In the first century BCE, the first Roman triumvirate was a cobbled together coalition of three men who didn't much actually care for each other. We all know the ultimate winner of the conflict that grew out of the relationship, as Julius Ceaser was able to best his foes. And Pompey Magnus, was a general whose reputation made it into the history books. But for our purposes, the most relevant of the three was a man who is still ranked amongst the world's richest men of all-time, Marcus Licinius Crassus.
How did Crassus attain all that wealth? Well, as you would expect, he was wildly corrupt, using his power and influence to attain wealth. But there was one particular source for Crassus that was a little, umm, evil. From Wikipedia:
Most notorious was his acquisition of burning houses: when Crassus received word that a house was on fire, he would arrive and purchase the doomed property along with surrounding buildings for a modest sum, and then employ his army of 500 clients to put the fire out before much damage had been done. Crassus' clients employed the Roman method of firefighting-destroying the burning building to curtail the spread of the flames.
Outrageous, right? Well, not exactly. As you can see from the Countdown clip up top, it's happening in America:
Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the fire, along with three dogs and a cat.
"They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.
"We wasn't on their list," he said the operators told him. (MSNBC)
Mr. Cranick even offered to pay whatever was necessary for the firefighters' help. But no dice, it wasn't until a neighboring house caught on fire that the department began to fight the fire.
Of course, this is the point of government services. They are best done by spreading the risk across all of us. Having fire departments is an expense that for years, we have all been willing to pay through our taxes, yet now we see that these services are coming in the crosshairs for Norquistian "drown the government" calls. The irony is that the right-wing calls of property as sacrosanct comes into conflict with their anti-government tendencies.
We all lose when government is dysfunctional. And to some extent, the Tennesee community made its bed by consistently electing politicians who told the community that this is exactly what they should expect, a smaller and worthless government. At some level, you get what you pay for, and if you tell your politicians that you don't want to pay for government, that's exactly what they'll give you. A broken government. But, we're not that hard up in California, are we? Well, we're getting there:
Drivers in California who cause crashes may find their pocketbooks dented as well, courtesy of local fire departments.
More than two dozen fire agencies, struggling for ways to boost sagging budgets, have begun tallying service charges at crash sites and sending bills to drivers or their insurance companies.
Is a pumper truck called to the scene? That'll be $400. Traffic cones and flares needed? Another $20. An incident commander to oversee? That's $75 an hour.
Roseville, Woodland and at least a half dozen smaller Sacramento area fire districts have imposed such fees in the past year. The city of Sacramento expects to start this fall. And, beginning July 1, Placer County Fire will charge non-local drivers or their insurance companies for crashes that require fire agency response.(SacBee 6/25/2010)
We shouldn't be surprised at just how far our own government has come to resemble the lack of structure that the Romans faced 2100 years ago. That's exactly what much of the state is asking for here too. Of course, this is just a more dramatic example, but the same situation is cropping up in the context of health services, where we are telling people that we won't provide them in-home services anymore, or cutting off prescription coverage, or eliminating MediCal coverage. These things matter, and they are a matter of life or death for some in our state.
There isn't a fire crew going around trying to buy up "fire sales" that I have yet heard of, but is that really that far away?
A broader goal would be more privatization efforts and more private ownership of land. Private firefighting firms would have a financial interest to promote prevention, and more private ownership of land would mean better-maintained property. Private owners are far better at protecting their property than public owners, who follow an entirely different set of objectives.
Some victims of the California fires may wish they had their own firemarks. During this week's wildfires, "there were a few instances where we were spraying and the neighbor's house went up like a candle," Crays said.
As Brian points out, this is a replay of the end of the Roman Republic, when a group of wealthy oligarchs in the Senate destroyed the public commons for their own wealth, collapsing the political system and leading to a dictatorship that, eventually, produced feudalism.
Publicly funded fire protection has worked extremely well for a century. There's no good reason to end it - unless you believe cutting taxes for the wealthy is more important than preventing people's homes from burning down.
Since the middle of last century, we have aggressively worked to stop forest fires across the country, and particularly in California. From Smokey Bear's ad campaigns to boy scout lessons, Californians worked to prevent forest fires, thinking that they damaged the forest.
But in Yosemite National Park, in central California, fire is viewed differently. The forest needs to burn to survive, although fire was once thought to be an enemy of the region's giant sequoia trees. People used to think that the park's beautiful trees needed to be protected from fire, according to Gus Smith, a fire ecologist.
**** *** ****
But scientists have come to realise that years of suppressing fire in Yosemite prevented the trees from reproducing.
