In consideration of WBahn and other americans.

Thread Starter

studiot

Joined Nov 9, 2007
4,998
I note WBahn is from Colorado.

I hope that you have not been adversely affected by the fires.

Further I hope those from the storm hit New England states are equally OK.

We have been unable to obtain consisten reports of the action over the pond because our newscasters seem to think the only thing worth reporting is the daily prattling from the kindergarten (sorry parliament??)

Some of us over here care anyway.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
Well it sounds like your newscasters tell you more about America than our newscasters tell us about the UK and other parts of the world.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
Is it possible these fires could have been ignited by a single person or a very small group of people? Maybe a person or people who have a mission? I don't want to come off as a fearmongerer, but I saw this correlation made elsewhere and it seems very plausible to me.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
When I read the first article, I thought "surely bullets aren't hot enough to start a fire" - based on my experience, the spent casings are hot as hell, but not hot enough to start a fire, and I figured the bullet itself must be cooler than the casing, as it's cooling as it flies. I did a little reading though, and sure enough, bullets are hot. Someone recorded a 5.56mm round with a high speed FLIR camera as it exited the barrel as 513°F. Also read some accounts of a few guys who were unfortunate to have picked up ricocheted rounds and said they are way hotter than spent brass.

The matches are a given, and then there's always people with bad exhaust systems and smokers.

Plenty of things to point the finger at, and all valid things, but their quantity and their validity are not grounds to dismiss the possibility of the one additional thing that nobody wants to think about.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
Yes, as MrChips noted, we are okay although we were on pre-evac orders for several days. I know several people that lost their homes. I know one person that owned a $400k+ home right in the middle of the area (I think it didn't get damaged) but sold it and closed the day before the fire started.

It appears they have achieved 100% containment on the Waldo Canyon fire as of this evening. I think they've now got containment on the High Park fire, as well. Between them, they burned 100,000 acres and destroyed 600 homes.

They say they have pinpointed the location of the start of the Waldo Canyon fire, so hopefully they will be able to determine a cause, as well. They are looking at a number of area fires with an eye toward them being arson, but most of the fires are known to have more mundane causes.

Most of the fires in this region (which is many rather large states) have a variety of causes and, in most cases, the cause is known. Apparently one of the ones very close to here (the Springer fire) may have been by a target shooter shooting at something stupid (I forget exactly what). Many of them have been lightning (Colorado is second only to Florida for lightening strikes -- the storm tonight, which was very mild, was producing over a thousand sky-ground strikes every ten minutes) and we have a lot of dry lightening (the lightening but no rain to go with it). A few have been campfires and a couple have been prescribed burns that got out of control (one of those killed several people).

It always amazed me how, particularly this time of year, there are always parts of the U.S. that are burning up and parts that are drowning -- and sometimes we have both right here in Colorado. If only we had some big as pumps and pipes!

Actually, we do (but nothing on the scale that is needed). Denver owns Dillon Reservior which is one of Denver's primary drinking water reserviors. The only problem is that they are on opposite sides of the Continental Divide. Solution: build a pipeline that goes under the Divide -- not once, but three times! If I remember, it is about a twelve foot diameter pipe and it is all gravity fed.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
It is beyond me how they can possibly do that.
Me too. I can understand how they can get reasonably close. Of course, they know that it started within the original limits of the fire when they first became aware of it, so that usually narrows it down to a handful of acres. But it would seem like, when trying to determine cause, you would have to get it down to within a foot or so. Then, you have to determine what started it when I would think that what started it would often be burned up. It's hard to imagine a match or cigarette butt surviving sufficiently intact and, even if it did, what about the several dozen cigarette butts and other things that have been there for who knows how long?
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
Are the loss of these homes covered by home insurance?
That depends on if the owner had insurance and if wildfire was a covered event.

I'm guessing that it was covered by most of the policies for the homes lost here in the Springs because that was a development that was not "in the woods". I don't know about the homes lost up north. Somewhat to my surprise, my homeowner's policy does cover wildfire loss (I checked that specifically before I bought the place). I haven't found any other carrier that will insure the house (I haven't looked very hard) because we ARE "in the woods".
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
I also wish the best to those in the fire zones

@mrchips, probably, but it would depend on the individual insurance policy and provider. I sure hope so.

Regarding the storms, the East coast was not the only area hit, I'm in norhteastern indiana, and there were large parts of Fort Wayne without power untill just yesterday, i THINK it's all fixed now (almost a week, the storm sorta started coming across lake michigan and chicago)
The power outages have been exceptionally bad since it's been >100 degrees and very humid all week, major issues with people overheating and not being able to get cool

I note WBahn is from Colorado.

I hope that you have not been adversely affected by the fires.

Further I hope those from the storm hit New England states are equally OK.

We have been unable to obtain consisten reports of the action over the pond because our newscasters seem to think the only thing worth reporting is the daily prattling from the kindergarten (sorry parliament??)

Some of us over here care anyway.
(you wouldn't have happened to have noticed that from my "where are you from" thread, would you??!? :) )

Haha, sounds like you have some of the same government issues we do :p

and new england wasn't the only area hit by the storm, I'm in Indiana and large parts of Fort Wayne were out of power untill just yesterday (almost a week)
I THINK theyre all back up now

Well it sounds like your newscasters tell you more about America than our newscasters tell us about the UK and other parts of the world.
That's cuz we're more interesting ;)
Hahaha, I kid :)
 
Last edited:

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
the East coast was not the only area hit, I'm in norhteastern indiana, and there were large parts of Fort Wayne without power untill just yesterday, i THINK it's all fixed now

new england wasn't the only area hit by the storm, I'm in Indiana and large parts of Fort Wayne were out of power untill just yesterday (almost a week)
I THINK theyre all back up now
My pattern recognition alarm is going off.
 

Thread Starter

studiot

Joined Nov 9, 2007
4,998
Well it sounds like your newscasters tell you more about America than our newscasters tell us about the UK and other parts of the world
No I only found out from the net, it is not mentioned by the BBC live - that is what I was complaining about.
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Where there is smoke there is fire an old statement. With special montitors

from the sky they can work back with in formation. They have solved some

fires by Id'ing p.u. trucks from the sky.You really don't there forenics from

the eye in the sky.Traffic cams of vehicles in the area,traffic patterns for

days before,it all take time,time is own there side. On the dark side,forest

fires creates a lot of good paying jobs,that has been done before,a few people

have been convicted. The flames make the T.V. news,stories of local fires

would be good Information about what the locals think about being denied access

to there homes. What its really like on the ground,like what help the Red Cross

gives and for how long.
 
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