• lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The only thing that stopped the last big fire from burning down my home was a clear-cut patchwork left over from the last logging operation 15 years ago. It allowed CalFire to establish a firebreak. In areas that had not been logged in 50 years, folks lost their homes. I’m a member of my community’s Fire Safe Council. We have retired CalFire chiefs on our board. They were the ones who told me that California’s opposition to logging has resulted in major fuel loads with no firebreaks and a rapidly degrading network of logging roads that are used to fight fires. You can quote articles by tree huggers like the NFF. I see the thousands of acres of dead burned “mature” trees with “thick bark” just up the road.

    You say my complaints are petty. People are losing their homes because of the out of control increases in fire insurance. People are worried about what they’ll use to power their homes during our frequent outages when CARB outlaws gas generators. California Democrats want us to go all electric. I’m all electric. My utility bill last month was $500. I’m expecting $700 for this month.

    Know what starts big fires here? The electric company. My utility company deferred essential maintenance for over 50 years with the blessing of the California Public Utilities Commission. Camp Fire, LNU Complex Fire, Mosquito Fire, Dixie Fire - those were all major wildfires caused by PG&E. Now they want to play catch up by undergrounding power lines and hike our rates even more to pay for it - again with the approval of the CPUC.

    If you believe that outdoor boilers are a fire hazard, you have never seen one. Burning wood waste is carbon neutral, yet the EPA and CARB restrict the use of a method of combustion that’s over three times as efficient and clean compared to a fireplace. They’re one of the safest ways to burn biomass. Safer than a fireplace and much safer than an open fire, which is how most folks in my area dispose of green waste. We had 4 fires this year in my county due to people burning green waste. How many fires nationwide were due to outdoor boilers?