Just think of the hospital workers who took patients *on oxygen* into their cars to escape....like basically they were holding an extremely flammable bomb while agonizingly inching through that monumental fire, flames on all sides and burning debris hitting them. That is unbelievably brave.
I'm an indian and I love science videos. PBS is little known here. I even did not know about PBS until I randomly discovered a video of it's okay too be smart. Which took me too PBS space time and Now space time took me PBS terra. All of your videos are amazing!
I thought the part about building codes and tending the land using fire and native plants was great. There are a lot of great options. I wish that newer house showed off some xeriscaping too.
All of California? If that's true it's a law that is certainly not enforced. I've been to San Diego, LA and some surrounding nicer suburban areas right up into the hilly scrubland and have not seen that at all.
I have to ask why aren’t there more videos like this about our Australian bushfires because what I experienced on new year eve was the most scaring and terrifying thing and it will happen again and soon.
People are too reliant on government supplied resources. The government isn't going to save your property in an emergency. They will never have a better plan than you can create for your own property.
I don't even live in the States and this series is fascinating, the channel itself is great too, Eons brought me here the episode they advertised it. Keep it up.
So...... Family owned 7 rental properties, that all were destroyed; but the house they live in survived? So..... "gotta make sure our house is okay, screw our tenants."
Yeah, I don't think they actually knew about the concept of retrofitting homes for fire safety... Really very few l few people know about it and fewer do it. Buuut the really important point here for me is there fact that low income people are way more likely not to live in new or retrofitted homes. Honestly I think it's going to take public support (tax incentives like for energy retrofits?) to achieve equity between rich and poor in terms of fire safety.
@@ElementalWildfire Fair point. My spouse and I are in the process of preparing a house to rent out (we paid off our mortgage, bought a new home for ourselves, and will rent out our old home.) With wildfires being in the news so much of late, one of the improvements we put in to the old house was fire-readiness. Had a landscaper remove all "next to the house" plants, plant new drought-resistant ones further; new root from fire-resistant material (the roofing material needed replacing anyway, it wasn't much more to upgrade to fire-resistant.) etc.
@@AnonymousFreakYT Nice! What resources were the most helpful for you to choose what to do? Those first 5 feet arrive the house are the most important!
The natives have it right, bush fires are a part of the natural order and thus should be accommodated into the way we think about the bush. Aboriginals have been saying the same thing for thousands of years.
From an Australian standpoint, I just look at all those trees right next to houses and cringe.. The hard bit is getting people to accept that burning off is good, and to do them properly, there's always the smoke factor and it'll affect the tourism or it's ruins the scenery arguments then it's too late....
I was thinking the same! I'm sure they were very well insured. Even still, I'm pretty certain that they will rebuild in a way that has other people pay off the new mortgages AND give them enough income to live well. I noticed that their modern mansion didn't even suffer smoke damage. It's a sick sad world. >> Tom's wife Pam
Like, I dont't really get the point of the video. It doesnt really deliver any Information outside of 'be prepared to run' and 'controlled burn downs help preventing wildfires'.
Controlled burns is an emerging practice after generations of suppression (think Big Burn outside of Wallace ID that birthed the forest service) It’s tricky because it’s risky and causes smoke (noticed in denser areas of exurbs) and in remote areas there is a lot of stuff on the ground. I live adjacent to several national forests and without the controlled burns trees that are normally surviving fires are dying bc of the excess fuel.
@@TheWatcher802 Excellent Episode. Also for those interested a regional program called Outdoor Idaho has done a show on living with fire in the last year. They are discussing the controlled burns there very well as all.
@@paillette2010 I will check it out, I'm just confused none of those (NOVA, Idaho) are talking about goats as an alternative to controlled burns. It's being done in some places in Portugal, where I live, and has a lot less risk.
Thanks for an interesting and informative look at what we’ve learned from the Camp Fire. That graph near the beginning of the episode was very illustrative of what we are up against.
Came from Space Time, you have a lot to live up to! Make it count! This episode could have used some more specific science references, maybe that will come.
Good ideas in the videos. What really helped a few decades ago -- '80s and '90s? maybe early 2000s? -- was forest management using controlled burns. They stopped doing those, and they started getting big, uncontrollable wild fires again. Go back to controlled burns, and there will be far fewer and less damaging problem fires. It's unclear from the video, but it sounds like the Native Americans did this historically, too. (The video mostly mentions plants, but saying they used fire implies that they may have done controlled burns, too.)
Yeah, the 'no fires at all' fire management philosophy has rapidly fallen out of favor with the constant Californian droughts showing how drought conditions lay the groundwork for massive fires if there's too much brush and other kindling.
