The Los Angeles Basin is essentially like nature's own "air fryer" in every winter. Bringing in hot air from the Pacific with much higher wind speeds. Into a topographical basin that allows the winds to swirl in four different directions, yet contained by barriers like the San Gabriel Mountains. Then consider all the seismological activity that emanates from the San Andreas fault and other faults within the basin itself. How does earthquake activity have anything to do with the peril of fire relative to the wind and air temperatures brought on each year by the hot Santa Ana Winds?
The
combustion load within the Los Angeles Basin isn't simply a matter of what mother nature provides in terms of trees, shrubs and periodic droughts. You're also talking about some 13 million people who live there spread out in a huge area, mostly in frame construction buildings cleverly attached to concrete foundations, to mitigate endless seismological activity in the area by allowing a structure to deliberately sway.
Frame construction means a proliferation of wooden beams which burn quite well whether or not in a real firestorm
. Yet without frame construction, even the most minor earthquakes can cause a lot of potential damage to non-frame buildings.
Los Angeles Earthquake Fault Map
And 13 million humans in close proximity bring a whole lot to add to such combustion loads brought on largely by mother nature. And when you load all of such possible factors when it comes to multiple and major conflagrations like this, there is simply not the infrastructure that exists or can be built by humans to successfully preempt such catastrophes from happening. When in the simplest terms, containment equates proportionally to the wind speed, and its duration. When reaching speeds well beyond 65mph, it becomes a "firestorm" where the most fundamental strategies of firefighting on the ground and in the air can come to a standstill.
There are no instant solutions under such circumstances. At least not until science manages to truly control the elements, which ain't happening any time soon. Having to deal with potential hurricane force winds with fire in drought conditions contained in a basin with so many combustible materials and this is what happens. Coming at quite the cost for those who freely choose to work and live there who are more than willing to risk it all. But then having lived in California for many years, I can understand how so many are willing to take such risks. No differently that other places with equal perils that come each and every year like clockwork. The kind of perils that have no real logistical or political solutions on such a grand scale. When all that is left is to either rebuild, or relocate.
Of course all of this bring into question the sustained viability of the California Fair Plan. One's only real (non-public sector) alternative for limited indemnity when insurers choose to part waves with you, depending on where you live relative to the distance to fire hydrants and fire stations. When California can't prohibit preferred and standard market insurers from electing to exit an entire state, but they can penalize them.
Would you elect to remain where you are given your job if it involved owning a home without any mortgage but remaining uninsured? Apparently some have in the Los Angeles Basin. Tragic.
