Bush and The Fires

Posted on November 2, 2003 in Crosstalk Disasters

Raven is furious with the National Forest Service because, in the opinion of a San Diego Sheriff’s helicopter pilot who’d never flown an air drop, the fire could have been doused shortly after it was discovered just before sunset.

She writes:

I don’t care what regulations there may be, this is one time that rules were made to be broken. Considering the damage done, would it have been any worse if the pilot DID crash while trying to put out the blaze? I think not. I think it was a risk worth taking, but inflexible bureaucrats who get upset when the rigid rules and regulations aren’t followed, for then it impacts their rigidly defined lives, decided it was not. Think out of the box, people. Stop hiding your heads like an ostrich in the sand. It’s okay to be flexible and adapt to changing situations. When a species doesn’t adapt, it becomes extinct.

I think I side with the Forest Service on this one, Raven. The Sheriff pilot sounds like a hot shot who has no clue about the complications involved in making an air drop. First, you have to find the fire. Sounds easy? Consider that in addition to the darkness, you will have a sky full of smoke to contend with in an already turbulent atmosphere. Second, the drop has to be made not from the comfortable thousands of feet that we’re accustomed to using when obliterating Iraqis, but only several hundred feet in rugged terrain. Third, the air over a fire is turbulent. It’s risky enough in the daytime. Fourth, if the plane crashes (which is highly likely), you start another source of flame. Fires grow geometrically. Instead of complaining now about the air drop, you would probably be complaining about the stupid attempt to make one and the consequently larger fire. Fifth, when you lose the plane, it won’t be there in the morning to help fight the fire when it can be the most effective. You make it harder for the crews on the ground who must fight the fire.

I can understand both sides on this one, but I have to give the call to the Forest Service. They’ve done this for years and they know the risks. They know how greatly things can get more fucked up than they already are.

I think a more important issue to focus on with regards to the NFS is why the Bush Administration was dragging its heels on getting the bark-beetle infested areas cleared out. I think they were hoping for it to spread a bit so their lumber company pals could rake in more profits from logging.

The fine governor we just voted out of office saw this problem coming last spring:

The Bush administration took six months to evaluate Gov. Gray Davis’ emergency request last spring for $430 million to clear dead trees from fire-prone areas of Southern California.

The request was finally denied Oct. 24, only hours before wildfires roared out of control in what has become the largest fire disaster in California history.

I think Friday’s LA Times story is yet another serious indictment of Bush incompetence. For Californians, the Bush Administration’s failure to pre-empt the underlying causes of the California wildfires is our World Trade Center attack. Because the pretender administration did not act, we lost thousands of homes and tens of thousands of charred acres, and face a winter of severe flooding and ghastly erosion.

The only thing to do with a flaming incompetent is vote him out of office — if we can.