got flocked good by fire retardant drop

[@hoovb]

It was sprayed with fire retardant, which has a pink color. We're very familiar with it here in California.

[@fixitright9709]

Asphalt roof? Isn't asphalt flammable? Or is there something I'm missing?

[@bookbeing]

Dewatering the inland and wildland areas hasn't helped.

[@Beryllahawk]

This was enlightening, actually. I had been wondering how on earth the fire-suppression idea could STILL be true after decades of wildfires - especially since I'm sure that the people managing national forests ARE doing controlled burns and other preventive/maintenance type things. Heck, people here in Mississippi do controlled burns all the time - and we're NOT a wildfire hot spot! (Sorry for the pun.) So it seemed obvious that the forests couldn't be the whole problem, and I remember hearing dozens of stories about fires starting at someone's barbecue or party or whatever - a stray firework, a grill tipping over on accident... I didn't know - or rather it didn't really "sink in" that MOST of California is chapparal. That's the kind of country I grew up with, out in western Texas, and burning chapparal was as scarier - maybe scarier! - than grass fires for the people in Midland. I remember my grandmother discussing how the fire department needed more water on hand for bad fires, and that was in the 80s. I can't imagine that's gotten better, and Cali has a MUCH more dire supply-demand issue than little old Midland. Fascinating research presented here - I really hope some folks with authority will listen for a change and start working towards better solutions, better preventions.

[@pbsterra]

Thanks!

[@dekelpolak4190]

The Climate Waits for No One Thirty years ago, a friend of mine got into the green energy business and tried to pull me into it. I asked him what for, it isn’t serious. He said, “You have no idea how much money is being poured into it. Everyone wants in on it, politicians, financiers, businesspeople, the lot.” He was right, of course. Yet, no one wants to promote green energy in order to save the planet, but only to swell up their pockets even more. The declarations, therefore, remain in the assembly hall where they are stated, necessary actions are ignored, and the climate waits for no one: It will keep deteriorating. This week in Glasgow, Scotland, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference is taking place. Officially, it aims to “bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.” In reality, the countries plan to do the exact opposite. This year’s UN Production Gap Report, which tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and actual global production levels, states the following: “Despite increased climate ambitions and net-zero commitments, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than what would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C [2.7°F].” Energy sources and technologies do change, but not according to what is best for the planet. It changes according to the interests of politicians and money moguls, and it never benefits the planet or the majority of its inhabitants, namely all of us. Since the climate waits for no one, eventually, it will catch up with us. Earth is a closed system, and in a closed system, there are consequences to exploitation: it hurts the abuser as well as the abused. I don’t know when or at what cost, but eventually, we will all have to realize that we cannot take beyond what we need. We cannot keep exploiting Earth selfishly and thoughtlessly because it will turn against us. Earth is like a submarine: there is only so much oxygen on board. If some crew members take more than their quota, the rest will not have enough, they will die, and the submarine will sink along with those who exceeded their quota. We need constant reminders that we are one system, and we are all dependent on each other. We need to genuinely grasp that selfishness hurts us just as being exploitative hurts others. If we constantly remind ourselves that we are interdependent, we will behave with more consideration, and we will avoid the punitive impact of climate change. The other option is to keep working as the UN’s Production Gap Report states that we are planning to work, and suffer nature’s unforgiving response. I hope we wise up in time because everyone will pay the price for this mistake.

[@Doug923]

This summarizes the application of Feng Shui. Feng, 風, means wind, and Shui, 水, means water.

[@pbsterra]

Woah, love this, tks

[@clamato54]

Zoning laws should not be restricting construction to only single family homes in any of these places (or anywhere). These local laws are the cause of the housing shortage and also tied to the sprawl that has increased the # of houses burned. Golf courses don't solve any problems but only make more land private and inaccessible. I'm surprised California has not taken a good look at itself in the mirror with respect to its racist, century-old zoning laws, disregard for urbanism, and white-flight / automobile-centric attitude about new housing construction

[@pbsterra]

Yes indeed! Single family zoning is a big problem for many reasons, especially the ones you highlighted. I'm not aware of any studies linking it to fire risk but you bring up a good point. Let us know if you come across a SFR fire study please!

