ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

In view of this fire now moving into Ventura County (where I have relatives also) I would like to comment that if the 12,000 gallon DC-10 Supertanker waterbombing aircraft had been used by the Forest Service at the start of these fires the fires would have been out in a day or two instead of weeks or months as is now the case because the Forest Service has NEVER used Supertanker aircraft on federal land for over 12 years . We can't continue protecting the profiteering interests of the Forest Services' "old boys' club" as it continues to prolong its' money-making fires and ludicrously sets up a "Joint Unified Command" (sounds like a General MacArthur operation in the WW-II Pacific War) overseeing over 3,000 firefighters who wouldn't need to be there if the DC-10 were used in the first place. It is critically important to STOP THESE FIRES and save our homes, lives, and loved ones by using the DC-10 immediatly and CONTINUOUSLY on state AND FEDERAL LAND! We must save our homes and families from the threat of U.S. Forest Service facilitated fire in this continuing case by compelling the continuous use of the DC-10 by applying overwhelming public pressure on the Forest Service to do so. It's not accidental that Congressman Dana Rhorabacher of Huntington Beach, Ca. has condemned the U.S. Forest Service for failing to use the DC-10 in the past describing them as "the worst old boy network he's encountered in his career"!-and I say the Forest Service is certainly proving him right as they continue their foot-dragging on the DC-10 use issue. We as concerned citizens must force U.S. fire officials to protect us because they obviously will not do so on their own. We must act now and the DC-10 is the answer. We can't allow this to continue into Ventura County ! Call our representatives everywhere -Ed Nemechek-760-246-8059. see:www.JBS.org (search: wildfire).

Homes and lives have never been threatened by this fire.

Ed,

Do you ever get tired posting the same drivel ad nauseum on this blog? Perhaps that's a rhetorical question...

I was able to hang a bit with Ed in spite of his monomania and tiresomeness, but when he starts defending Dana Rohrbacher in any way, even if only by choosing to quote the man as if he were a credible human being instead of an archetypal wingnut, I have to mosey.

(If Dana is attacking the US Forest Service, it's not because he wants to correct that institution in any way -- it's because he wants to make it go away forever and replace it with privatized management....kind of like what the administration would like to do with the entire Federal government, from all appearances.)

Anonymous: Have you forgotten about the fire approaching Ojai? If that's not a threat I don't know what is, and what about the threat to the firefighters many of whom have been injured alresdy ?. --Also, yes I do get tired but the Forest Service is grossley derelict in their duty to protect us.

Forest management is certainly a complex issue and I don't claim to be any kind of expert. I have studied the chaparral, however, the most extensive plant community in the Los Padres National Forest. It is characterized by dwarfish, woody shrubs which can actually grow quite tall but rarely do because of regular fires. As a result of fire, the chaparral has evolved over millions of years into what is known as a "fire ecology." For example, the seeds of many of the chaparral plants will not even germinate unless the seed coat is first scorched by fire. The shrubs can be burned to the ground and sprout again from a root system designed to withstand the high ground temperatures.

Sure, I hate to see the upper Sisquoc and the Dick Smith Wilderness burn, for purely selfish reasons. It's some of the most beautiful backcountry we have and I'm glad I got to hike it when I did. The Forest Service seems to be dedicating their manpower on the Zaca fire to containing it in order to protect homes but otherwise letting it do what it has always done. How many homes have been destroyed in this fire? In my opinion, the reason the fires are so hot and spread so quickly is because we have suppressed them for too long, allowing the dead wood to accumulate under the chaparral shrubs.

phalarope: I hope you're right about Congressman Rohrabacher as real Privatization is the way to go. Further than that, I would like the U.S. Forest Service abolished completely and replaced by NOTHING and let the trees and mountains take care of themselves as they have for untold millions of years (I don't think they will disappear anytime soon) and let the residents provide for their own COST EFFECTIVE fire protection i.e. the DC-10, Boeing-747, and volunteers. Meanwhile Forest Service officials found guilty of criminal negligence or conspiracy, which I think is obviously the case, after a congressional investigation should be convicted and sent to federal prtson for life. We have to start cleaning up our government at all levels and the Forest Service is a good place to start. see:www.JBS.org (search: wildfire) to see how the Forest Service deliberately mismanages our forests to allow deadwood to pile up to CAUSE massive fire.--Ed Nemechek--760-246-8059.

Matilija Canyon and Ojai are no more safe from the fire now than they were a week ago. A fire that is expected to burn for weeks more can ANY DAY take off and burn tens of thousands of acres, and move miles, when temperature and wind direct it so.

The ONLY purpose of these federal and state and county fire and other agencies is to make money and pursue power. Their main mechanism for doing so is to keep the public in the dark about everything. The ONLY commentary they share with the public is to mislead and dumb us down.

Have the clearances around the homes in Matilija Canyon been cleared? We have to keep an around the clock watch on this fire, and the fraudsters managing it, because NO ONE but us cares at all for our livelihoods, and the peace and well being of the Ojai Valley.

Ed:

You support privatization? Then you must love the notion of 120,000+ mercenaries fighting not alongside, but in spite of, the American troops in Iraq. Complete privatization is just another way to say laissez faire, and laissez faire didn't work in the bad old days of the American robber barons, nor would it work today. Were everything to be privatized in America, it would be run just about as well as the current administration has been running everything, and that isn't very well at all.

