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Fire coverage thread
- Thread starter crainbebo
- Start date
Do NOAA weather radio stations have backup sites?
Generally not, and in this case they apparently didn't have backup power, either.
California battery plant catches fire, forcing evacuations
A fire at a battery plant in Moss Landing, California forced evacuations in the area.
Another fire is of interest to watch out for it’s the Moss Landing Fire in a different part of the state. Monterey County Sheriffs Office and Monterey area fire crews issued an evacuation order for Moss Landing.
Wow. They must really want people to hear it.
Does this include stations that normally only do music, such as SF's KOSF 103.7?
When was the last time the LA area experienced anything like this? I can't think of anything from the past 100 years!
That said, I don't think it will expand into the kind of firestorm LA saw, but it's nevertheless something to keep an eye on.
I think, with so much activity so early in the year (this is the time of year we should be worrying about floods, not fires!), it's going to be a very rough year, and I hope my small corner of Northern CA remains spared as it has been for the past 3 or 4 years. There have been fires here for sure, but none have been meaningfully dangerous, and firefighters have been able to put all of them out well before they became so. I fear this year may be different, and the LA firestorms happening in January is a very bad omen.
c
Does this include stations that normally only do music, such as SF's KOSF 103.7?
When was the last time the LA area experienced anything like this? I can't think of anything from the past 100 years!
I saw that on the news last night (SF Gate, I think). They seemed to think that the fire would be mostly contained within the concrete building it started in, but acknowledged that lithium battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish, and the fumes they release are particularly toxic.California battery plant catches fire, forcing evacuations
A fire at a battery plant in Moss Landing, California forced evacuations in the area.www.foxla.com
Another fire is of interest to watch out for it’s the Moss Landing Fire in a different part of the state. Monterey County Sheriffs Office and Monterey area fire crews issued an evacuation order for Moss Landing.
That said, I don't think it will expand into the kind of firestorm LA saw, but it's nevertheless something to keep an eye on.
I think, with so much activity so early in the year (this is the time of year we should be worrying about floods, not fires!), it's going to be a very rough year, and I hope my small corner of Northern CA remains spared as it has been for the past 3 or 4 years. There have been fires here for sure, but none have been meaningfully dangerous, and firefighters have been able to put all of them out well before they became so. I fear this year may be different, and the LA firestorms happening in January is a very bad omen.
c
I know what you mean usually we think of this happening in August to November as the approximate time when wildfires in California really escalate and when it happens in other parts of the state.
I have discovered the owner of the building that burned. Go to https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistrationSearch.jsp and look up registration number 1283074. It belongs to an LMR hotel company called Touch Tel Mobile:
TouchTel® Mobile
touchtelmobile.com
The FCC registration number is on the door when you zoom in here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/2u6WE3i4wRy25Aao7
There are also two telephone numbers on the door: the bottom one matches the contact phone indicated in the FCC record returned by searching the registration number above, and the top one is visible at the top-right corner of their web site's front page.
Says power is still out to the entire mountain and that generator fuel is being trucked in daily.
That's a lot of wattage running entirely off diesel.
KFLA-8 is the one broadcaster that remains off-air. I guess they can't afford a generator, or an extension cord to their nearest neighbor's.
This issue is starting to be reported re: LA. Mostly because of Teslas using lithium batteries. Have seen some (under-reported) reports that burning Teslas in particular in the wealthy Palisades neighborhood caused difficulty in extinguishing the fires there, sooner than would have been normal. F'ing Tesla. Ugly AND an environmental hazard. Musk and his ugly, not-so-environmentally-sound cars have got to go.
Okay---let's get some factual grounding here:
1-ALL electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries.
Love Musk or hate him, this isn't just a Tesla issue. Here's a list of every EV on the market today, and I'd bet lunch significant numbers of each of them are in Los Angeles:
2-I'm not sure what you mean by under-reported. Not enough coverage or not thorough enough coverage?
This piece from Autoblog, based on and expanding on reporting by Bloomberg, is quite thorough and explains it clearly in layman's terms:
Burning Teslas in LA Add to Toxic Mix Hindering Wildfire Cleanup
As the smoke clears from devastating Los Angeles wildfires, efforts to clean up the affected areas are being complicated by burnt-out electric and hybrid vehicles and home-battery storage systems.
www.bloomberg.com
In addition, there are pieces in the Los Angeles Daily News:
Burning Teslas, fried battery storage systems add to toxic mix hindering LA wildfire cleanup
Lithium batteries from EVs and hybrids, as well as home-power backups, will require specialized removal in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires.
www.dailynews.com
The Washington Post:
And, y'know, a bunch more:
That said, yeah---this is a major issue, and with 1.3 million EVs sold in 2024 (what was over-reported was one soft quarter, giving a lot of people the impression that demand had cooled, to the point that some people were saying "nobody wants EVs"), it's a growing issue.
