> A couple thousand words with no real insight or information. Because it's things we already know about, but refuse to do anything about. For example: > “The

> A couple thousand words with no real insight or information. Because it's things we already know about, but refuse to do anything about. For example: > “The assumption is continually made that it’s the big flames” that cause widespread community destruction, he said, “and yet the wildfire actually only initiates community ignitions largely with lofted burning embers.” We've known about embers for decades, and why you need to clear the area around your home of ignition sources: * https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/preparing-homes-for-wildfire https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/prepari... Here's a potato-quality video posted thirteen years ago on landscaping best practices: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NVe0gu69FY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NVe0gu69FY A news story from twelve years ago about a home that survivied (with a charred landscape around it): * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rgUp245nso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rgUp245nso Which is talked about in the article: > This fundamental misunderstanding has likewise led to a misunderstanding of prevention. No longer is it a matter of preventing wildfires but instead preventing points of ignition within communities by employing “home-hardening” strategies — proper landscaping, fire-resistant siding — and enjoining neighbors in collective efforts such as brush clearing. We may also have to accept that perhaps Mother Nature can still be more powerful than humans at times: > The National Fire Prevention Assn., a national nonprofit that provides standards for fire suppression operations, calls for a minimum of three engines or 15 firefighters for a single-residence fire, a number that is impossible to attain when fighting a fire on the scale of the Palisades or Eaton fires. > “We’re not recognizing, analyzing, questioning how we’re failing,” Cohen said. “We just think we need more airplanes and more helicopters flying 24 hours a day.” > More CL-415 super-scoopers or Firehawk helicopters will not help when water is being dropped into 60 mph wind gusts. See also "Why Los Angeles was unprepared for this fire": > Water runs short: […] “There’s no urban water system engineered and constructed to combat wildfire,” said Michael McNutt, a spokesman for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves 75,000 people in northwest Los Angeles County. The system was intended to supply water to homes and businesses, he said, and to help fire crews defend a large structure or several homes, not multiple neighborhoods at once. […] * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42674591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42674591