Excluding fire from the ecosystem allowed leaves and other vegetation to build up around the trees. The litter stopped seeds from germinating in exposed soil and a dense canopy of foliage blocked the sunlight from reaching the forest floor.
"I think that we need to see more fire and the benefits of fire," says Mr Smith. (BBC 12/3/09)
The forests existed before humans were here, and they just may last beyond our interference. However, as the line between forest lands and residential areas becomes ever more blurry, the question of which fires to stop, which to contain becomes ever more challenging.
One thing that is clear: fighting fires in the old method of suppressing everything has led to some pretty bad results. Fires are more ferocious with the added fuel, and we haven't actually kept structures out of jeopardy. As we move forward with whatever limited resources CalFire will have, the state will need to work to not only allow proper burns of state forest lands, but also to provide education. We have 50 years of bad messaging on the suffocation of fire to overcome. We can't hit the panic switch every time we see smoke. People who have chosen to live in fire-prone areas must now what they can do to make their home as safe as possible.
However, we will never end the threat of fire as water becomes ever more scarce. And so, management of the sort that the National Park Service is doing at Yosemite will become increasingly important.
This fire season is going to be bad. The land is bone dry, and it has been hot. The Station Fire is huge, and already deadly. To the families of those who lost their lives fighting for the safety of others, we all wish you well. This is a terrible loss for the state, as losing any public safety always is.
The fire continues to threaten thousands of homes, plus billions of dollars of infrastructure. The Mt. Wilson Observatory is not only important from a scientific standpoint, it also has substantial historical value. This fire is far from controlled, and what it takes with it is anybody's guess.
I hesitate to bring this up, but I have some quibble with the way this article was presented. Long story short, it points out that CalFire didn't really get hit with cuts. And that's true, but this fire season looks set to wipe out whatever budget reserve the July deal kept (or didn't keep depending on your accounting).
Thing is, we don't have much choice but to fight the fires where they endanger lives. It is a mandatory expense. But, when the legislature has to deal with the next budget crisis, these fires will end up hurting the state in more ways than just property damage. It's going to take resources from other programs, other programs that are barely getting by as it is.
[UPDATE] by Julia By the way, the state already now burned through (pun intended) $106.5 million of its $182 million in allocated emergency firefighting money only two months into the fiscal year. And we are just at the beginning of the fire season. It is highlight likely that we will need to tap reserves.
(this is an edited & updated version of a diary published on DailyKos)
As a California native with a hillside, I know the rules of fire.
* Clear your brush by June 1.
* Watch other states burn in July and August. California firefighters will help them -- it's great experience for October.
* Don't worry until the Santa Ana winds blow in mid October...and then, worry a lot. Make lists in your head: family photos, computer hard drive, pet food, handmade quilts, important papers, medicines, kids' comfort items. Pace around your house and realize that all else is just stuff. Plan your route.
* Cheer the burly young men with charred faces and heavy gear. When they stagger into the Jack in the Box fresh from the latest Malibu fire, don't just bring them water, buy their meals. Drop off home-baked cookies at the fire station. Hang a banner to thank them for saving your community.
I've seen the glow of fires 10 miles away from my hillside, and I've watched burning embers dance above a firefighters' command post and settle on that same hill. I've packed the essentials at 3 AM while the kids race their bikes past the Halloween-decorated lawns. I know that October is fire season.
This year, Los Angeles is burning in August, and it's unnatural.
The massive cuts to fundamental public services are working a massive transfer of wealth from the less wealthy to the more wealthy. I don't think this is news to many readers here, but being able to provide a concrete example or two helps win the watercooler wars. More on the flip.
Today we learned that the Jesusita fire in the Santa Barbara area was likely caused by power tools used in brush cutting around the Jesusita hiking trail. The good folks at the Santa Barbara Independent have been an excellent source of information:
The fire cause appears related to the use of power tool equipment involved in vegetation clearance. Fire investigators are requesting public assistance with identification of the person or persons engaged in vegetation clearance on Monday, May 4th, and Tuesday, May 5th, 2009. The unidentified persons are known to have been on the trail between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on both days.(Press release via SB Independent 5/10/2009)
While nobody has suggested arson of any sort at this point, the hot dry weather combined with the fact that the region has received very little rainfall made any spark dangerous. It is just that this one took off. As noted above, the authorities are looking for whomever was cutting brush with the power tools though.
The fact is that areas across the state are extremely vulnerable to fire this year.
