By the Fire, right? George's Fire!
It's got his signature number!
"California Fires Have Burned at Least 666 Square Miles"
Now word is leaking that the government response WASN'T on the ball, and that Bush et al DIDN'T LEARN the lessons of Katrina!
I wouldn't be surprised if some Globalist government black-op was behind all this.
I mean, just yesterday morning I saw the business pukes crowing about how great this is going to be for the flagging housing sectors!!!
Sniff-sniff?!
Oh, a CUI BONO stink!!!!!!
"Calif. wildfire losses top $1b; easing winds a hopeful sign; Bush approves disaster funding as arson probed" by Gillian Flaccus/Associated Press October 25, 2007
SAN DIEGO - The devastating wildfires in Southern California have caused at least $1 billion in damage in San Diego County alone, officials said yesterday, as easing wind gave firefighters hope that they could begin to gain ground against the flames.
Authorities were investigating arson as a possible cause of at least one of the wildfires. FBI evidence response teams recovered materials they hoped would identify the source of the fires that have burned for four days. The FBI said a house was not searched, correcting earlier reports from a law enforcement official.
Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington, said the evidence response teams "have been working with other federal, state, and local authorities" to identify the source of the fires.
The fires have destroyed 1,500 homes and caused at least a half-million people to flee - the largest evacuation in state history. At least 1,200 of the damaged homes were in San Diego County, and officials believe that number will rise.
"Clearly, this is going to be a $1 billion or more disaster," Ron Lane, San Diego County's director of emergency services, told reporters during a news conference.
The announcement of San Diego's staggering losses came as President Bush signed a major disaster declaration for California in the wake of the wildfires that have charred about 426,000 acres, or about 665 square miles.
The declaration puts in motion long-term federal recovery programs to help state and local governments, families, individuals, and certain nonprofit organizations recover. Bush plans to visit the state today.
"Americans all across this land care deeply about them," the president said after a Cabinet meeting convened to coordinate federal relief efforts. "We're concerned about their safety. We're concerned about their property."
The fierce Santa Ana wind that has stoked the explosive blazes had started to moderate yesterday, although stiff gusts continued to blow through some canyon areas. Forecasters said the wind eventually would be followed by cooling sea breezes.
Wind was reported blowing at 21 to 36 miles per hour in some areas yesterday, considerably less than the gusts of up to 100 miles per hour earlier in the week. The shift could allow for a greater aerial assault and help firefighters beat back the most destructive blazes, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
An unmanned NASA aircraft outfitted with high-tech imaging equipment took off yesterday from Edwards Air Force Base for a 10-hour flight to help firefighters locate hot spots. Pilots at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center were remotely controlling the aircraft, outfitted with a thermal-infrared imaging system capable of seeing through thick smoke.
Crews also were anticipating additional firefighters and equipment from other states, mostly throughout the West.
Frustration over the firefighting effort began to emerge Tuesday when a fire official said not enough had been done to protect homes.
Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather told reporters that firefighters' lives were threatened because too few crews were on the ground. He said a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled a massive blaze near Irvine.
But the state's top firefighter said Prather misstated the availability of firefighters and equipment. Eight of the state's nine water-dumping helicopters were in Southern California by Sunday, when the first fires began, along with 13 air tankers, said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Grijalva said the fires would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight them."
"Firefighters Get Control as Questions Rise"by KIRK JOHNSON and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 24 — Firefighters on Wednesday began to assert control over wildfires that have burned through nearly 500,000 acres and displaced half a million residents over four days in Southern California.
While many fires continued to burn, especially east of San Diego, and officials warned that weather changes could reinvigorate waning flames, lower temperatures and abating winds helped greatly reduce the threat.
Some fire officials were congratulating themselves on having avoided extensive loss of life, even setting dates for when the biggest fires might be brought under control.
But the second-guessing that comes with any natural disaster was already beginning. Questions were being raised about how the fight against the fires had been coordinated, how resources had been deployed and whether Southern California had become smarter after the 2003 fires that ripped the region and its psyche, or if it had just become lucky.
[Lucky? After those pictures and videos?
How in the hell can this even be thought of as lucky? That's just sick!
Yes, thankful it wasn't worse, but this NEVER SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR!]
Some fire chiefs and elected officials said that they were angry with the state government for not adopting recommendations made by a blue-ribbon panel after the fires in 2003, in particular those that called for more firefighting equipment.