Native Americans did a lot of burning in the past and with no fire suppression there was just a lot more fire on the ground 100 to 200 years ago. There's certainly is more prescribed fire happening now then even just a few years ago.
Well- I’m glad you discussed better building practice, but you provided very little practical knowledge. This was long on drama, but provided little information one could act on. C+
Help prevent these fires by hydrating the soil! Chisel plow all land with a 20 inch plow! This will dig in the dry vegetation , make a space for the rainfall to go into the ground to moisten the soil and also hydrate any adjacent plants and help prevent erosion. If you have trees, also chisel plow around it to help the rainfall go into the soil and hydrate your trees! STOP THOSE FIRES!!!
Except when you have record droughts and *there is no rainfall* , and in places hot and dry enough that rain drops literally evaporate before touching the ground..... like parts of California. People do actually care if their home burns down and do want to prevent it, you're not the first person to look at the issue.
As others have said, I didn't like the way this video was presented. Vapid and unilluminating; far too heavily stylized with, e.g., pointless slowmo shots of people's legs; and yeah, it felt like an ad for those landlords. Everybody loves landlords! *Very* disappointing, PBS.
I noticed the house shown was painted white. On the internet archive, there is an old video from, I think, The Paint Institute of America, that showed that White Houses survive fires started by Atomic Bombs. Pretty interesting video, if weird. archive.org/details/Houseint1954
Masonry. Also big protected land is almost the opposite if you look at higher density you can line the street with trees artificially the whole protected land can almost be considered neglect some areas are so poorly nourished stuff doesn't grow all those massive pines are so old they really aren't producing as much biomass and variety so when one thing happens it's all gone can be beetles or disease or fire one thing can wipe it all out
Modified jetski engines! Combined with thermal insulated fire hose ! Coupled with space tile shielding for engine an sprinklers ! With fire trenches dug in said areas! Run the hose to nearest lake stream or even city water system an in time would pay for it self in helping the areas surrounding the populated places first an over time in the rest of the forrest too.
California is meant to burn. It improves the soil and encourages new growth of grasses and chaparral. Torrey Pines were almost extinct until a fire destroyed the remaining trees. Fire cracked open the seeds and Torrey Pines are plentiful again. I just drove down the 805 yesterday and saw many burnt patches turning bright green with grasses. It's an expected cycle.
Maybe, Not having any trees around your house for a good mile (#?) will help. David doesnt have that many trees around his house. Buying more acres to create distance from trees is a must. Even getting rid of trees next to roads but that would mean more deforestation.
Far, far too much "emotional" bullcrap. Any more videos with this little fact info, and this much nonsense "emotional" viewpoints I will unsubscribe. If I would want an emotionally driven decision made videos, I would watch drama TV... Smarter Every Day made a good video about wildfires, where he went and talked to people that are working with bringing back native vegetation. But more importantly, he talks with them about why it's important to have those plants, and what difference it makes. You did good with having the test facility, but it was just a footnote in your video.
Zpajro Shinigami I think that’s the point of the series to highlight the emotional stress everyday people go through because of the disasters. Kinda gives more information than seeing statistics on how many acres have burned.
@@samuelssmith9877 I wouldn't consider landlords running multiple properties to be "everyday" people, but I see where you're coming from even if I don't agree with the decision.
How about you build your homes out of bricks rather than plywood? That'll resist hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods etc. much better than those light wooden things that people seem to keep making.
There's also a lot of earthquakes around here (I'm a bit more north in Humboldt, but we get wildfires, earthquakes/tsunamis, and floods). Brick buildings are EXTREMELY deadly in earthquake country, and there's a lot of old buildings that were brick that have fallen down. What we ought to do is practice controlled burns like the native nations are trying to do again, and build sturdier houses of wood, instead of glued-together plywood.
I feel these are overly produced and cater towards a less intelligent audience. Less PBS more whatever channel that was on cable that went to the dumbs too.
How is this going to solve anything lol? As climate warm, the forests will get dryer over the summer months and the fires will get worse. The homes are more resistant but it doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Who cares if 1000/10000 people living in the woods have a home after the fire when tens of millions of people on the west coast are breathing in carcinogens for months every summer. Control burns are good but the time window for them are also getting smaller as the summers get longer and hotter. Native vegetation is not going to solve anything long term, they might be more resistant to fires but they still burn when it gets dry and hot and things are getting dryer and hotter all around. There needs to be way more drastic things happening. This feel good bullshit is actually counter productive.
This is a very valid perspective and we absolutely have to address climate change in a meaningful way but this series focuses on harm reduction strategies. Sadly some climate change is inevitable and already happening and rebuilding houses after they burn will only cause more resource extraction causing more climate change.