"Every year seems to be getting worse," said Halsey, who works for the California Chaparral Institute. "I don't see the climate changing and people are still building. If this is any indication, it certainly seems like it is going to get a lot worse."
Invasive, fire-prone weeds have taken over in many areas of Northern and Southern California, he said, creating kindling for fire. Combine that with a warming climate, drought and an ever-increasing population and you have what he called "a perfect storm" for fire.(SF Chronicle 5/9/09)
Every year the fires begin earlier and earlier, the droughts have been devastating, and increasing temperatures only add to the danger. Of course, the fires themselves are massive contributors to global warming as they release massive amounts of C02, some have estimated that wildfires release up to 5% of America's greenhouse gasses. And so the cycle continues.
Whether or not the state is in a budget crisis, the fires this year are going to require whatever resources they require. Quite simply they are not optional. While the feds will provide some resources, a big fire season will still be a huge drain on our state budget. And even more importantly, it will threaten lives and the wherewithal of Californians already stretched to the brink.
The flames are growing above Santa Barbara this afternoon, as a wildfire that seemed to start near Jesusita Trail in San Roque Canyon continues to march its way up the mountains.
Wildfire expert and Indy correspondent Ray Ford is with a fire crew about 400 yards from the fire, which has been officially named the Jesusita Fire. He said that it is burning straight uphill, with 40-foot high flames. He said that the wind is starting to blow hard, with 20 to 25 mph gusts, pushing the fire northeast and east into Mission Canyon. He's watching two helicopters attack the fire, and says they are doing a good job of knocking it down. He has noticed a plume coming up from Mission Canyon and believes something may be burning there. But the fire does not seem to be moving back down San Roque Canyon at the moment.
Mandatory evacuations are underway in the Santa Barbara foothills, although the current path of the fire is quite unclear. This is pretty early in the year to see a major wildfire, as the "season" usually doesn't start until June 1. But global warming and the drought are causing nearly year-round fire conditions across the state, putting an added strain on firefighting resources.
Something Arnold might want to think about before threatening to destroy Cal Fire as part of a tantrum over voters' unwillingness to support Prop 1A.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to seek the elimination of more than 1,700 state firefighting positions and closure of scores of fire stations if voters reject key ballot measures in the May 19 special election, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle on Monday.
Schwarzenegger's proposal involves slashing $80.8 million from Cal Fire's spending plan - a 10 percent reduction - by eliminating 602 full-time positions and 1,100 seasonal firefighting positions. The cuts would be part of a series of deep cuts to the state budget.
Cal Fire, the state's fire agency, has about 5,000 full-time firefighters. At the peak of last year's fire season, more than 2,700 wild fires ravaged the state and the agency hired extra help: 3,000 seasonal firefighters.
Arnold seems to have quickly forgotten the record-setting 2008 fire season, and the 2007 fires before that, and the 2003 fires before that, etc, etc. And considering that the US Forest Service's firefighting problems haven't yet been straightened out, and that firefighting capacity is being cut as cities try to balance their budgets, Arnold's proposal is likely a death sentence for many vulnerable communities this coming summer.
Obviously Arnold is trying to scare voters into supporting his craptacular May 19 propositions. But voters can smell desperation a mile away, and they're not likely to be swayed by this truly insane proposal.
What Arnold's crazy "let's burn down California - literally!" plan will actually do is show voters that Republicans, whether they are for or against the May 19 propositions, are really just hell-bent on destroying our government and leaving everyone to fend for themselves. The last time a Republican demonstrated that to the public, as Bush did after Hurricane Katrina, his party's public support collapsed and they were thrown out of power at the first available opportunity.
The same will happen here in California. The question is whether Arnold and his wingnut allies will destroy the state first. They're already pouring gasoline on everything in sight...
SFist is reporting the outbreak of a large fire on Angel Island. The fire has already burned about 10 acres and is about 25 acres wide at this time. It's apparently about 20% contained. SFGate also has a story about the fire: Angel Island fire 'a shocking sight'.
And in the Los Angeles area, the Marek fire continues to burn. This fire is about 20% contained and is expected to get worse, with the acceleration of the Santa Ana winds in the area.
We are quite literally 10 days short of a year since the terrible fires of last year. Let's hope that this year does not bring a repeat of the events of last year.
And if you are in the area of either of the fires, please check in and let us know you are all right.
Firefighting is a dangerous line of work, but disasters like the helicopter crash in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest are a jolt to the system. If you haven't heard, nine people died in a helicopter crash while fighting the fire up there.