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who represents a district in Orange County:
“There were a lot of calls for equipment and resources. When you have a finite amount of resources, you have to prioritize life and property first, and so we didn’t get water dropping until we started to lose structures.”
[Yeah, priorities!
Like putting all our money into LYING WARS!]
The fires of October 2007 have sharpened questions about the costs of protecting the increasing numbers of people who live in remote and highly flammable areas, reawakened old jealousies that simmer across Southern California and forced new examination of the tension between the need for local emergency services and the willingness to pay for them.
[How about that first one, huh?
Yup, real-estate agents and the lenders had a field day getting you to build and buy -- but the cost of servicing the area (taxes pay for?) is YOUR FAULT, homeowner.
Oh, excuse me, we'll just take that away from you too, then, one way or another -- by FIRE or FIAT!]
San Diego County, the largest county in California without a fire department, relies on a hodgepodge of local departments that are almost all serving areas where populations are growing faster than their tax bases, and which are often low on money among a constituency that is generally allergic to taxes.
[No Fire Department in San Diego? You're kidding, right? Sigh!]
One of the two firehouses in the East County Fire Protection District, which sits in the heart of the 2003 fire area, was nearly closed last month, saved only by a special tax approved by voters.
Jack Grogger, the fire chief at East County:
“San Diego County is very unique. A lot of times our communities end up having to tax themselves to pay for infrastructure.”
[How self-centered and arrogant!
Ever hear of property taxes funding schools, moron?
I guess they don't have a Dept,. of Public Works, either, huh?]
The centralized command can also lead to confusion, however. One of the hardest facts to nail down in the last few days has been the number of people forced to leave their homes. While many news media outlets reported nearly one million people evacuated, calls to each of the affected seven counties suggested the number was closer to 500,000.
According to figures provided by the county officials, by Wednesday 460,581 acres had burned; 1,248 structures, plus 170 mobile homes, had been destroyed; and 30 firefighters and 28 civilians had been injured.
Although San Diego County officials suggested that some elderly residents had perished in the evacuation, only one death was confirmed as having stemmed directly from the blazes.
Bureaucratic snags delayed deployment, 14 military fire-fighting helicopters and 5 C-130 military planes were released Wednesday to help fight the fires, said United States Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California.
[I thought they learned lessons from Ka..., oh, never mind]
In Orange County, one fire, known as the Santiago, was designated as arson, said Pat Markley, a county spokesman.
Officials in San Bernardino said the police at California State University, San Bernardino, had killed a man they chased out of some scrub near campus whom they suspected of trying to set a fire. According to the authorities, the police tried to detain the man, identified only as a 27-year-old from Arizona, but they shot him after he got into his car to flee and then tried to ram the officers’ vehicle.
[That's a VERY BIZARRE TALE!
He sounds like "Al-CIA-Duh," that's what he sounds like!
From 2003!!!!]
Of the five fires burning in San Diego County on Wednesday, officials were most concerned about the enormous Witch fire, which merged overnight with the smaller Poomacho fire to form a blaze that has burned almost 200,000 acres of northeastern San Diego County.
[Hillary got a fire named after her?]
In the very southernmost part of the county, the Harris fire, the only one so far to claim a life, continued to threaten homes in the tiny communities of Jamul and Jamacha. By Wednesday, the blaze had grown to 73,000 acres and was largely uncontained.
Over the next few days the southern part of the state is expected to take in an onshore flow of winds, with resulting 20-to-25-degree temperature drops and a rise in humidity, improving toward the weekend.
That is a good thing, because a new batch of federal firefighters will not get here until then.
Federal officials said they were scrambling on Wednesday to dispatch 125 teams of federal firefighters, after state officials reversed course late Tuesday and said they could use the help, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
Glenn Cannon, the agency’s assistant administrator overseeing disaster operations, said California officials had made clear as recently as 6 p.m. on Tuesday that they did not need backup personnel from the federal government, as they had firefighters from within the state and from other states.
[Hope nothing happens -- or is happening -- in those other states]
The change in strategy meant that as many as 1,900 United States Forest Service firefighters would not all be in place until this weekend, Mr. Cannon said.
[And then the crisis will be over!]
Jay Alan, a spokesman for the governor’s office:
“There is no indication that we didn’t want any help and then later did. When we determined we wanted and needed help, that is when the call went out.”
Also Wednesday, President Bush declared a major disaster in California, a higher designation than previously declared, paving the way for federal grants for temporary housing, home repairs and low-cost loans."
[Better than what Katrina survivors got!
If they get it, or is this money going to disappear, too!]
