• streetfestival
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    10 months ago

    I hope as a country we’re better prepared next year than we were this year passed with record Canadian wildfires. Based on weather patterns (e.g., mild winter, many fires still blazing), I think we’ll have just as bad of a year of forest fires this summer unfortunately. I think we need to a culture change to act as if we’re in drought conditions going forward. There needs to be more public education about fire safety, there might be a way to improve reporting (like a hotline the person in this news story could have called if/when they realized things were out of control), and I think we need a lot more actual firefighting assets. I think it might make sense to proactively re-allocate military resources to forest firefighting, perhaps as a pilot project this spring

    • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      There were calls for a national firefighting organization (which apparently every other G7 nation has).

      I think we need to a culture change to act as if we’re in drought conditions going forward.

      Seems pretty reasonable. Apparently houses in fire-prone areas should be built in a certain way: metal roofs, surrounded by a gravel firebreak of a meter or two, then a larger firebreak of short-cut lawn. Woodpiles should be kept at a distance from structures. Ensuring our buildings have passive defense seems much safer than putting firefighters in harms way.

      The Hammond’s Plane subdivision only had one exit, and houses were built right into the forest. I think we’ve lost the privilege of living like that.