I live in Palm Desert, which is 42 miles away from Idyllwild via car.
An arsonist started a fire in Idyllwild on Wednesday:
http://abc7.com/idyllwild-brush-fire-spreads-to-4700-acres-as-arson-suspect-arrested/3823231/
So not only is it extremely hot where I live, but the air quality is horrendous from the fire.
Most of the time, we have good air quality, and I'm upset with the arsonist.
I hope he gets in a lot trouble.
What the heck was he thinking?
I'm sorry to hear that and will never understand why arsonists do what they do. I live in BC where forest fires are the norm every summer. We got choked in smoke today. Most fires here are started by two things, lighting and stupid people. I see them everyday throwing their cigs out the window even when signs are everywhere stating "fire hazard = extreme".
We get the pricks here too.
The ONLY punishment for ANYBODY a proven arsonist
is.
Bare feet and a pr of jocks. Dropped 100 yds in front of his fire,
roughly on the centreline of the fire front.
and let the wolves.dingo’s and rats eat the remains.
You NEVER arrest things like them and Paedophiles.
Round the corner somewhere and sort them. The old fashioned way.
I’m 77. I remember what to do. Eye for an eye.
I would go a step further and have the state seize all their assets, every last cent of theirs and delete their bank accounts. Maybe then they may understand the true nature of their ways and how others feel when they have lost everything from forest fires.
I’m hoping you and your’s stay safe there Racoon C …and thinking about the risks that all the folks fighting these fires take.
The fire cannot spread here because there's not enough vegetation to cause a problem where I live.
The smoke is annoying but probably not extremely dangerous here.
I do appreciate firefighters.
My mom's first husband was one so our whole family respect what they do.
I'll tell you one thing:
I could never be a firefighter.
That's one tough job! 
I’m always surprised and impressed how fast U.S. police detains suspects, especially in cases like this one where there is a wide area in a National Park, where someone can hide himself easily without being seen by anyone. Hopefully, they got the right man. I’m also impressed about the detailed evacuation plans every state has for its inhabitants. For any kind of catastrophe there’s always a plan people are supposed to follow, e.g. hurricanes in Florida and evacuation routes and places, tornado shelters in Alabama where I used to live some time ago.
Over here it seems there’s no one prepared for anything like it. If some lunatic is in a killing frenzy in a pedestrian zone, if a bridge breaks down or - like some weeks ago in Berlin - a simple manhole cover on the highway is suddenly broken, all hell breaks loose and it takes hours or even days until things get moving.
I was quite amazed by the movie “The next three days” with Liam Neeson and Russell Crowe when they said, police can shut down an entire city like Pittsburgh within a couple of minutes. Certainly, for dramaturgical reasons, it was somewhat exaggerated but I could imagine that those emergency plans are very effective.
Yes, America usually handles disasters pretty well.
(Except for Puerto Rico.)
Stay safe RC, its crazy whats happening(around the world) right now. Greece especially, shocking/terrible and hard to take in.
Here in UK , we have had a couple of fires fairly close(10-20m away) which you could smell in the air. The one on winter hill as the helicopter above flew over spotted someone lighting fires!!! Thankfully arrested , but what the hell goes through these a55 holes minds…………………is beyond me.
Are they reconciled again? I heard over here that there was some fierce battle over words between the POTUS and Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayoress of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is a complicated mess that I don't fully understand.
I think the main problem is political in nature, so we shouldn't discuss that aspect of it on BLF.
Wildfires are very dangerous when out of control, this week greek wildfires killed 74
Last year in Portugal we had a similar situation of what is happening in Greece currently 
More than 100 people died, some in the streets, some inside their houses, some inside their cars, some fighting the fire.
The greatest green areas of Portugal (including the pinewood area Pinhal de Leiria - 11.080 ha - that was ordered to be planted since the 1200s) were completely burnt.
Several possible causes were pointed out as the main reasons: dry electrical storms with lightnings, arsonists, “natural causes” (BS!!!), and more.
It turns out that among the main culprits there are timber merchants, forest rangers, firefighters, “normal” population. Some areas were set on fire by airplanes with wax bowls on fixe, others were set “by hand”.
Again, it turns out that no one - that I know, specially timber merchants that pay less for burnt wood - were judged till the day!!! The funds raised to re-build houses where people actually live (not holiday houses, 2nd houses) are being deviated or non well applied.
I am not the type of guy that defends popular justice, and “eye for an eye” situations; I think justice must do their job! But in these cases, where so many people, trees, animals, houses, goods, were lost, I would certainly do justice by my own hands if I knew or found one of these arsonists :zipper_mouth_face:
This said, and not wanting to derail the thread, I hope you - raccoon city - and all the people around get well and that the fires are over soon!!
Same thing for our Greek folks 
Don’t forget Katrina, that was a big wake-up call for many.
Katrina was nothing compared to Puerto Rico.
There are places in Puerto Rico that still don't have power.
It's like a Third World country over there.
EDIT: But it's true that the U.S. didn't handle Katrina as well as we should have.
In the Netherlands we are “blessed” by heavy light pollution. For a flashaholic it is almost impossible to find an area that is completely dark. The opposite is true in rural parts of southern Europe. When the streetlights are out of order it is pitch-black. In that case an EDC comes in very handy. It even might have saved a few lives in Greece. Of the people that were trapped in a compound, or on a cliff at the shore.
Puerto Rico was like a third world country before the hurricane.
Going back to the subject.
A couple of weeks back we had an arsenist in town. In 2 weeks time he started 8 fires, all at night. Luckily they were small fires but 1 of the fires was on an small boat that had a couple inside. They where so lucky to notice it in time and they could escape before something bad happened.
The police was chasing him that night and they cought him.
Although it’s not sure he started all of the fires but he did started some of them.
I recently joined the fire department in my town (still being trained) but I was on vacation when it happened. Imagine having to fight fires multiple times a week at night, they where getting really tired.
+1