It seems like the there is no way all these fires (maybe any of them) could be from "natural causes", and probably set by a club of arsonists (I hope they burn in hell). Is there any "fire scientist" type specialists out there that can comment on this ? BTW I live in socal and am feeling the rath of the fires.
There were no clouds in that area (Santa Ana winds are the product of a high pressure area thus no thunderstorms or lightning.) when they started and thus man made fire causes are the most likely.
Spontaneous combustion is a possibility but every case of spontaneous combustion I have ever seen was due to a human mistake and not anything that was completely natural. Lightning is just about the only natural cause of fire ignition.
Human caused fires are either intentional or accidental. If it was intentional, that is very sick. Even if it was accidental, that also is upsetting since everyone should have been using extreme caution with anything that could have been a source of ignition for fire. That does include cars. (catalytic converters are notorious for starting fires in dried grasses and bushy areas.
But part of the problem does lay at the feet of the home owners for building in areas and allowing brush to build right up to their houses and not constructing with fire safety in mind. Wood shingle roofs catch fire way too easily but you see a lot of them in so-cal.
February 20th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Some of the fires have been determined to be from arson. One was started by a stalled car, the others were probably started by humans either intentionally or by accident (and by accident I mean negligence).
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February 20th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Zip zero zilch nada.
Some are started by arsonists.
Some are started by stupid gits tossing cigarette butts out their car windows.
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February 20th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
There were no clouds in that area (Santa Ana winds are the product of a high pressure area thus no thunderstorms or lightning.) when they started and thus man made fire causes are the most likely.
Spontaneous combustion is a possibility but every case of spontaneous combustion I have ever seen was due to a human mistake and not anything that was completely natural. Lightning is just about the only natural cause of fire ignition.
Human caused fires are either intentional or accidental. If it was intentional, that is very sick. Even if it was accidental, that also is upsetting since everyone should have been using extreme caution with anything that could have been a source of ignition for fire. That does include cars. (catalytic converters are notorious for starting fires in dried grasses and bushy areas.
But part of the problem does lay at the feet of the home owners for building in areas and allowing brush to build right up to their houses and not constructing with fire safety in mind. Wood shingle roofs catch fire way too easily but you see a lot of them in so-cal.
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I have taught weather portions of fire behavior courses to firefighters for over 20 years.
February 20th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
ya i live in so cal too… i think it’s arson… i mean it’s just like back in ‘03 Oct. when to sky turned dark cuz of the fires and looked like a bomb hit us in the hills…
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February 20th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I’m no scientist, but I have a theory to support a natural way in which the fires could possibly have been ignited.
Light passes through different gases at different speeds, right?
So is it not possible that gas buildups in the area could have refracted sunlight onto already-parched materials, causing them to ignite in similar ways as if someone had used a magnifying glass?
This theory would be almost impossible to prove, as whatever gas might or might not have been around would surely have also been burned away. If it was not flammable, the heat would have made it rise into the atmosphere.
There is much more chance of humans being responsible, but this is just one theory that supports a natural cause.
See, just because I love sex, doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Then again, I’m not blonde, either.
Adds: We could also combine the natural theory with the human theory, and reach another theory that it was man-made gas. Therefore humans would be fully responsible for a natural occurence.
If it was someone deliberately lighting the place up, that person should be brought to justice. Now Governer Scwarzenegger’s not going to have a very good carbon footprint.
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Purple Rayne is falling for you