Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Supposedly the problem was that they had plenty of rain earlier which caused a growth spurt in the vegetation and made plenty of fuel. The other problems are that they don't use controlled burns anymore to create firebreaks and they have a lot of eucalyptus which is famous for it burning hot and quick. It didn't help that burning embers were travelling a couple of kilometres on the wind.
I know in Australia that half the problem is they leave trees around the housed areas to reduce the heat but these are then great fuel to rip through a neighbourhood.

 

And the other problem is, of course, that owners of palatial mansions use way more than their fair share of power (for air con, etc) and water (for swimming pools), and that's before you get to the private jet flights to and fro between their various homes. All these things drive climate change, the 1% being responsible for more emissions than about 80% of the rest of the world's people combined. So, in an area prone to wild fires, these are likely to be more severe than in the past.

 

Trump doesn’t believe in climate change. It’s all the fault of the Democrats.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/08/politics/trump-newsom-los-angeles-fires-analysis/index.html

 

Allegedly, one major home insurer cancelled all fire cover a few months ago. The article I read was a bit vague, but it seems the cancellation of fire cover was immediate on all policies, not just on renewal.
What many people seem to assume is that it's only the homes of the rich and famous which have been affected. With the massive areas involved that is highly unlikely to be the case.
Building homes from timber in high fire risk areas doesn't seem to be the best of ideas.

 

I'm not sure but I think even in the UK insurance companies are not keen on timber houses.

 

I don’t assume it is only the rich affected, though, as per, the media is focused on them. Mostly the disasters the behaviour of the super-wealthy cause are further from home, out of their direct line of view but happening none the less.

 

If that is the case then owners of virtually all the new build houses around here are going to have problems. They all seem to be timber framed internal skin with a brick or block external skin.

 

I'm an old one so I remember the Mommas and Poppas lyrics, "Oh it never rains in Sunny California". Nothing new about that.

 

I think the brick outer skin can make a difference I was really referring to old buildings mostly rural often with the old barn type of wooden boarding.

 

Next line I believe is, it pours and pours.

 

There are two American style timber houses in a village near here, they were built in the 1890s to an American design. They are grade 2 listed. I wouldn't like to live in one of them.

 

There was a row of timber clad houses in Widnes years back and no one would insure them then. Our estate agent friend at the time warned us off buying one even though they were in our price range.

 

Proper moan. Why do people insist on putting their rubbish (including dog dropping bags) in the Grit bins along the side of the road?
Is it because they cannot read and mistake GRIT for another rhyming word?

 

Maybe they’ve noticed that every time they do it someone comes along and takes it away. Maybe their mothers always tidied up their dropped dirty clothes in the same way. There’s always somebody will help you with a problem…

 

I was really surprised when I visited Texas that the majority of the houses where I was, near Dallas are pretty well glorified sheds which would burn extremely easily. The construction is timber panels, often Pine or Spruce, both of which contain lots of combustible resin and even the ash felt roof shingles ( equivalent to our slates or tiles) are flammable unless you buy very expensive ones, so all in all these houses can easily be burnt to a crisp.Not only would they not withstand fire I saw damage done from tornados where houses were just flattened. The really strange thing was to see a street demolished and the next door street virtually untouched. America is pretty good at hiding its poverty although not quite so much nowadays with the internet. Where I was staying was quite an affluent area but all around were shanty town type areas where the poverty appeared extreme. I expect there will be many very poor people affected by these severe fires, I hope it is not only the celebrities who get help.Obviously not all the pavements in America are lined with gold!