LVSteve
Member
California has not been interested in people making electricity for a while. They think the whole process is icky and want it done in other states then shipped in.
California Fires-Cause?
- Thread starter VaTom
- Start date
California has not been interested in people making electricity for a while. They think the whole process is icky and want it done in other states then shipped in.
Yes...and cost prohibitive. But then again, burning down entire cities aint cheap.
Yes, indeed. They seem to work fine in Europe and parts of Asia.
Again, it works in lots of very rural areas that are less prosperous than are we.
Utilities
Planning ahead is key. Having worked and lived in a big city, most if not all utilities are underground in some sort of duct. Years ago it was tile, then they progressed to concrete. Makes it somewhat easy to replace and repair, and protects the cable.
The further away from cities you get the more of a mish mash of underground and aerial cabling you get. Terrain has much to do with it.
Living very rural with no or little competing utilities, you can dig up dirt lay the wires and cover.
I now live in an area just outside a big city, rapidly going city though. I can't tell you how many times they have dug up along the roadside to lay utilities in dirt, and damaged what was already there.
The cable companies are the worst. One year its Spectrum, then AT&T, then Google fiber, and on and on, laying yet another cable. A cable line always gets hit. Why can't they just lay one large cable and have them pay to use it?
Now electric lines are more complex and don't play well with others.
They go deeper but still will someday need to be upgraded and/or repaired.
That's my non engineer take.
Planning ahead is key. Having worked and lived in a big city, most if not all utilities are underground in some sort of duct. Years ago it was tile, then they progressed to concrete. Makes it somewhat easy to replace and repair, and protects the cable.
The further away from cities you get the more of a mish mash of underground and aerial cabling you get. Terrain has much to do with it.
Living very rural with no or little competing utilities, you can dig up dirt lay the wires and cover.
I now live in an area just outside a big city, rapidly going city though. I can't tell you how many times they have dug up along the roadside to lay utilities in dirt, and damaged what was already there.
The cable companies are the worst. One year its Spectrum, then AT&T, then Google fiber, and on and on, laying yet another cable. A cable line always gets hit. Why can't they just lay one large cable and have them pay to use it?
Now electric lines are more complex and don't play well with others.
They go deeper but still will someday need to be upgraded and/or repaired.That's my non engineer take.
Locally if the railroad or lightning doesn't start the fire it is more often than not caused by a "camper", whether homeless or choosing to live outside within close proximity to a food source, etc. The railroad causes many fires, especially out in our wheat country, they have a bearing fail that creates a shower of sparks, that used to be one of the main purposes for the caboose, to watch for fires started by a cinder from the locomotive.
I also have a theory about cigarette smokers causing many fires alongside the freeway, casually tossing a lit smoke out the window out of habit. Get caught doing that in British Columbia and it used to be a $299 dollar fine, they have a great system for collecting fines, don't pay your fines, your license is revoked.
Another theory I have about fires is the effect of broken glass acting like a magnifying lens on dry grass.
Public-space campers maybe?
They work great in my neighborhood too.
We're lucky. Our local utility has buried all their power lines.
In the last 11 years the only time we lost power for more than an hour was when an ice storm brought down the power lines between Spokane and Grand Coulee Dam. The whole town was without power for days that time.
Our adjacent neighborhoods haven't been so lucky. They've experienced a lot more power outages of much longer duration.
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In my years at Spokane, I don't recall ever losing power. But in Florida, prior to 2004, you could count on having to reset all the clocks every other day when you came home. It wasn't uncommon to have power go off 2-3 times a day for no apparent reason. After the 2004 hurricanes, FPL wised up--at our expense--and contracted out to have all the tree limbs within reach of power lines cut. Now, at least in my neighborhood, power rarely blinks. Newer neighborhoods and developments are getting the underground grids.
Countrycuz
Member
I retired recently after 40 plus years with a rural electric Coop. When I started in the 1970's, some major underground cable projects were just being completed. In less than 15 years, we were enduring an unacceptable amount of cable failures, and started replacement.
This was a major expense that wasn't planned for, and management was turned off of underground cable, we went back to mostly overhead construction which cost half as much. The last decade of my career, a lot of underground installation began again with new cable with an estimated 40 year lifespan. At the time,we still had overhead lines operating that were over 60 years old. I know of one circuit that went underground in 1975, was replaced with cable in the late 80's, and replaced for the third time in 50 years in 2022.
I agree that underground electric would help with fire prevention, just be aware that someone has to pay for it. There are places where it may not be feasible, rocky, mountainess terrain, long high voltage transmission lines.
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The cost goes down considerably when you factor in wildfire costs for the 25-35% of fires started by powerlines just in CA and the cost goes way down.
Here in NM, our road to wildfire Hades is paved with good intentions, as our largest, most destructive wildfires started as prescribed burns.
What's a mother to do?
Here in NM, our road to wildfire Hades is paved with good intentions, as our largest, most destructive wildfires started as prescribed burns.
What's a mother to do?
dsf
Member
I work with Canadians. A polite bunch, except when they're drunk.
The pilots likely apologized for their wing knocking the drone out of the sky.
smoothshooter
Member
Seems to be multiple causes:
•Arson
•Bad underbrush control/management
•Garden-variety political corruption top to bottom
•Hiring incompetent managers in Fire and Water Departments for DEI purposes at astronomical salaries
•Misappropriation of tax dollars
•Laziness on the part of managers
•Out of control environmental activists favoring obscure plants and animals over people
•Arson
•Bad underbrush control/management
•Garden-variety political corruption top to bottom
•Hiring incompetent managers in Fire and Water Departments for DEI purposes at astronomical salaries
•Misappropriation of tax dollars
•Laziness on the part of managers
•Out of control environmental activists favoring obscure plants and animals over people
A couple of friends of mine were sitting in a bar in Victoria in the late '80s. They were talking to a table of Canadians next to them. One of the Canadians was in his cups a bit and was calling them Rambos and generally putting down the U.S.A., still as politely as you can be when denigrating an entire country. At one point he said to my friend, "Well, you're a bit capitalistic, eh?"
My buddy just smiled and nodded, then turned to the waitress and bought a round of drinks for their table.
smoothshooter
Member
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