Wildland fire roundup

The Summit fire south of Santa Cruz, California is expected to be contained by the middle of this week, but many of the evacuees have still not been allowed to return to their homes. The fire is 70% contained and has burned 3,970 acres in an area that has not burned in the 100 years that fire records have been kept. 36 residences have been destroyed. The fire burned 3,000 acres in the first 8 hours. While most people at a public meeting yesterday were supportive of the firefighters, one person questioned what they described as a "slow response" to the Ormsby Road area where several homes burned. Chief John Ferreira of CalFire said:

"We kill enough firefighters over their own desire to do their best and protect the community. I regret that the houses were lost, but we would not have sent our firefighters into that situation."

I wonder what the person that questioned the CalFire response did in advance to make his house fire safe?


WRAL.com has a story about Peter Barr who got obsessed interested in the 120 fire lookout towers in North Carolina. He wrote a book, "Hiking North Carolina's Lookout Towers", that includes descriptions of how to hike to 26 of them in western and central North Carolina. And, in case you didn't know, there is a Forest Fire Lookout Association. Mr. Barr is the director of the state's chapter.