Unit II Essay
An issue that we can have here in Horry County is dry weather. Dry weather can be conducive to an increased risk of wildland fires. In the unincorporated areas, people are allowed to burn their debris without a permit and often don’t think about weather conditions.
In March of 2010, a fire that started in a 15 x 15 foot area near power lines spread into the Windsor Green condominium complex, which is located near the Man O’ War and Wizard Golf Courses in Carolina Forest. Extremely dry conditions and winds gusting over 30 mph fanned flames quickly into the subdivision, consuming several buildings in a matter of minutes. A total of 26 condominium buildings, accounting for as many as 108 residences were destroyed. There were no fatalities,
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This is a problem because of the dry weather that we can have in this area. It doesn’t take much for burning debris to quickly get out of control and affect other areas.
Drafting Policies Options
A new policy that is to be discussed is issuing burn permits after the Windsor Green Fires that destroyed 26 condominium buildings. This policy bans burning when South Carolina issues a red flag alert.
Policy Decision Implications
The Department of Forestry and Horry County Government send out press releases after notification of bad weather conditions and send out the red flag alert. That want to remind the citizens that when the burn ban is not in place, to still keep in mind and due diligence when actively involved with open burning. Horry County Fire Rescue also monitors conditions and could re-impose the burn ban if conditions deteriorate.
Measuring Alternatives
We all know that if it’s windy or dry outside, you shouldn’t have an open burn. You shouldn’t have to have someone tell you not to do so until weather conditions improve. Does this mean that people will follow the rules? If you are caught with an open burn during the burn ban, there will be fines imposed.
Ethical
The Northeast region is the best region because it has a lot of very important, historical landmarks. Also it has amazing products & natural resources that you might love. Best of all we got the most beautiful climates that I personally love and I think you should too.
Thousands upon thousands of acres are lost in forest fires every year. We always hear about the dramatic losses caused by forest fires and are often concerned by them. There are so many horrible effects from fires and most of them affect so many people. Studies have shown that out of all of the different methods to decrease fire damage, prescribed burns are the most affective. Many people would argue that they are not as affective because they cause so many health problems. Although that is a very important view and may seem valid, those health issues are not as extreme as one might think. People should look at the majority of the benefits form prescribed burns and they will see how affective and important they are. Prevention is the key to society these days and is definitely an important factor in saving lives. If more lives can be saved as well as land and wildlife, prescribed burns may be the better way to go about forest fires. Although, prescribed burns are better for the environment in order to prevent drastic forest fires, severe damage to timber and extreme death of wildlife; some people feel it affects the health of a firefighter too much and it causes too many long term effects.
Malibu and Yosemite share similar ecosystem, which encourages wildfires and periodic firestorms. In his book Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis argues that Malibu should burn because wildfires are a part of its history. To illustrate his point, he relates numerous historical events from the first settlement of the region to modern days. Despite the high frequency of wildfires in Malibu, humans have continued to settle there in droves. Those settlers have fought the fires, which has done nothing but augment their intensity. Unlike Malibu, with its populated areas that have been damaged by wildfires, Yosemite benefits greatly from wildfires. Yosemite’s ecosystem has evolved with wildfires; indeed, without wildfires, Yosemite would lose its uniqueness. Also, Yosemite is not as heavily populated as Malibu, so fires in Yosemite would not affect humans to the same degree that they do in Malibu.
Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part because of the hot dry summers and the hot dry turbulent Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert during the fall months. Now it has become a yearlong event (Mckay, 2010). These conditions greatly contribute to the “fire season” throughout this area. This set of circumstances in conjunction with downed power lines and humans that ignited fires took place in October of 2007. This led to a series of fires that burned more than 500,000 acres, destroyed 1,500 homes, killed 9, injured 85, and forced the successful evacuation of around 500,000 people out of harm’s way.
Policies regarding the handling of wildland fires continue to change and evolve as new information is learned each fire season. Attitudes have changed between complete wildland fire suppression to no suppression at all. We now seem to have reached a balance between the two schools of thought and fall somewhere in the middle.
A prescribed burn is typically performed in an area surrounded by several land breaks that will not burn. These areas include; roads, already burned areas, fire lines, rivers, streams, and many other low fuel areas. When an area needs to be burned the team will map it out, distinguish proper fire lines, and plan the fire direction and intensity. The people performing...
The Worcester cold storage fire that occurred in Worcester Massachusetts on December, 3 1999 provided us with another tragic example to the lurking dangers to the United States fire service. The Worcester fire claimed the lives of 6 firefighters who came to work that morning not realizing that this would be their last shift . The strategic and tactical lessons that were learned from this fire need to be heeded by fire department nationwide. However another important lesson is not as well know. The lesson learned by the Worcester Fire department is that the law is very instrumental to emergency services operations.
The City of Detroit, Michigan, seems to be a city on the decline in America. Job prospects some of the lowest in the country and one of the only cities to be shrinking, rather than growing. There are a lot of problems Detroit is facing, one of them is there incidence rate for fires. Detroit is the number one city in America for house fires, not to mention their high rate of fires in the many vacant buildings throughout the city. There are many socioeconomic factors with the city that make the incident rates rise, and response less effective.
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
Arson has been occurring for many years and about 500,000 fires are set intentionally each year. Arson is defined as any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, the property of another or cause physical harm to another. Fire data has been collected since 1977 by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and the amount of fires has been declining ever since. In the past few decades, there has come about a number of serial arsonists- an offender who sets three or more fires with a cooling-off period between the fires (Douglas, et al, 1992). There are numerous serial arsonists who have been caught, some of which include, Peter Dinsdale, Robert Lee Oyler, Thomas Sweatt, and Paul Keller. While the number of fires across the country have
Prescribed fires are a well debated topic. While many people support them because they "help prevent" more wildfires, and they are "controlled," I see from a different point of view. There's a reason most building don't allow smoking within a certain distance of the building. Many people don't like it and it can damage their health. Same thing with prescribed fires. They add more pollution to the air we breathe. I know a lot of people support these kinds of fires because the help control fuels, but there are other ways.
Imagine waking up to beautiful freshwater streams and wildlife foraging through the mountainside. This is what citizens of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee get to wake up to ever day. Pigeon Forge is a small town near the border of South Carolina. It sits along the edge of the Cherokee National Forest and on the west side of Little Pigeon River. It is not only located in a beautiful area, but also a thriving area economically speaking. Overall, Pigeon Forge is a family friendly place where people can not only live in a beautiful city, but also exciting environment.
The release of the hazardous material or exposure to the fire that ensues results in the need to evacuate 25 or more people
...r it is arson, an uncontrolled camp fire, or a cigarette butt it doesn’t take much for humans to spark a disaster. Yet there is as well a few set by good old Mother Nature. On top of the effects on the earth as well as humans, there is only one thing we all can do and that is listen to our old pal Smokey the Bear when he says, “only you can prevent wildfire.”
The Forest fire is occurring very frequently nowadays, reasons for it are a heavy increase in global warming and an increase in temperature.