Unless this experience in Los Angeles slows sales, there will likely be another one million to 1.5 million vehicles sold in 2025. Not all will be in wildfire-prone areas, of course, but it's a safety and environmental factor for those areas especially.
Evacuations ordered in California after fire at battery power plant in Moss Landing
Residents living near a power plant in Central California were ordered to evacuate Thursday night after a fire broke out at the facility.
www.usatoday.com
Evacuation orders lifted for Moss Landing battery facility; Highway 1 still closed
A local state of emergency was declared Friday, and the county board of supervisors will look to ratify it at a special meeting on Tuesday.
www.ksbw.com
I thought it was a mixup with an unrelated fire at first given that the Moss Landing Fire was reported at a lithium battery plant in a different part of the state. But it had all the fears of turning into a wildfire similar to the LA Area fires this is given Monterey County issued an evacuation order in Moss Landing with initial uncertainties on how many Calfire crews would have to pull out of Los Angeles County and reassign them to Moss Landing for the same reasons.
The power came back to Mt. Wilson in the early afternoon.
@RayydioLA While @michael hagerty makes many very good points, I agree with you on this point in particular: they're ugly, and objectively not the world's most well-designed vehicle (I think I once read somewhere of a Tesla on autopilot or some such that lost control, slammed itself into a concrete wall and caught fire, and I believe the occupants had trouble exiting the burning vehicle (and the first responders had trouble getting in), in part because the all-electronic door handles had no mechanical overrides and, since the car lost power, they were rendered inoperative and thus stuck closed. How much of this is true? I think it happened within a parking garage in South Korea somewhere, between 2 and 6 years ago, but I don't remember very well).
They were quite popular for years, primarily because until relatively recently, there weren't too many viable EV alternatives to Tesla's various models, but now, as Michael points out, we have all sorts of decent EVs that are quite competitive with Teslas, spec-wise (including EV trucks (namely, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Chevy Silverado EV, and the Rivian EV truck) that are actually functional as trucks and look more or less like traditional trucks, unlike Tesla's weird Cybertruck, which to me is little more than a tasteless, overpriced fashion statement), and I'm sure their fit and finish is quite a bit better, too.
c
They were quite popular for years, primarily because until relatively recently, there weren't too many viable EV alternatives to Tesla's various models, but now, as Michael points out, we have all sorts of decent EVs that are quite competitive with Teslas, spec-wise (including EV trucks (namely, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Chevy Silverado EV, and the Rivian EV truck) that are actually functional as trucks and look more or less like traditional trucks, unlike Tesla's weird Cybertruck, which to me is little more than a tasteless, overpriced fashion statement), and I'm sure their fit and finish is quite a bit better, too.
c
Tesla Fire: Digital record of Tesla fire incidents
Tesla Fire records information about Tesla car fires and other Tesla fire incidents that received news coverage.
Cold Coffee
Banned
Sea salt batteries could be a cheap, green alternative to lithium
Lithium - the main component in most electric batteries - can be costly to mine. But researchers have made a breakthrough with alternative ‘molten salt’ batteries.
www.euronews.com
Gwen Stefani Reuniting No Doubt For ‘FireAid’ Benefit Concert For California Wildfire Relief — Update
As Southern California begins to rebuild in the wake of the wildfires, Live Nation is assembling some of Hollywood's biggest talents in support.
deadline.com
Lady Gaga, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks and More Announced for FireAid Benefit Concert
Lady Gaga, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks and more will perform for the FireAid Benefit Concert on Jan. 30 at the Forum and Intuit Dome
variety.com
There are now reports that a concert is to take place on January 30th. This concert is being dubbed "Fire Aid" and there are stars that have agreed to appear in this concert so far.
In addition, if your sea-salt battery powered vehicle breaks down in the great wide yonder, you could always crack open a battery, sprinkle a little on whatever road kill is laying around to make it tastier as you wait for rescue.Sea salt batteries could be a cheap, green alternative to lithium
Lithium - the main component in most electric batteries - can be costly to mine. But researchers have made a breakthrough with alternative ‘molten salt’ batteries.
Griffith Park Fire: Arson suspect arrested, LAPD says
A man is accused of setting off a fire in Los Angeles' Griffith Park neighborhood.
New wildfires are reported in Griffith park and in Poway in San Diego County. So far Calfire has issued alerts on these new fires but let's hope for the best for now.
Brush fire sparks in Poway prompting evacuation warnings
A brush fire sparked in Poway Monday afternoon amid a red flag warning.
www.nbcsandiego.com
Crews extinguish brush fire in Poway after evacuation orders issued
The fire was reported just after 1 p.m. on Monday near Ted Williams Parkway and Pomerado Rd. and quickly spread near homes.
www.cbs8.com
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