Authorities confirmed Thursday that nine people listed as missing in a fiery helicopter crash in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest are dead ... The accident Tuesday night in a remote forested area about 70 miles northwest of Redding took the life of a pilot of the helicopter and seven firefighters. The identity of the ninth victim was not released, but authorities said he was a U.S. Forest Service employee.
"We are devastated by this," said Mike Wheelock, owner of Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting firm based in Merlin, Ore., that employed the 10 firefighters aboard the copter. (SF Chronicle 8/8/08)
Programming Note: I will be on KRXA 540 AM at 8 tomorrow morning, as usual, to discuss this and other topics in California politics
I took that picture 30 minutes ago, of the Basin Complex Fire that is raging on the Big Sur coast about 20 miles south. The fire jumped a containment line last night and is now threatening the village of Big Sur. The entire area is now under an evacuation order, and the 850 or so residents are now gathered at Carmel Middle School or with friends and family in the area.
The Big Sur community has always been tight-knit, and grew even moreso in the late 1990s after El Niño rains washed out Highway 1, closing it for months. One result is a rich online network of sites providing information and resources about the fire, such as Xasáuan Today's fire news and Sur Fire 2008's community information.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was here earlier today surveying the fire damage, and John Laird had this to say:
Governor Schwarzenegger's visit to Big Sur today is a significant indicator of the impact the Basin Complex fire is having on the people of the Central Coast and California. The people and businesses of the Big Sur community have shown courage, resourcefulness and generosity as this difficult fire has unfolded.
Today and in the weeks ahead, as I continue to work hard on the budget in Sacramento, I will stay focused on ensuring funds are available to fight this fire. And as we consider next year's budget, I'll continue to advocate for the funding increases for air attack resources, as approved by the Assembly Budget Committee.
California's firefighters are stretched thin by the fires, and Arnold has called the National Guard to help relieve the burden. Another example of how we need to be nation-building here at home, not using the National Guard to occupy Iraq.
Finally, it may be an individual home fire, but you've probably heard by now about the fire that destroyed Darcy Burner's house east of Seattle. $60,000 has been raised so far to help her meet her $150,000 goal for July, so that she can attend to her family needs this month instead of worrying about raising money for her campaign for Congress in WA-08.
Darcy Burner has been there for the netroots - on net neutrality, on the Responsible Plan (which she initiated), and will be there for us on many other issues. I had the pleasure to meet her and do some volunteering for her campaign in 2006, and it was a bitter disappointment that she did not win. Certainly the loss of her home is a bigger disappointment - but just as she came back from the 2006 loss, so too will she come back from this one. Let's give her some help in doing so.
As of right now, there are over 1,000 fires burning in Northern California, consuming over 130,000 acres. Almost 12,000 firefighters are working to stop the wildfires. You can get more details at the CalFire Home page and view a Google Map with fire locations here.
Here in San Francisco proper, we aren't getting the actual fires, but we are feeling the effects. When I walked outside with my pugs this morning I felt like I should grab a stick for some s'mores. The smell of smoke is pervasive throughout NorCal, and the haze is readily evident. The picture to the right is from the hill by our house in SF, just a few miles from the Financial District. That's not fog, it's smoke.
As for the actual firefighting, crews are not expecting to beat most of these for a while. Many of the fires are in rugged territory, with deep canyons and the like. So many of them will be burning for a while. Good luck to the firefighters and those in the area.
I'll be on KRXA 540 AM in Monterey at 8 AM Thursday morning to discuss this and other California-related topics
As you might remember from last fall, California conservatives tend to prefer low taxes to adequate fire protection. As Northern California is ablaze - with two huge fires burning out of control in the Big Sur mountains to the south of me - attention is again focused on providing adequate fire services. And as Democrats and Arnold Schwarzenegger debate the best way to fund it, conservative Republicans continue to fight the very concept. From the San Jose Mercury News:
Hoping to buy more fire engines and helicopters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing a statewide surcharge on property insurance of $6 to $12 a year. Another lawmaker, state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, wants to charge a $50 yearly fee on the 900,000 homeowners living in rural areas to fund fire prevention....
The new engines were recommended by a state task force after massive wildfires in Southern California in 2003 killed 24 people and burned 3,600 homes.
The governor's proposal would add a surcharge on property insurance for all commercial and residential structures statewide. In ZIP codes designated as "high-hazard zones" for earthquakes, fires or floods, the fee would be 1.4 percent, about $12.60 a household per year. In "low-hazard zones," the surcharge would be 0.75 percent, or $6.75 a year.
