Paradise Lost; a tale of Fire, Destruction, and Corporate Negligence

in #news5 years ago

The blazing fire that destroyed Paradise, California is being described as the worst fire in California history. Over 6,450 private residents have been burned to the ground. Hundreds of commercial buildings were damaged and nearly 15,000 structures remain threatened. While the death toll is currently estimated at 29; there are still over a hundred people who remain missing. Many of the deceased were found burned alive in their vehicles; these poor souls were consumed by the fire as they attempted to flee the area.
Image credit: National Geographic

Search and rescue teams have now recruited the help of anthropologists because many of the human remains that are currently being found are merely charred bones found within the rubble of what was once residential homes.

Timely satellite imagery provided by @CopernicusEU @CopernicusEMS @sentinel_hub
#CalFire #CaliforniaWildfires

Due to the fast progression of the fire, there was no evacuation help provided to the public. Many of the survivors have shared their experiences on social media, some have claimed that when they called 911 to report the fire. The operator allegedly told them to leave the area and that there would be no immediate help from rescue teams. I have personally requested the 911 calls for Paradise, Ca and am still waiting on the release of the public records.

Cal-fire, the official fire rescue operation within California, admits that the investigation into what caused this fire is on going. The conclusion to this investigation could take months or even years. Cal-fire crew continually reported downed power lines as they attempted to assess the situation of the Camp Road fire in Paradise, CA. Many believe the conclusion of the fire report will blame slack power lines. Citizens from Paradise have publicly stated that they believe this fire was a direct result of PG&E negligence. Survivors have continued to report that they heard transformer explosions as the fire rapidly spread during their evacuation routes.

It is important to note that 24 hours before the fire occurred PG&E made public statements that they were considering shutting down the electrical grid as a precaution due to the high winds in the area. The next day, on Nov. 8th,2018 PG&E made another statement suggesting that they were still intending on shutting down the grid for Butte County. It is currently unknown why PG& E failed to follow through with these statements.


Statements from PGE

Residents have stated that they were under the impression that they were simply going to be without power during the windstorm. It has been proven that PG&E did in fact report a transmission failure in Paradise, CA and within 15 minutes of the reported outage, the vegetation fire had spread rapidly. The outrage occurred early in the morning,before 7 am. Many residents had gone to bed the night before expecting PG&E to shut down the grid; instead they awoke to their entire city ablaze.

Pacific Line and Gas is the electrical company that dominates California and is the nations largest utilities corporation. PG&E has a very dark and sordid history of being directly connected to several of the fatal fires that have caused massive destruction throughout the state. In fact, on Oct. 8th, 2018 Cal-fire finally concluded their investigation into the deadly Cascade fire that occurred a year earlier. Their investigation report clearly blames the PG&E electrical grid for causing the fire. The official report stated that during a period of high winds, two power lines became slack and touched. Once the power lines touched, an electrical arch occurred which ultimately caught vegetation on fire. The electrical arching that occurs when power lines touch is a phenomenon that occurs with “slack lines.” While the PG&E slack lines were deemed the catalyst in the Cascade fire, due to Government policy the corporation will likely never be held financially accountable. Instead, consumers will simply encounter higher rates in order to cover the costs of damages.

It is important to note that during the Cascade fire the slack line arching caught dried vegetation on fire; but it is the responsibility of the utility corporations to maintain the vegetation within a certain parameter of their electrical grid. As many online commentators continue to fight about the federal forestry funding that has been cut and continue to blame the lack of logging that takes place within California forests-few have even began to discuss the very real issue at hand.

As many online commentators continue to fight about the federal forestry funding that has been cut and continue to blame the lack of logging that takes place within California forests-few have even began to discuss the very real issue at hand.

PG&E failed to properly maintain the dry vegetation and fuels that surround their energy grid. This type of negligence is directly correlated to the massive fire destruction that we have witnessed throughout the years.

Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown, passed legislation to protect the billion dollar electrical company with policy that has essentially deemed the corporation “too big to fail.” Despite the fact courts have ruled that Utility companies can and should be held liable for the damages that are incurred as a result of faulty equipment, Gov. Brown’s policy has been able to protect the corporation from paying restitution. Even though PG&E’s corporate negligence is clearly responsible for creating hundreds of millions of dollars in fire damages; the financial bill will be passed on to the consumer in the form of monthly surcharges. PG&E is currently facing hundreds of lawsuits from insurance companies but it is likely that this controversial new policy will prevent PG&E from every being required to pay out.

It is also important to note that as a direct result of the massive financial damages that have been incurred through fire; many homeowners are no longer qualifying for fire protection insurance. It is a very scary time for the homeowners in California because there are quite literally no protections for residents who are displaced by the fires that are caused due to corporate negligence.

Gov. Jerry Brown has chosen to collude with corporations who pose a threat to the public. The bill “SB901” has been described as “complex” but it seems that one of the sole purposes of the bill was to prevent bankruptcy for the utilities corporation. Many critics have continued to refer to this bill as a “PG&E bail out.”

A deeper investigative dive into PG&E shows that not only is this corporation making millions in profits each year; nearly all of the board members of PG&E make over 2 million dollars each year in their annual salary.

Source: https://www1.salary.com/PG-E-CORP-Executive-Salaries.html

Furthermore, the PG&E CEO was expected to receive a $12 million bonus for the 2018 fiscal year. These financial figures speak for themselves; but if we dig even deeper into this corporation it clearly shows ties to one of the wealthiest banking families in the world: Rothschild INC.

