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Jan 30, 2020
2,146
7,074
New Jersey
One of the most enjoyable assignments I had while working in The Garden State was spending a day with a ranger in the fire watch tower at Apple Pie Hill, Tabernacle, NJ. If smoke was spotted, they would radio the other towers and triangulate the fire location, then dispatch ground and air resources to investigate and extinguish. Several hours of wonderful silence, just the faint sound of wind in the pines, punctuated by a few minutes of intense radio chatter. The Pine Barrens are an extraordinary place.
I have never been in a tower but have hiked around them. I’m in the mountains of the north and it’s all woodlands here. My front door is about 200 feet from a 3,000 acre WMA.

There have been a number of events in that WMA over the years, all taken care of promptly by the appropriate agencies. The communication structure of wildland is awesome especially once you understand the indefinite scalability of the system. Thankful for it every day!
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,254
18,148
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
All good questions! Unfortunately, we'll never know the answers.
Quick, superficial, research, not in depth. Top ten most destructive California wildfires, 1991-2020: 5 power lines or electrical, 1 lightning, 2 human related, 1 rekindle, and one undetermined.

Deeper research would most likely find year by year stats somewhere on the State of California websites. Of course most of the wildfires are caused by debris burning, campfires, arson, discarded cigarettes, and equipment malfunction per "Frontline Wildfire Defense." So, human causes are at the top of the list. I was not able to uncover any stats addressing wildfire caused by government controlled burns. Maybe such is covered in the "human related" stat.

As California is many miles away from me, both in distance and interest/concern, the above is about all I'm willing to spend time on. But, I'm pretty sure official stats are available and, unless terribly embarrassing to the State/Feds, should be available without a formal request for information if, you are interested in the numbers. They, the stats, might provide support for your statement "most of these fires are ...."
 

Servant King

Lifer
Nov 27, 2020
4,656
26,715
39
Frazier Park, CA
www.thechembow.com
Quick, superficial, research, not in depth. Top ten most destructive California wildfires, 1991-2020: 5 power lines or electrical, 1 lightning, 2 human related, 1 rekindle, and one undetermined.

Deeper research would most likely find year by year stats somewhere on the State of California websites. Of course most of the wildfires are caused by debris burning, campfires, arson, discarded cigarettes, and equipment malfunction per "Frontline Wildfire Defense." So, human causes are at the top of the list. I was not able to uncover any stats addressing wildfire caused by government controlled burns. Maybe such is covered in the "human related" stat.

As California is many miles away from me, both in distance and interest/concern, the above is about all I'm willing to spend time on. But, I'm pretty sure official stats are available and, unless terribly embarrassing to the State/Feds, should be available without a formal request for information if, you are interested in the numbers. They, the stats, might provide support for your statement "most of these fires are ...."
This perfectly illustrates another issue. While there is a preponderance of places to go to get the "official" narrative regarding [fill in the blank], it is decidedly difficult, sometimes impossible, to verify if this information is actually true. I wasn't on site at any of these fires when they started, so there's simply no way to know what in fact happened, official story notwithstanding. One can believe it if one wants, or one can reject it, but the fact is, no one really knows for sure. What I do know is that the providers of so-called official statistics have a multitude of different ways to skew and slant things to fit a particular narrative. This tactic is especially effective in the modern era, where the film Idiocracy is looking more and more like a documentary (not to mention making Rod Serling look practically like a freaking prophet). Predictably, there are almost as many ways to obscure, confound and misdirect any inquisitive and/or skeptical minds that may be on a quest to dig deeper, if such minds are not preoccupied by Kim Kardashian's instagram page. Perhaps this is why your search for stats regarding governmental controlled burns yielded no results, unsurprisingly.

I can't help but be reminded of the old aphorism, "Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see."
 
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Jan 30, 2020
2,146
7,074
New Jersey
Prescribed burns are posted publicly in advance of the events taking place. They literally announce them ahead of time to the public. CA even has an interactive map for them.

The fire service has historically been heavily data driven. Failures become training opportunities across the services nationwide. The larger the failure, the more widespread it will be discussed in classroom as an opportunity to learn from and prevent. You can publicly view all line of duty deaths across the country, pretty much in real time because of the reporting systems in place at all levels. Dispatch communication is all recorded.

This type of data for the fire service exists, and its all entered by the responding agencies who were on-scene. It's probably one of the more reliable sets of information out there if you view the raw information and not an opinionated news piece.
 
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warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,254
18,148
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
If you are that skeptical, there's no challenging your beliefs. But, I know a few arson investigators who would argue with you about determining fire causes, even wildfires. They are well trained, very experienced and can make a causal determination in most cases.

Lightning is often tracked and pinpoints a fire start. Trace a fire back to an oil drum trash fire. Easy duty. Trace a fire back to a campfire. Trace a fire back to the sagging/broken wires. Trace a fire back the accelerate then start looking for a seasonal firefighter looking to increase his income. :sher: It's really very easy and media isn't involved at all. We've got a couple of investigators as members here they will tell you it's an observation, logic driven, process based on experience and training. When they testify, under oath, I tend to believe them. I also tend to trust, not implicitly, most court findings.

Regarding my search for stats, it was very quick and superficial with the numbers readily available putting your statement into question. Particulary as you only offered opinion and no citations. I just did it to demonstrate that information is out there. Depending on your desire to be up on the facts you could even file a formal request for information from Sacramento. I understand your beliefs are your reality so, I won't continue this discussion as there is no disputing your reality.

But, I do thank you for a bit of an afternoon challenge.:)