Thoughts and prayers to those who have lost their homes. Understand the reason why the fires spread-winds, dry conditions, etc. What I haven’t heard is how these fires got started in the first place. Multiple fires simultaneously across a wide area in the 2nd largest city in the US. Just over a week before inauguration of a new president. Devastation enormous . Could there be some nefarious causes? Hopefully there will be an investigation into the causes.

According to TIME, a suspect was arrested for arson in starting the Kenneth Fire which is west from the big fires currently being fought.

I'm sad to say arson cannot ever be ruled out in these conflagurations and especially these...nor can decaying infrastructure such as exposed power lines and such.

In the southern California enviroment, one tiny spark is all it takes to go straight to World War III.

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The Last Standing Knight

One version says the cause is fires in homeless encampments.

Which is what I have seen proposed. But no evidence.

Good time for California to fall into the ocean, at least it’d put the fires out

There have not been any downed power lines or lightning strikes. I live near the area and arson is the suspected cause.

At least the coastline !

My bet is a 'homeless fire', before political correctness they were called 'hobo fires'. There are several encampments located out of the way in these hills and brush areas; few if any are being careful when making camp fires.

According to LAFD data in a May 2024 report, there were 13,909 homeless fires in Los Angeles in 2023, about 35 per day and almost double the number of such fires in 2020.

According to several news outlets, no specific cause has been determined yet. The reason it has spread so fast is partly because of the usually dry conditions in SoCal this time of the year and the unusually high Santa Ana winds. Then it delves into why there is no water available to fight the fire and not enough firefighters to battle the blazes, but that enters a vicious political arena and best not to go there.

I have also heard the reports about cookfires in homeless camps being the primary suspect. They say the LA fire department is always chasing down brush fires caused by these folks that are apparently allowed to squat anywhere. Kind of ironic that celebrity neighborhoods are now being destroyed by this social policy.

I saw something on the news this evening that some jail inmates are being released to help fight the fires. Not sure that is a good idea.

At one time and maybe still Colorado had fire fighting teams of inmates.

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Mike
USMCR 84-87, USAF 87-07

I am pretty sure CA has a training program to teach fire fighting.

Excellent idea and I am guessing there is some vetting and pretty tight supervision.

I would applaud a group of inmates putting their lives on the line and giving back to help make up for things they may have done.

Apparently been around since 1915.and there are 35 camps throughout the state.

As far as cause I will wait for the experts to tell me.

Probably not many available.......they don't arrest anyone in Cali .

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

Yesterday, on X, there were videos of folks tossing gas cans out of an suv with the fire nearby.

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Thread Killer.

I've noticed there are no bums anymore either, just "homeless people".

I believe the current "correct" term these days is "unhoused". Apparently, "homeless" has a negative connotation to it. I wonder why?

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The best I can with what I got

Read a book: Rip Cord, Keith Nolan

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"Don't Give Up the Ship"

I have to say arson.

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No baby we aint

I remember Johnny Carson saying at least the mudslides were putting out the wildfires.

That is just their "it's Climate Change" spin. I have lived in California over 60 years. This is our normal and historical Southern California weather pattern. Some years we get a lot of rain, and sometimes we go several years with very little rain. And Santa Ana winds are normal too at certain times of the year.

LA suspended clearing dry brush and dead trees to spend money on political pet projects, and to please the environmentalists who donate to the politicians. That is also another reason they no longer do controlled burns to get rid of the fire hazards. This is the reason State Farm canceled so many policies recently in Pacific Palisades. Calmatters.org states that 95% of these wildfires are human caused.

Late Wife#1 was raised in Simi Valley. She had lots of stories about the Santa Ana winds and wildfires from the 1960s to the 80s, all long before conspiracy theories were a thing. She said that the causes of the fires were old power lines brought down by the wind, carelessly discarded cigarettes, camp fires, and the occasional hot catalytic converter.

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Release the Kraken

Hopefully the forensic fire experts will figure it out. I have my own opinion which has been mentioned by others in above posts. (The “politically correct ” term in Oregon is Houseless.)

One thing that I’ve not heard explained is the power issue. “The wind took the power out so there was no water available.”

I’ve spent most of my working years being part of constructing, plumbing, and maintaining water/wastewater pump stations. ANY critical station was required to have an independent emergency GenSet. I find it hard to believe that Cali doesn’t require this when even years ago remote sites in AK did.

Jim

You probably cannot run a GenSet in SoCal because of the pollution laws.

Whether the above will just go down as a smartass comment or the staggering truth remains to be seen.

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Release the Kraken

Gee, thanks for wishing for the death of my sister, her daughter, three granddaughters and three great granddaughters.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

A once great state turning to ashes………what a shame. My prayers for those affected…….

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"Your other right........."

