LA and fire.... (Anaheim, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley: apartments, power lines, house)

[ebuch]

Hey, as many of you may have seen in my earlier post, I am planning on joining LAPD. However, I just wanted to know more about the fire situations in LA? How often do they occur? And are more areas in LA/ LA County more vulnerable than others?

[bhcompy]

major fires occur every few months. poor policy on cleaning up brush/underbrush in public land/national forests has pretty much set is up for this.

any area with open land, which is typically in the hilly or mountainous areas, are going to have these dangers amplified. la county, ventura county, san bernardino county, riverside county, and orange county all have areas that fit this bill and its pretty random who gets the fire

[ebuch]

I've been told by other officers to look at moving to Burbank, Simi Valley, and Santa Clarita areas, do they have these problems often?

[timelesschild]

Those are valley areas - it's the hills that get the fires - by and large.

[Kid Quake]

So I guess that sheep eating procedure didn't work out so well eh?

[happ]

Originally Posted by ebuch

I've been told by other officers to look at moving to Burbank, Simi Valley, and Santa Clarita areas, do they have these problems often?

These town actually aren't safe from fires since all 3 have foothills nearby where most fires start. But, in general, its the windy areas that are most prone to fires. Several years ago an entire city block of Anaheim burned down in minutes from power lines that snapped in the wind. Even though it was a typical city block with a bunch of apartments not near any open land or hills. The wind was so strong that the fire department had real problems just keeping the fire contained to one block.

Unfortunately the fire season is basically all year long especially when it gets very wind\ dry & hot and that kind of condition can occur during any month. But autumn is the worst time of year since 'santa ana' conditions happen more often in the fall.

[ebuch]

Thanks for the info, yeah that sucks that it can almost happen anywhere in So Cal then, and I assume it will only get worse from here on out with it being dry and all...

[elousv]

There are a TON of LAPD here, two just on my street. They see the horrible maggot ridden areas all day and want to come home to something decent. Fires got scary close last year and every year there are one or two that rain ash on your house and smoke you out for a week or so.

[Bunny Foofoo]

I was in the middle of all the fire of the Station Fire . The mountains surrounding my home havent burned in atleast 30 years . We usually get winds up here, and thank goodness there was NONE during this scary time up here , it could have been so much worse . And to think someone is intentionally setting these fires !