The main debate between Kehoe's and Arnold's proposals is who should pay for the costs of fighting fires in the urban-wilderness interface. I like that Arnold's plan would have higher rates for those in higher risk areas, but would still require all property owners to pay something. The fact is that even the brush fires are not exclusively a threat to folks who chose to live in fire-prone areas. Much of California is a fire-prone area, even the urban areas.
The Santa Cruz Summit Fire was whipped yesterday by strong winds and dry conditions. Typically, the fires season doesn't start in mid-May, but a dry March and April mean that there is a lot of fuel. The winds were gusting up to 40-50mph yesterday, so the fire spread quickly. Winds have settled down somewhat today, and firefighters have been able to make progress on the fire.
Firefighters estimate that up to 10,000 acres might burn, with several houses in the path of the fire. Our best out to those in the area.
Much attention has been focused on the lovely town (I'm serious!) of Vallejo as it faces bankruptcy. In a harbinger of things to come for many California cities and counties, Vallejo's general fund has been hit hard by the housing crash, leaving the city strapped for cash.
Ca. Fire Documents Conflict With Reports
By AARON C. DAVIS - 1 day ago
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Several aircraft were able to fly in strong winds on the first full day of last month's Southern California firestorms, contradicting officials' earlier claims that the weather had grounded virtually all aircraft, according to documents released Saturday.
Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state was tracking for firefighting efforts remained grounded that day, and high winds were not listed in the documents as the reason.
(Because this situation really sucks, and because these people are really worthy. Politics is politics, but this is real life. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
...the Calitics community did a great job of providing news and constantly updated information, often from the front lines of the wildfires. As the immediate emergency has settled into recovery, there have been diaries about the need to properly fund public fire safety infrastructure and the ugly politics of disaster, among others. All very well done. Thankfully, we can sit in our homes and have the luxury of thinking about the fires, and talking about the fires, and seeing the fires in the abstract, without having it immediately and directly impact our own lives. It becomes harder to think of it in the abstract once you hear the stories of people who were personally affected. Just like anything else in the news or the political arena, there are people behind the stories.
UPDATE by Brian: Robert is too modest to pimp his dKos diary on the FP, so I'll do it for him. Please give it a rec, as the story is certainly worthy of additional eyeballs.
It's understandable that conservatives bristle at being called to account for the catastrophic outcomes of their ideological agenda. The devastation wreaked on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina irreparably damaged the Bush Administration and set the Republicans on the long road to losing the Congress. Millions of Americans saw the effects of Grover Norquist's "drown government in a bathtub" strategy. The Register's editorial pages, long devoted to a similar anti-government, anti-tax, anti-union agenda, have a clear interest in distancing themselves from last week's disaster.
But their editorial defense does not quite achieve its objectives. The Register does not rebut the fact that OC firefighters lacked necessary equipment that Measure D would have funded. More importantly, the editorial actually reinforces my core argument - that the conservative agenda the Register and others in OC promoted is intended to leave Californians lacking adequate fire protection and placing their safety in the hands of a private market.
Unsurprisingly, this has happened elsewhere. As firefighters battle to save Silverado Canyon and prevent the Santiago Fire from reaching Riverside County homes, we are now learning that Orange County firefighters faced similar crippling shortages of equipment and personnel - shortages that prevented them from being able to quickly extinguish the Santiago blaze.
Specifically, Orange County Republicans campaigned hard against Measure D, a 2005 ballot proposal that would have diverted $80 million in surplus public safety funds from Proposition 172 to help properly staff Orange County fire departments. The failure of Measure D leads directly to the OCFA's inability to quickly contain the Santiago Fire when it broke out Sunday evening.
Thankfully, things appear to be getting better in most places. The firefighters have been doing an amazing job. But this is far from over. Yesterday, the official death toll climbed to 7, as 6 charred bodies were discovered. And President Bush politicized the disaster by keeping Rancho Bernado residents from their homes, but don't worry Michael Chertoff is there for you. And of course, there are always stories of idiots, who stayed behind, because, you know, it's their Stuff! Some got lucky like this story, but others pay the ultimate price. Listen people, your McMansions are not worth your lives, don't be stupid.
Also over the flip you'll find a list of impromptu blood drives by the San Diego Blood Bank. Check out the Red Cross schedule if you wish to donate blood elsewhere.
If you would like to donate money, our recommendation is the San Diego Foundation's After the Fire Fund. You can donate online here. I should also note this great diary with a list of resources and ways to volunteer and help out.
As if on cue, Mother Nature reminds us that in a dry and fire-prone state such as ours, it is 