Ya know how you were taught to make a fire by rubbing sticks together in the boy scouts?
Replace the boy scouts with the wind and you have your answer

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it just needs more voltage

In the Boy Scouts in my day we had fire safety drummed into our heads.
I wonder how much of their water shortage problem is due to MJ cultivation
? That absorbs a lot of water, a few years ago they were trying to bully farmers into not cultivating things such as almonds-"too water intensive."

A note on some observations of people setting gas cans in the fire areas. Setting "backfires" to control the spread of brush fires is an effective method used by wildland firefighters. Those photos may be of that activity.

There are a lot of good people in California. I pray for them.

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Kind regards, Heinz

you folks need to call a spade a spade and get over that bleeding heart BS.they caught a homeless man or migrent setting a bunch of fires.stick that in your crawl.

A rather broad blanket statement. Not everyone in California are of the same ilk.

My son and daughter in law live in Ca and I would not want them to fall in the ocean.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

But they've got solar panels . . .

Direct Energy Weapons

Yes, there are inmate hand crews being used to fight these fires but are available for other natural disasters. These groups are commonly known as fire camp crews, several states have them.

The program is run by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations (CDCR), CAL FIRE and local FD's. It is a popular program, if you qualify.

They have strict standards as to who can get in, your behavior while there, and passing the boot camp, education and field training.
Once you get in, you get a measure of freedom; you are still monitored 24/7, get trained and are paid.
After you complete your time and training you are certified as a wildlands firefighter. All of this is a big deal.

With that ticket, you can get a job as a firefighter. Meaning you can get a respectable job, earn money, pay taxes and basically you can get back into society; not an easy task for someone that has been in prison.

My greatest concern is that this may increase the great migration east as the flow of Californians out of the state increases dramatically. We have not been pleased with the ones that have already showed up in our neck of the woods with their weird ways and expectations.

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Live long and prosper

I heard a report on the radio that mentioned that previous 2 years were unusually "wet" meaning there was a higher level of grass and other vegetation to act as as fuel source. This aggravates the situation mentioned above.

Hopefully all that are responsible will be punished.

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No baby we aint

The company that sells the Ting ground fault/arc fault detectors says it had thousands of hits when the wind picked up Bad omen for utility company.

There are pictures taken by residents close to the Eaton fire showing the fire starting at the base of one of the big transmission towers in the valley.

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Super Snooper

I see no problem with inmates fighting fires. First of all they're not going to use violent offenders for this. Government agencies already use inmates for many kinds of work with few problems. It's really a win-win situation for everyone involved. The inmates get out and get some exercise, and the local governments get free labor saving them a lot of money.

I just did a search for "callous" and found this.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

IBTL.
Serious discussion of the root causes are verboten.
But it is still a fascinating topic...

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

In my opinion...the investigation into the cause will be driven by the depth of the pockets of those being investigated. Homeless pockets are shallow, utilities pockets are deep...so I fully expect that the electric utilities will ultimately be held responsible.

Yes, whenever there's a wildfire in California the local electric utility is the go-to whipping boy. Mostly because that's often the source. It was for the Camp fire.

The state blames the utility for poor management. The utility blames the state for not allowing big enough rate increases to cover ongoing maintenance. There will be investigations and blue-ribbon panels, and more fires.

In one of the Midwestern states they built a prison with convict labor. Now THAT'S callous.
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." Sherlock Holmes
We had a bad fire here in NJ in 2022 in the Mullica River area of the Wharton State Forest. Blamed-but not proven-on an illegal campfire. Remote are, dry winter and spring, high winds. The usual suspects.

At my gun club we had a couple days of convict labor donated to us from one of the local prisons. Back then the DOC rented our club house and the back range to do firearms training and quals. We had a very good arrangement with them, as the training academy was about 10 miles away. They had no firing range there!

The club need a lot of work and the DOC range officers finagled out a way to get a buss load of laborers up to the club a couple times. They were all short timers, none violent and trustee class. Many of them had skills like carpenter, roofer or just genuinely handy. They preformed a lot of very good work.

The only stipulation was the club had to be closed for the day and no one but the guards was allowed to bring guns onto the club. They all packed issued .38 revolvers!

I was between jobs at the time and I was on site to keep the road gate locked and not allow guns on the property.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

So; wash your thoughts out with this....we help people in dire need all over the world. The world is in fact paying attention.

Both Mexico and Canada have trained firefighters on our (US) firelines right now. They sent help when we need it.

The plane that got hit by the drone came down from Canada to assist.

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The best I can with what I got

That's good to hear. First time I've ever heard of such a thing. We're usually on the giving rather than the receiving end of that type of arrangement.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

We got a lot of international assistance during Hurricane Katrina. International response to Hurricane Katrina - Wikipedia