So Fire
We talked about water in our last episode, so this week we thought we’d talk about fire! 🔥 As we’ve mentioned in the past, wildfires are a grim reality here in California and as we go on, we’ll have to think very seriously about firescaping.
But first, we talk a bit about moving Vince’s mom Judy out of her house in Napa. She lived there for quite a few years and, along with some good times, we also had some really scary anomalous times up there. We were there for the 2014 Napa Earthquake (which Vince initially thought was an alien invasion!) and, more relevantly to this episode, we also helped her evacuate during the 2017 NorCal Fires.
Judy was at work when she received the evacuation order and wasn’t allowed to go back to her house for a single sock, a single photo, a single document. So for weeks, she lived in hotel rooms while we studied online heat maps to figure out if her house and everything she owned had burned to the ground. After weeks of not knowing, we finally learned that the wildfire had burned down her shed and licked her siding, but her house survived. Whew.
All that was left of her shed…
Vince says the idea of property matured for him during this time. He realized that if Napa, one of the richest and most developed areas in the world, can be destroyed by wildfires… then nowhere is safe. On the grid or off, we’re all at the whims of Mother Nature. So we might as well figure out how to protect ourselves and take ownership of our own safety and security.
Then we chat for a bit about what causes wildfires and how we deal with them. They’re a natural part of the ecosystem in the West, but humanity has made them worse through climate change, overly suppressing fires in the 20th century, and PG&E, THE WORST COMPANY OF ALL TIME. PG&E was found responsible for the 2017 and 2018 wildfires (along with many other deadly disasters), and they were also caught rerouting money for safety repairs to executive bonuses. And yet, they’re still in charge of our energy infrastructure. This… this… is the grid? Fantastic.
“Defensible space” is the recommended approach to firescaping, but we can’t really cut every plant in a 200-foot diameter cause that would leave a giant barren scar through half of our property. So in addition to brush management and smart planting, our main wildfire plan revolves around dugouts. Let the Earth protect us! But we don’t have much built up there to protect yet, so it’s an evolving discussion. There’s no guarantee of security in the grid, so it’s about taking control of our own safety and our own destiny.
WHAT WE LEARNED
In addition to digging up some specific stats about fires and PG&E, we also learned that Los Angeles allocates 2 billion (that’s half!) of its yearly budget to the LAPD. Why don’t we spend that money on firefighting (or anything that actually makes us safe) instead? Let’s all vote please!
We also learned that CA employs 2,000 inmate firefighters. They only make $2/day for fire suppression and $1/hour for actively fighting fires, but it’s still one of the most coveted prison jobs. Even with all that training and experience, though, felons can’t get jobs as firefighters or EMTs after they get out of prison. They’re good enough to pay 1 dollar an hour, but can’t get those jobs legitimately as free citizens? Again, let’s all vote please!
As always, you can find more photos and info on Instagram.
