UH-oh - are the Feds going to get blamed for not stopping the fires

[janekat]

in Calif? Looks like they're blaming FEMA and the Forest Service now.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. FEMA did not

release teh funds asked for six months ago... that could have at
the very least made the impact of this less severe

Yes teh Feds are playing a fine game of crony politics, the kind
that remind me of Mexico, the PRI and how to mess up with
your political oponents

[Porcupine]

2. Blame the idiots who build in fire zones

In California fire zones where I have lived most of my life you learn two things.

1. There is absolutely nothing the fire crews can do to stop a wildfire if there is fuel, flame and adverse weather. The Oakland fire proved this.

2. Almost nobody is willing to clear the brush and trees around their homes to create a proper "defensible perimiter."

The result is that there are cities all over CA that WILL burn down as soon they are lit on a hot day. Then we all blame everybody else.

[lazarus]

3. idiots?

Most of these people live in areas that haven't had fires in 50+ years. They freaking live in town. In the city. Not out in the middle of a brush field, but in a freaking suburb in town.

Come on down to TierraSanta or Scripps Ranch and tell me how these were idiots in a fire zone. Heck, I live across the street from a lake, in an apartment complex, with no "fire zone" anywhere near me, and was two blocks from being evacuated.

Let's face it. Every single place on this continent is vulnerable to a natural disaster of some kind.

We can blame the idiots who live in the Northeast for living in blizzard zones. And the idiots in the Midwest for living in tornado zones. And the idiots on the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Seaboard for living in hurricane zones.

The key question is, was every reasonable action taken to minimise the inevitable disaster before it happened?

In this case, thanks to the Feds, the answer is no.

[rman]

4. it's one big fire zone

because of FEMA not funding forrest maintenance.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. FEMA was suppose to handle emergencies involving terrorism.

Can you believe that this idiot president of ours put aside the January 2001 bi-partisan report from the Committee on Counter-Terrorism because he wanted to streamline the agencies and put FEMA in charge? That was one of the reasons why the report was picking up dust on Cheney's desk when the planes flew into the WTC on 9/11.

If FEMA isn't pro-active enough to anticipate a major fire in California, just how the hell are they suppose to be any good to us on matters that involve terrorism?