Greetings from
The Publisher . . .
Keeping the Conversation Alive & Fire
Fighting vs. PreventionI started writing this after Thanksgiving not far from the Malibu fires, although hearing the fires described in the media there made me feel light years away from San Diego.
I should have known that going out of town might not be perfect when one of the first greetings I received was, “None of your trusted wireless networks can be found, would you like to try ours?” Makes you wonder what category of wireless network you have to join, if not a trusted one, doesn't it?
During the San Diego fires we were told how great things were going, how everything was done that could possibly be done—and then some—and how great everyone cooperated —with the exception of Mother Nature, of course, who fanned flames that burned over 1000 homes.
The night before the Malibu fire, and during the fire as well, the LA media were talking and writing about how much the LA Fire Department had learned from the mistakes made during the San Diego fires. They learned a lot, were ready and would move quickly, they said.
While the early news and hindsight are often different, I don't remember hearing a lot about “all the mistakes” that were made during the San Diego fires from the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
Some things have been talked about. The day before Thanksgiving there was a report that the Marines and CAL FIRE were close to an agreement that would allow Marine aircraft to assist in putting out fires—next time,—of course, and also as long as they were in this country. In other words, that was not in place previously. I don't recall hearing it like that before.
I did hear Congressman Duncan Hunter on 1090 XtraSports explain during the SD fires that when you contract with private pilots to put out fires for you, you need to give them the opportunity to do it and not take their job away from them by immediately bringing in others to do it.
Isn't the idea to put out fires as quickly as possible? Call it socialism if you will, but I have to wonder if privatization is automatically the best way to go, as some think it is. Isn't that like saying that what's important is providing jobs for people. Not wanting to disempower them by cutting them off and not letting them finish their job or allowing them to demonstrate they can do the job is how you would act with a child, isn't it?
We are learning and we're also finding that if we did learn from the 2003 fires, we didn't make many adjustments.
One positive program put into place was San Diego's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which allows trained volunteers to give firefighters logistical support, evacuee assistance and other support. There are 700 CERT volunteers in the city and about 3000 countywide.
Overall it's been an amazing month of hearing about close calls, courage and heroism. Thankfully, the close calls outnumber stories of actual devastation, but there have been many of those stories too—more than any other San Diego disaster. (see News page)
Tiffany Snow, who advertises in The Light Connection (TLC) , told of her amazingly close call in a story that reflects the faith she operates with in her life. It was too long to fit it in the print issue, but we did put it online for you to read. Click here to see the article.
David Gersten has also added his perspective of the fire this issue.
It's good to keep the conversation about how to handle them alive. Not a lot has changed yet and there are a lot of issues to look at. It's a good time to turn the community spirit we felt—our knowing that we are in this together—and also the feelings of sorrow and anger—and transmute this into community action.
The media will follow what's hot and too quickly fans the flames of other stories, but it's useful to keep this memory fresh and insist on follow through if we are to handle fires better next time. Are changes being made? Are we doing what we need to make sure we do better next time?
Isn't it important for us to know—and remember—that many of the fires were caused by electric-power lines?
Who would have thought these fires would blow away the credibility of building the Sunrise Powerlink through fire-county?
Photos from a Riverside fire released in November showed that these high-voltage power lines are not immune to the heat damage that comes from these fires.
As mentioned last issue, even the SD Union-Tribune questioned the wisdom of having electrical lines through the backwoods. That was October and short-lived. In November, that consideration seemed to disappear when SDUT reaffirmed their support of SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink. By every indication they were serious.
The Imperial Valley Irrigation District, however, looked again and withdrew their support of the project because of fire and safety considerations. They had been SDG&E's major ally.
What's now becoming obvious is that if we are going to have power shipped in to us, when fires come we may lose that power supply. Better to be more self-sufficient, isn't it?
If we can keep looking and exploring options, we may see it's a good idea to create our own solar power—from our—own roofs and parking lots—not from the Imperial Valley.
Or, as was mentioned here last month, why can't we cut back the brush that fuels fires and, through gasification, produce electricity to power our homes? We'll be writing more about that. It's an option people should know about.
After a fire that was out-of-control in far too many areas, we have to explore ways we can do better. Not from the normal media approach of discovering who to blame, but from wanting to discover what to do differently. The truth isn't necessarily critical, it's simply the truth. Options, not blame, should be the focus.
It's a little early to have changed a lot, but wouldn't it feel better to hear public discussions about how to handle fires better? More than that, don't we want to shift our thinking and focus? Instead of simply looking at how to stop fires once they have started, don't we want to prevent them? Where's Smokey the Bear when you need him? Time to bring him back out of retirement.
The truth is, that unless we've acted individually, our governments have not done a lot to support our producing more of our own power, such as the installation of solar power and other renewables. The more we produce the less we need power lines coming in from other areas. We have also not heard public discussions about designating open areas as firebreaks.
The focus of our leaders seems to be on controlling threats by fighting better. Is there a worldwide pattern here? What about prevention? What about alleviating the conditions that we can do something about. Why not do something innovative, such as using volunteer programs such as CERT to thin out overgrown brush that might fuels fires—instead of only focusing on what to do once the fire is here.
Fires may be predictable, but does that also mean they are inevitable? The way I heard it, the only thing in my lifetime that was truly inevitable was war between the US and the USSR. We know what happened with that one.
Have a great month, and don't miss our holiday wish,
Steve
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