[GK3]

The level of damage is unconsciounable -- 
Those responsible for leaving the reservoir unfilled going into fire season WITH WARNINGS, and those responsible for cutting Fire Dept expenses, and failing to train and simulate for these kind of conditions should be held responsible (recalled, asked to resign)  -- TO REDUCE FUTURE DAMAGE.  
That is not political -- it is called public accountability; their Political Party doesn't matter.  
Who made the decisions?  Or failed to? 

>$150 BILLION in damage, plus deaths and injuries. 
A shoulder shrug and prayers are not sufficient. 

People will discover now how difficult it will be to get insurance for recovery.  

Why were budgets cut, when we know these fires are coming?  To save money?   
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gov-new...rnia-fires

I can understand your frustration, but I think saying that "...we knew the fires were coming'" is a bit over the top.  Yes, everyone who lives, or has lived in Souithern California knows the Santa Ana winds will almost always come, but you don't know where they will be strongest, nor do you know how strong they will be or how long they will last.  As the previous poster points out city hydrant systems are not designed to fight these kinds of fires.  As he point out another fire in Northern California was hot enough to melt the pipe in the ground. I do not think hydrant systems are designed to provide enough water to cool things down enough to make any difference.  The further the hydrant is from the water source the more often the pipe feeding it is smaller than the pipe feeding those closer to the source.  Pipe I believe has to be narrowed to keep pressure up.  Smaller pipe means less water comes out for the same pressure. The fire department apparently felt it needed to do other things than inspect fire abatement in areas of greater risk.  That seems like a poor decision if in fact that happened. As others have said this disaster is pretty much an Act of God.  More important to focus on how we can help those affected.  The State is going to have to figure out how to deal with the future insurance problem.  SGE is going to have to think about burying power lines serving high risk areas.  
Now I will get on my soap box and say that the State should not be allowed to pass all of their losses on to rate payers as PG&E has pretty much been allowed to do in parts of Northern California.  Another question is what do we do about all the old developments build 60 or 70 years ago and still close to brushy areas and which have too many houses, too close together and streets too narrow?  How many of these houses still have dried out shingle roofs rather than something far more fire retardent?  When people look back on this they are going to find lots and lots of things that could have been done differently over the years preceeding this disaster and contributed to it.  But the principal culprit will still turn out to be the extraordinary winds, the lack of moisture and too many highly combustible things too close together.

[GK3]

The level of damage is unconsciounable -- 
Those responsible for leaving the reservoir unfilled going into fire season WITH WARNINGS, and those responsible for cutting Fire Dept expenses, and failing to train and simulate for these kind of conditions should be held responsible (recalled, asked to resign)  -- TO REDUCE FUTURE DAMAGE.  
That is not political -- it is called public accountability; their Political Party doesn't matter.  
Who made the decisions?  Or failed to? 

>$150 BILLION in damage, plus deaths and injuries. 
A shoulder shrug and prayers are not sufficient. 

People will discover now how difficult it will be to get insurance for recovery.  

Why were budgets cut, when we know these fires are coming?  To save money?   
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gov-new...rnia-fires

I can understand your frustration, but I think saying that "...we knew the fires were coming'" is a bit over the top.  Yes, everyone who lives, or has lived in Souithern California knows the Santa Ana winds will almost always come, but you don't know where they will be strongest, nor do you know how strong they will be or how long they will last.  As the previous poster points out city hydrant systems are not designed to fight these kinds of fires.  As he point out another fire in Northern California was hot enough to melt the pipe in the ground. I do not think hydrant systems are designed to provide enough water to cool things down enough to make any difference.  The further the hydrant is from the water source the more often the pipe feeding it is smaller than the pipe feeding those closer to the source.  Pipe I believe has to be narrowed to keep pressure up.  Smaller pipe means less water comes out for the same pressure. The fire department apparently felt it needed to do other things than inspect fire abatement in areas of greater risk.  That seems like a poor decision if in fact that happened. As others have said this disaster is pretty much an Act of God.  More important to focus on how we can help those affected.  The State is going to have to figure out how to deal with the future insurance problem.  SGE is going to have to think about burying power lines serving high risk areas.  
Now I will get on my soap box and say that the State should not be allowed to pass all of their losses on to rate payers as PG&E has pretty much been allowed to do in parts of Northern California.  Another question is what do we do about all the old developments build 60 or 70 years ago and still close to brushy areas and which have too many houses, too close together and streets too narrow?  How many of these houses still have dried out shingle roofs rather than something far more fire retardent?  When people look back on this they are going to find lots and lots of things that could have been done differently over the years preceeding this disaster and contributed to it.  But the principal culprit will still turn out to be the extraordinary winds, the lack of moisture and too many highly combustible things too close together.