The four-man crew on the engine—No. 70 out of Malibu—were wetting down a home when they ran out of

[thunder rising]

water?

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_12315457
What's wrong with that picture, wetting down a home when they ran out of water.
In other words instead of fighting the fire they were attempting to protect a McMansion.

Obviously, there was a fire on the way up the street, that was being fueled by vegetation and the decision was to save an insurance company a few bucks?

Training a firefighter is a waste of effort. Just listen to the insurance companies.

[mth44sc]

1. Well gosh

I thought the whole idea of hte fire service was to protect lives and property.

[thunder rising]

8. Save lives and property by ... putting out the fire. Bad call by the chief.

If you don't have enough water to fight the fire ... get out of there.

This was akin to the Lieutenant of the "Lost Platoon". What did he think he would accomplish?

[hlthe2b]

2. That is what they do in wildfires.... I live in Colorado and this does

not strike me as strange.... We have crews that set backfires as appropriate, plane crews involved in flyovers with fire retardant or water drops from the sky and other crews (typically local fire departments) focus on residences--first evacuations and then attempts to prevent further destruction (and spread to residential or commercial areas).

:shrug:

I guess I don't see your point... I'm glad the crew is safe. I'd certainly want them to try to prevent my home from being destroyed if they could...

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. The point is that it's a {{{Gasp!}}} "McMansion"

and everyone knows that no one who owns a house that can be qualified as a "McMansion" deserves to have it saved. After all, they're rich, remember? If it burns down, the insurance companies will have to pay. To hell with the lifetime of personal effects inside the house.

You know.....

Fuck the rich.

Right?

[thunder rising]

11. Absolutely, forget the house, fight the fire. If they needed a backfire ... light it up.

[MindPilot]

15. Ummm, keeping the house from burning IS fighting the fire. n/t

[thunder rising]

17. Houses are not kindling. The actually take some effort to light up. A fire fighter must consider

what is the NEXT source of kindling ... not the next most expensive home likely to burn

[MindPilot]

21. Obviously you haven't experienced many wildfires

You cannot stop them; you do not extingish them. The best you can hope for is to contain it, mitigate the damage in its path and let it burn out.

A wildfire doesn't care about kindling--it is already creating its own weather.

[Codeine]

3. That's what firefighters do.

Spraying water on a wildfire is usually difficult until the fire is so close that it engulfs the homes already. Engines spray down homes while tankers drop retardant and backfires eat up fuel.

[Vickers]

4. I'm struggling to see the problem with this.

I'm sure these firefighters were trying to save small houses and large ones with equal effort and skill.

[bunnies]

5. damn them for trying to save that persons house!

Bastards!

[cali]

6. you might consider educating yourself instead of

broadcasting your ignorance and hate.

[thunder rising]

9. ignorance and hate???? With no water to fight a fire, wetting a house with the last of the load is

a bad call.

[Joanie Baloney]

10. Tell the residents that

How did I guess you don't live in California??

One thing we don't joke about here is wildfires and the people who fight them.

Tsk. tsk.

[thunder rising]

12. I'm not joking! Keep the insurance companies out of the fire departments

[MindPilot]

14. Yes because as we all know fire fighting operations are directed by insurance companies

Most of the time it's just a phone call to the battalion chief from the insurance company's McMansion Asset Protection Division, but if it is a bad fire they will put an adjuster on-scene to direct firefighting operations.

In case it's necessary :sarcasm:

[havocmom]

22. Or, keep houses out of areas that are real difficult to defend against fire

It may not be the insurance companies at fault for dictating policy. It MAY be the zoning commissions that buckle under to developers and/or whining people who INSIST on building in areas that burn often and/or are really hard to keep from burning.

Lived in southern California for half my life. I know fires and mudslides after fires are huge problems. I ALWAYS wondered why people insisted on building in areas where both of those event happened on a regular basis. As a tax payer, it sorta annoyed me that those unwise people were a bigger draw on emergency resources.

Here in Montana, we have too many urban residents coming up and building homes (or vacation homes) next to public lands that are very difficult to reach with heavy equipment. Guess what? We also have more fatalities on fire crews in areas where homes are situated next to wilderness. Gee, MAYBE people should enjoy the view from a distance or visit the view, but not insist on BUILDING in the view?

Fact: Fire fighters have to spend more time, resources, and lives, defending homes because homes are being built in places that are not wise choices.

Not always big houses in those areas, just houses in areas that are difficult to defend.

[Dappleganger]

23. That's very hard to do in CA

You would have very few places to build in some areas if that were the case. Land is at a premium there.

[havocmom]

25. LOL I know. Spent half my life there

There was still lots of open land on 'the flats', even in Orange County, Riverside County and points both north and south. BUT, idiots were still building in very volatile chaparral-covered hills, indefensible canyons and eroding cliffs. Not about the scarce land. About human wants overriding human needs. People WANTED to build in difficult places because they WANTED the views. Until the view was fire or slides. Then they WANTED rescues because they built in places thay didn't really NEED to build in.

[MindPilot]

26. It's tough any place

There are very few places not subject to some regular natural disaster. In California we just choose earthquakes and fires over tornadoes and ice storms.

[MindPilot]

13. Well, it is clearly fire season on DU

Those greedy rich Californians built McMansions so they deserve to have their houses burn.

No matter the square footage, that was still someone's HOME.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MindPilot]

18. Oh please

that comment was just plain dumb

[cali]

19. ridiculous. and paranoid nonsense.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dionysus]

27. you're piling idiocy on top of idiocy here... you got pwned, live with it...

:rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

24. here's a quarter- go buy yourself a clue.

that is exactly what they do in wildfires. :eyes:

[dionysus]

28. .

:spray:

[dionysus]

29. uh, einstein.... spraying water on houses is what firefighters do when... oh forget about it...

:rofl: