Wildfires, they don't just occur in Southern California, it is a widespread phenomenon, should we build differently?

  I woke up really early this morning, I am getting some sort of a cold or another respiratory issue, it may be an irritation from the smoke in the air. We have been dealing with various levels of smoke since the fires started in late spring or early summer. I turned on the TV at 6:17 am to see how the fires in Southern California are doing, it was not shown, all of the news was political. I couldn't handle any more politics, my tolerance is greatly reduced, so I turned to the Weather Channel, still no coverage on the fires. It was dark out, sometimes I will sit on the deck and watch what is going on around the river, today I changed the channel to How the Universe Works. I like watching the documentaries about outer space and other interesting subjects in our world and surrounding areas (like the entire universe), learning is one of my passions.

This has nothing to do with wildfires, but it did inspire me to
write about wildfires, we can send a huge telescope into space
to take brilliant photos like this one of Saturn, why in this world
can't we build homes and structures that are capable of withstanding
natural disasters?

I get a little tired of doom and gloom day in and day out, it is like no matter where a person looks he gets hit with how we're all going to meet our ending. I was watching this program and all was going well, until 1/2 hour into it the narrator started talking and describing how the world was going to end. It may be 1.2 billion years off, but it still kind of gets to a guy, we just don't want to hear about how the world will end. It did make me start wondering about how common severe natural disasters are, which are the most common, which are the most destructive and what areas in the world are affected the most by them.
  Reading about the fires in L.A. and surrounding areas is a real wake up call, they may continue burning another 2 weeks or longer. I have often looked at the Diablo Range of Mountains in view of my house, It's possible for a fire to start here, 400 miles north of the grapevine, where I-5 transverses the mountains then dives into the L.A. area. There is a lot of dry grass and weeds for the entire length of the mountain range, manageable fires seem to start and stop rather quickly in those hills.

An out of control wildfire in one of the largest urban areas in the
world, it may go on for another week or two. 

                     How common are Wildfires?
  Every year in the United States more than 100,000 wildfires occur, destroying 5 million acres as an average, recently in the past few years that lose has increased to 9 million acres. The wildfires take place everywhere, being more common in the forested areas of the US and Canada. They are common in grasslands as well, the high vegetated areas of Australia and the Western Cape of South Africa, as an example. In our country the Western States suffer especially hard after a drought, the first rains cause an explosion in growth and when they stop in late spring the grasses dry out and the fires begin, that is what is taking place in California right now. The rains are late in California, December is normally the month when the most rain falls, this year there has been none so far. There is still about two weeks left in the month so the rains may show up yet, but it looks doubtful. Even though it seems this year must be a record breaker for the fires, in the area it is beginning to look that way, up until this year the period 1994-2013 held the distinction of being the time period with the highest frequency of wildfires. Large wildfires are classified as being over 300 acres.
  Every state in the west with the exception of the state of Wyoming has at least one county that qualifies as having a number of large fires, 100 - 1300 fires per year is the highest frequency category. 21-100 wildfires are considered to be the frequency with the second highest amount. The numbers are skewed especially when compared to the Eastern States due to the size of the counties. In the East, the counties are typically smaller than in the west, so the number of fires compared to the area is a little off. However, the larger the county is the more likely it is to have more wildfires.
  Outside of the Western States, east of the Rocky Mountains, the states in the Great Plains and South experienced the most wildfires during the same period. (1994-2013). South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Louisiana each had at least one county or parish in the highest category of frequency.
  90% of wildfires are caused by humans, the remaining 10% by lava or lightning, there is no mention of utility responsibility. Of the human-caused fires, the causes are lit cigarettes tossed out a car window, campfires left hot, burning of trash piles, cars parked over weeds with hot catalytic converters and intentional acts of arson. Arson fires are the most difficult to assign responsibility to, they are mostly started in extremely remote areas in the middle of the night. Rock slides are also a culprit, as the rocks and earth slide down a hill, some will cause sparks and in turn, start a wildfire. (Link to causes of wildfires)
  Prescribed fires are used to prevent wildfires on occasion, however, there is always the possibility of the fire getting out of control. When a prescribed fire is planned such things as humidity, temperature, and the wind must be taken into account. If it's mid-July with a 5 mile per wind, zero humidity, and it's 105 degrees, well that's not the best time to start a prescribed burn. Smoke must also be taken into account, human health, and agricultural concerns need to be addressed as well. Early morning hours when it is cool and dew is still on the ground is the best time for a prescribed burn. Careful planning by experienced and educated fire professionals is the key to having a successful prescribed burn, even then the fire has the ability to burn wildly out of control.
  Fires are not looked upon as being entirely negative, in the 1930's research into the history of wildfires developed a new way of thinking of fires. Researchers discovered that contrary to common thought at the time, wildfires cleared the forest floor preparing it for fresh seeding by adding nutrients beneficial to adding to making the undergrowth thicker. It does add underbrush to the surviving forest and open land, the added brush, when combined with drought, can affect the frequency and intensity of a wildfire, it can be a double-edged sword.
  The fire triangle refers to the three elements that must be present to sustain the chemical reaction which is fire. (Link to understanding the fire triangle)
  *Fuel, as in wildfires is the underbrush, dry trees, shrubs, and structures.
  *Oxygen, it must be at least 16%, our environment is 21% oxygen, just right for fires.
  *Heat, that initial spark if hot enough will start a flame that is hot enough to sustain a fire.
  If anyone of these elements is removed, the fire will go out, usually, we remove the heat when fighting a fire outdoors. Some of the chemicals dropped from aircraft will remove the oxygen, fire breaks remove the fuel, but still spraying water on a fire is the most efficient way we have found to fight them.
  It seems surreal that a fire is able to burn unabated practically through a densely populated area such as Los Angelos. I say unabated, not due to a lack of effort to extinguish it, but the intense winds known as the "Santa Ana's", devilishly strong, dry and warm winds that occur this time of year in that local. It brings up thoughts of the movies of Armageddon, although I don't believe we are close to that, I do have visions of L.A. being completely out of control. When I read that the fire at one time was burning one acre per second, a rate which is difficult to comprehend, that rate is capable of destroying my neighbor's house on each side and mine in the middle in a time period of 3 seconds. One acre a second is extremely fast, those homes must be exploding into flames, they are much more densely packed than where I live. (Link to understanding the Santa Ana winds)
 

This is a brushfire resistant home, it looks like it may survive a
high wind event as well. 

  It brings to mind one more issue I have been thinking about lately, it has to do with the definition of insanity. "If you keep doing the same things you've always done, you will get the same results." Or it goes something like that, we've all mostly heard or read it as coming from the brain of Albert Einstien, whether it did or not I don't know for sure. It may be time for us to re-think the way in which we build houses and other structures in this country. Perhaps we should build housing designed for the area it is occupying, in the Midwest build for tornados, the west wildfires, the east hurricanes, as obvious examples. There may be a design or materials that are suitable to withstand all natural disasters, if we can build a space station, super-sonic jets and ships that can go 2 miles beneath the ocean, I imagine we have the knowledge to design a structure that can withstand a fire, tornado, and hurricane.
  Thank you for reading and sharing, leave a comment or story, I like to hear from you.
jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com