Essential California: How the Thomas fire became such a monster

[thackney]

Essential California: How the Thomas fire became such a monster
http://www.latimes.com/newsletters/la-me-ln-essential-california-20171212-story.html
12/12/2017



Flames as tall as a high-rise galloping up and down mountainsides. Coastal communities shrouded in smoke. Armies of firefighters on the defensive with little hope of corralling a wildfire that refuses to quit. The scene from this month’s Thomas fire could just as easily be taken from the 2007 Zaca fire and decades before that, the 1932 Matilija fire. In a sculpted land of jagged ridges and steep canyons, where hikers can find remoteness an hour’s drive from some of California’s priciest real estate, many of the state’s biggest wildfires have burned. In the course of a week, the Thomas exploded into the fifth-biggest wildfire in the state’s modern record. At more than 230,000 acres Monday, it ranked just behind the No. 4 Zaca and above the No. 6 Matilija.

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http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-thomas-fire-monster-20171212-story.html

...But the very qualities that make its wilderness a beacon for hikers and the dramatic backdrop to Santa Barbara also make it a firefighters’ nightmare. The mountain ranges run east-west — in line with dry winds from the interior. Deep canyons crease country that is twisted and folded by nature’s forces. There are few places where fire crews can take a stand.

“It’s really steep,” said Tim Chavez, a battalion chief and fire behavior analyst with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “The ridges don’t go anywhere. There’s no place where you can put a dozer on it and connect it to anything.”

“A big percentage of firefighting success is being in the right place with the right resources when the fire squats and doesn’t move for a couple of days and you can jump on it. This fire has not done that,” Chavez added. “It’s on the move north, east, west.”...

[truth_seeker]

Part of the Pacific Coast Ranges extending from Mexico to Alaska

The fire is moving into this area, which includes Reagan's ranch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ynez_Mountains

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is some of the most expensive real estate in all of California, home to massive homes set on large lots.

These types like open, untouched spaces, and frown upon intrusions that mar their view of nature.

When I worked California, this is one area we were forbidden to ever run seismic, even though it has some of the worst wrench faulting in CA, and a lot of large fields have been found.  Even the head of Exploration lived in Ojai and could not get his neighbors to cooperate.