[@clamato54]

@@pbsterra Sprawl, the process of building outward instead of upward is exposing more homes to wildfire because homes are by definition taking up more land area. I think that sprawl is mostly caused by single family zoning pushing building outward. It always has been the great American mistake, that and funding >95% into interstates and

[@digitalawareness4282]

“Private Lands” = PG&E easements…but they make it sound like it’s citizens fault…!

[@pbsterra]

That's a good point! We did not mean to say it's homeowners. Much of that private land is forest owned by timber companies and you wisely point out PG&E. Good feedback. Thanks!

[@257796]

I like PBS but find it hard to watch this presenter. I don't know if it's the slightly condescending tone, I don't know if it's the sound of her voice, I don't know if it's the little bit of upspeak she uses that makes it sound like a Vox video. Can't quite put a finger on it, but something about these videos just makes me want to watch something else. On spite of the fact that I love PBS, informational programming, and documentaries

[@theblondeone8426]

I live in a 100 yr old home and i think it would take a while to burn - the wood is old and not treated, theres no spray foam, fewer chemicals, more materials per foot etc.

[@pbsterra]

Well, it turns out that older houses tend to be easier to ignite than new houses. Part of that is materials, and part of it is that there tend to be more nooks and cracks for embers to lodge in and ignite. That's why home retrofits are so important with older structures. If you're in a fire prone landscape, I highly recommend checking out the Institute for Business and Home Safety's web site and their guidelines for retrofitting homes. It's really good info. Also tks for watching!

[@pongop]

Great points and ideas! Another idea is permaculture strategies for making homes and land fire resistant.

[@b_uppy]

They're only good points if better ones are impossible. Think the video was agenda driven because of some obvious oversights in the conclusions drawn.

[@pongop]

@@b_uppy Interesting

[@b_uppy]

@@pongop Do agree with you about permaculture, disagree with the video's characterizations of the problems...

[@pongop]

@@b_uppy You could be right

[@pongop]

@@kennethliew7828 Corporations and governments are absolutely to blame. The whole capitalist system is to blame. Yes, individuals share some responsibility too. But corporations used to share more of the burden, but through clever campaigns, they managed to make individual people feel that it's our responsibility to clean up their mess. Even if tomorrow all of us went vegan, stopped driving cars, and recycled, that wouldn't stop the massive amounts of pollution and environmental destruction caused by the corporations and governments who allow it. The action we must take to stop global warming is to destroy the capitalist system and create a sustainable alternative.

[@ethanmentz7548]

Why not create an incentive to build non flammable housing or do they want them to keep burning because it helps the circulation of wealth flowing

[@GaiaCarney]

In 2018, 65 people, mostly elderly, died in the Camp Fire, Paradise, CA. Many lived in manufactured homes. This style home is unsafe!

[@carlstephens1532]

Explain why manufactured homes are unsafe

[@pbsterra]

Great question. They are elevated off the ground and have lots of space for embers to penetrate the skirt (if there is a skirt) and get under the home, burning it from the bottom up. They also tend to have very flammable materials like vinyl siding, gutters, etc. In the camp fire I believe they were close to 600% more likely to burn than stick-built homes. Yikes!

[@carlstephens1532]

@@pbsterra I've owned two manufactured homes. One was involved in a large forest fire near Waldo fla. It survived with out the issues you described all houses are able to be burnt to the ground. As my neighbors brick walled metal roofed site built house was burnt to the ground along with others. My white shingles were pitch black with no real damage, the kicker is I didn't have to mow the yard till the spring 6 months later. Bottom line here is my subdivision burnt and my house some how survived with very little damage. Pure luck or divine intervention, or better built than you think

[@stevewiles7132]

Because more homes are built where homes never existed. Same with floods, build communities where there never had been any, then the water will inundate those communities.

[@intothevoid2046]

When do you Americans learn to not build primarily with wood? Why are you still wondering why your house burns so well or gets blown away by a hurricane?

[@JB-rt4mx]

Try cinderblock, brick, concrete, metal roofs water caskets on roofs..