Lanny is right on target. The Forest Service, along with county and state teams has done an excellent job of containing the fire, allowing the Chaparral to burn as it must, while avoiding devastation to human communities. (ONE lost outbuilding? That’s remarkable!) In my many years in Upper Ojai, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand the bravery and dedication of the firefighters on numerous occasions. Happy Valley was the operations center and heli-base for a number of fires and the scene was a huge troop mobilization: professional and seasonal firefighters, plus squads of volunteer convicts, all flown in from other counties and states. One writer suggested that the firefighters had abandoned Matilija in ’87. Well, I was helping a friend do very last-minute clearing around his house and we finally left, much too late, feeling lucky to be out of there. But the fire trucks stayed behind, one parked in each driveway at the end of the canyon. My friend’s house still stands. A few years ago, the whole of Happy Valley School was saved in a similar way in the famous Christmas fire.
I have great respect for these men and women as well as for those who lead them, making difficult decisions by the hour, responsible for property, lives, and a thousand incidentals required to feed and care for an army. When they mop up this fire, they will be flown off to fight the next one….156 burning at today’s count.
In choosing to not live in the big city, we opt out of city challenges, but we just have to accept that fires will come, wildlife will sometimes wander into our yards, eat our pets, or interfere with our desire to develop property, streams will overflow, mud will slide and that sometimes we will just have to depend upon each other, despite political differences, to be neighbors.

phalarope: Private enterprise (laissez faire as you call it) made America the greatest nation in history. Government interference in private enterprise and personsl freedom (socialism or communism) has been rapidly destroying our great republic for decades and the solution is to abolish the destructive government agancies, which is about all of them, certainly including the U.S. Forest Service. Regarding the ILLEGAL Iraq war, we have to withdraw from there and disentangle ourselves from the rest of the world as our founding leaders counciled when George Washington warned: 'never become entangled in foreign quarrels'. Political (not economic ) Isolationism (a Pavlovian trigger-word for some people) is the answer for a secure America now and always.see:www.JBS.org (search: isolationism)-Ed Nemechek-760-246-8059.

Ed:

Laissez faire is private enterprise without any form of control or oversight. It is a might-makes-right form of enterprise, and it means that if your neighbor wants to process plutonium or open a slaughterhouse next door to your house, you don't have anything to say about it unless you can physically stop your neighbor from doing what he's doing.

Is that what you had in mind? No government oversight? No community standards enforced by any form of government? No duly sworn and legitimate law enforcement agencies? Private armies and hired thugs? Governments that protect only big business? Vigilante justice? The Wild West?

Very well put Dennis and Lanny - and right on the mark. Maybe if we start ignoring Ed he will fade away, and find a board down in San Diego to haunt...but then again maybe he has and they have already banned/blocked him.

There are a number of things the government should be responsible for, and should not be handed over to private enterprise. Examples include things that would not be profitable enough for private enterprise, or where profits come at the expense of the public good.

I agree, Tyler.

Perhaps Ed and I will continue this conversation on an open thread sometime. As for now, I think we've hijacked the thread, and that wasn't what I intended to do.

Talk to you another time, Ed.

phalarope: Don't panic,I'm talking about private enterprise under LIMITED government which is the AMERICAN way (not anarchy). We are living under a socialist governmant that is at least 80% too big and needs to be reduced approx. to a constitutional 20%. Limited government means freedom, big government as we certainly have now means slavery. The choice should be a simple one.-Ed Nemechek.

Tyler: I would observe that if an economic activity is not profitable under private enterprise then it obviously should not be engaged in except through volunteer activity. Government boondoggle projects and activity (the U.S. Forest Service for example) are bankrupting and destroying our country and the government load of taxes and economic interference is killing our economy. A reduction of approx. 80% will correct this and possibly save our country. Private enterprise built this country and gonernment has only been destructive, and is getting worse.-Ed Nemechek.

Don't count Zaca out yet.

This from Inciweb:
Increased southerly winds resulted in embers crossing the Brubaker Canyon containment line to the north near Highway 33. Two spot fires combined and burned approximately 250 acres. Air tankers and helicopters were used heavily to slow the fire's eastern progression. Structure protection is in place for threatened residences. There is significant potential for the fire to spread to the north, but there is growing confidence of keeping the fire west of Highway 33, which is critical to containing this fire in the next 7 to 10 days."

It's North of us, but only approx 15 mi. So we may be out of the woods, but we need to stay alert. Remember the Day, it was at our backdoor in moments after the wind caught it.

I was wondering if the Matilija Canyon folks were able to do much preparation if the fire should come their way. Also if they have pumps in place to shoot water taken from the Creek, if there is enough water in the creek. Just how close is the fire to that area. Thanks anyone.

If the fire returns the DC-10 can stop it IF they will only USE it in time. Ed Nemechek -760-246-8059. ednemechek@verizon.net

Hey Ed, Have you ever considered the importance of the DC-10?

Hey Anonymous: good suggestion, the DC-10, or something like it, is the wave of the future. See: firebomber publications blog (on internet) to see the war by the U.S. Forest Service AGAINST the DC-10 and how they stopped the Boeing -747 Supertanker. -Ed Nemechek-760-246-8059 -(ednemechek@verizon.net)

Yeah Ed. I heard that they cure cancer and hemorrhoids and are great against aphids too, which are, of course, a Forest Service plot.

Anonymous: Judging by your logic and mental orientation I've concluded that you must work for the U.S. Forest Service. -Ed

thanks Dana,

again we ask: Did the brush clearances, 200ft around each home, take place in Matilija Canyon?

we note that the fire has burned another 20,000 acres, since the Casitas Heliport was disbanded for two days last week.

since then the heliport came back in a hurry -- and we have counted as many as six Choppers at once there during the weekend operations.

temperature forecasts are in the nineties for this week in Ojai, and the 'Fire Management' expects the fire to continue for at least another week or two ...

and it is still very early in the Ojai fire season ..

Thanks MT: I keep thinking of Raymond P. and how prepared(?) they are and how threatened they feel at this point.