FIRES

The picture above is from http://timesonline.com/


The news is full of the fires in California. Here in farm country, everything is green. This year, we didn’t even have a late summer dry spell to give you a vacation from mowing. On the other hand, the West Coast is so dry it’s brittle. Below is a chart of average monthly rainfall for the LA area:

If I saw my house burning, I could leave. No problem. The first time a fireman came up to me and said, “It’s headed this way. You’ve gotta go.” I would. But what about the third time? Or the fifth time?



The firemen can’t be everywhere. They have to prioritize. Do wealthy neighborhoods out rank poor ones? Larger clusters of home might easily get a higher priority than farmhouses with no neighbors. The individual homeowner has no such dilemma. He just wants to save his house. Total strangers might well have more training, but not more commitment.



Would you be better off staying and hosing down your house? But what if you guess wrong? Firemen end up risking their lives to save the people who ignored them. I’m not advocating any particular behavior. I just see where the people who stayed in their homes are coming from.



I’m glad I don’t live in California.