For those who are unaware, the Rothschild dynasty has been around for centuries and they own many of the financial institutions that influence our daily life. Some have suggested that the Rothschild are able to buy influence, sway governments, and basically do whatever the hell they want. Once we realize that the Rothschild have a strong handed role with the PG&E corporation, it becomes even more obvious why state government has chosen to protect the elite instead of the common man.

Sort:  

Even more interesting than the PG&E connections are the outlandishly irregular patterns the fires have taken, especially considering the hair-riasingly similar fires that happened about a year ago in CA as well. Not to mention the date of the event.

From everything I have seen, raging fires do not discriminate one bit between neighboring houses and trees, these fires obviously have - again.

I have literally no idea what the truth is, but this is probably not merely about some douchebag company. It's the explanation peddled for peopele looking for some explanation that fits our contemporary narrative...

Still, form a system perspective: Good journalism you have delivered here. I just don't think it goes far enough considering the evidence that is emerging.

Thanks for the comment. As far as the Paradise, CA fires there is little evidence online that we can investigate at this point. My article is solely focusing on the Paradise,CA because it hits close to home; the city had a special place in my heart. I will leave all the other internet researchers to investigate the other fires. While I have looked extensively at the video footage from Paradise, I choose not to dive into the conspiratorial DEW ideas because there isn't much proof or evidence. Unless we are to accept that an arched energy current is a directed energy source 0:-). Arching currents will almost always seek to direct the arched energy into a grounding source. If the ground is literally covered in dried vegetation this becomes a recipe for a wild fire.

I strictly follow the money and the facts; I believe I have provided an accurate and thorough report on the Paradise, CA fires. But what I can share is that I have lived in Northern California and I have received fire training. Many people who are currently promoting the DEW ideology seem to have a weak understanding of how rapid spreading vegetation fires work. A lack of understanding is almost as dangerous as unmaintained dry vegetation near an energy grid-a recipe for disaster.

You mentioned that "raging fires do not discriminate one bit between neighboring houses and trees, these fires obviously have"Its crucial to understand that dead trees will always burn faster than live trees. This is why some trees burn and others do not. IMO it is also important to understand that houses are considered fuels for a fire. A house can and will burn before a live and healthy tree.This is because healthy trees have 10x+ moisture than dead and dried fuels. While fire does not discriminate, there are many factors that influence a fires path. Some houses can be lit on fire simply because the wind pattern at the time pushed embers to hit the roof. Wind patterns can shift rapidly, meaning some houses get hit with embers and then the fire moves so quickly that the ember pattern also shifts.Other major factors are things like if the gutters on houses had dried leaves because this would be fuels for feeding the fire. The proximity to homes and fallen powerlines/blown transformers is also a significant factor into why some houses burn and others do not.

I have lived in a high risk fire zone for long periods of time. There are certain protocols one should do to protect themselves from the risk of rampant fire. Aside from removing all fuels from your residential home area (dried plant matter, leaves, pine needles,pine cones, sticks-all of these things are fuels, and should not be near your home) Installing gutter sprinkles can save houses. Installing sprinklers that can keep your entire property saturated can also help. During fire season, I had my sprinklers going almost all of the time (benefits of having a well and a creek on the property was the unlimited amounts of water) and while the forest around my property did burn, my house never caught.

I actually lived in a community that actively removed fuels from the PG&E energy grid to prevent electrical fires. PG&E does not maintain the fuel vegetation within their grid. The way they handle vegetation is to spray vegetation with roundup to kill the plants. They do not remove dried fuels. Dried and dead fuels feed a fire. I was informed by a lineman that the typical protocol for clearing fuels from the energy grid is 20 ft high and 12 ft wide. This means that anything growing within that parameter should be removed-PGE just kills the vegetation with roundup/pesticides and moves along. The group I worked with removed fuels 30+ ft high and 20 ft wide.

Thank you so much for the further clarification, you do make some very solid and rational points here and I will not argue with your ability to estimate a fire's natural behavior, because as opposed to yourself I have never actively been involved with firefighting.
I guess these types of insight are what I would have normally expected from the MSM covering these events, but where solid reasoning could exist like you have provided here, we get but a thin shadow of an explanation offered by those who have repeatedly lied and have long become exposed for their ties to the powers that be. I say "would have expected of MSM" because I have long stopped expecting MSM to do any other work than spreading a certain narrative for an agenda that is rarely ever disclosed.

All the more reason to celebrate some actual journalists doing the work MSM should be doing. I can also thoroughly appreciate your stance on the energy weapon debate. I find the conclusion premature as well to say the least. It doesn't take some of the oddities away that my layman understanding has huge issues with, but I learned to trust my own senses rather than anyone else's explanation that doesn't jive with my inner being and experience. That said, until we get footage of these energy weapons in action demolishing property there could just as well be other explanation for it, and it's always a good idea to stick with the observable evidence rather than jumping to premature conclusions.

It's the same in any other field of inquiry, but you already know all that. Thanks again for your reply, i followed!

Congratulations @wolfofjournalism! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 10 comments. Your next target is to reach 50 comments.

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

The Meet the Steemians Contest is over - Results are coming soon ...

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @wolfofjournalism! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You got a First Reply

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

The Meet the Steemians Contest is over - Results are coming soon ...

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @wolfofjournalism! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

New japanese speaking community Steem Meetup badge
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.32
TRX 0.11
JST 0.034
BTC 66654.57
ETH 3250.95
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.33