[@nunyabidness3075]

There’s a lot of implication, non sequitur, and incompleteness in this presentation. I’m not sure if it’s because there is a desire to get support for particular policies that are not necessarily supported by the facts, or if there just wasn’t anyone in the process that was properly skeptical to show them where they were going wrong. It comes off as a bad college essay. We have reached a point where we need plain talk about highly supported facts and nothing else.

[@jnzkngs]

We don't have a housing shortage, we have a population excess and we are telling that population that they deserve to live well beyond what they are willing to earn. Fewer people and they are being forced to accept how poor they really are=fewer new developments in wilderness areas.

[@scottmcshannon6821]

i think a lot of the issue is that a lot of people with more money than brains are building homes in the dumbest places possible.

[@sanjuansteve]

Let's build with hempcrete for better fire, flood, wind, mold, etc resilience and more environmental balance too.

[@PhoebeFayRuthLouise]

This is so important!

[@nancywysemen7196]

interesting program. like nuts and bolts.

[@unidentifieduser3629]

how about bricks instead of sticks?

[@Don-lw8ly]

build with hempcrete it is almost fire proof, a good insulator, and carbon negative!

[@eklectiktoni]

build with rammed earth or adobe, they ARE fireproof because they're dirt...

[@kimballspeakthreetheater3318]

But, but, tRumpo said that California just needs to rake the floors, the floors of the forests and they wouldn't have all these fires.

[@ellenbryn]

I know one California city whose planning actually stopped a HUGE fire 2 years ago. Irvine, population 300K. Silverado Fire, Oct 2020. Winds gusting to 80mph, sweeping towards the city. Unprecedented 90,000 people evacuated, which made international news, but then you heard no more about it. OC Fire chief Brian Fennessy: "The winds were extraordinary even by Santa Ana standards. Fire spread is exceeding more than anything I've seen in my 44 years." Irvine, 50 years old, is a planned city. It stops at the edge of the Santa Ana mountains paralleling the coast about 15 miles inland. Unlike other suburban sprawl in SoCal, there's no development up onto the brush-covered hills, just things like parks, utilities, the reservoir, a community college, a landfill, a quarry, etc. Running along the edge of the city like a beltway is SR 241, and inside that is a parkway which has some development between the two, and some areas still left open. Both roads are 2 lanes each direction plus shoulders: they're firebreaks! The fire burned into the city along 241's median strip and jumped the parkway in a few places. One structure (not a home) and a few outbuildings were lost. The only serious casualties were two badly burned firefighters. Irvine residents were home within 2-3 days. Residents of adjacent Foothill Ranch and Laguna Hills dodged the fire for another week and a half, since they *are* built up onto the hills in the wildland interface, but at least it's only on the uphill side. It was exactly the kind of blasting hairdryer winds after a scorching summer that so often takes out a California town. But it didn't. Of course, Irvine's wealth helped. It helps pay for that DC9 supertanker famous in CA wildfires, a bunch of water-dropping helis, a few smaller fixed-wing tankers, and just before the 2020 fire, a modified Chinook got added to the fleet. It and the helis have night vision gear so they can operate when the winds drop. But it's not just a case of wealth providing a brute-force solution. The Chinook and several helis were sent north to help with the Caldor fire that threatened Lake Tahoe. That fire burned 220,000 acres, 1000+ structures, and burned for 69 days. While part of the problem was lack of coordination - the OC chief threatened to bring them home after they sat on the tarmac for almost a week - they put in lots of work up there in the end. It's just easier to defend residential areas with built-in firebreaks that avoid the wildland interface, exactly as you said. QED!

[@grogery1570]

It wasn't that long ago California shared air resources with Australia as the fire seasons were at opposite times of the year. This sharing arrangement has been discontinued as both regions fire seasons overlap, which makes planes more expensive for both regions.

[@JohnLee-db9zt]

And also because we still build homes with wood, so prehistoric. Need homes made of concrete and other nonflammable materials.

[@ftm_guy]

I live in Arkansas and we cut fire lanes.

[@roberto.peterson9917]

Need to use more fire resistance materials when building structures example there is siding and roofing materials made from cement which is very resistance to sparks answer hot ash