Cal Fire arrests show seriousness of fire risk posed by some abatement work
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- John Ramos reports on Cal Fire arresting two people who started wildfires with power tools this season.
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So what is Calfire going to do about illegal fireworks?
The only way to do this safely and it’s because it’s what I do for a living is do this before sunrise some of my jobs I start at 3:30 AM but I do large acreage, you have to catch the morning dew, And shut down by 9 AM, it doesn’t matter if you have gas powered Weedwhacker‘s or electric it’s the friction that can cause a fire for example grass getting wound around the blades heats up picking up a piece of fencing wire or hitting a rock so don’t think that the guy telling you to use battery operated machines is going to make a difference battery-operated will still cause a fire with friction.
I had an electric weed wacker. The motor was down by the spool. The motor burst into flame while I was using it on dead grass.
My gas weed wacker the motor is on the other end
4’ tall dead grass with a riding mower in 100 degree heat. What could go wrong?
Hold my beer
Sounds like the fire was going to happen despite his mowing
@@tvviewer4500yeah typical California nonsense. Like how they make the power company force blackout all the time to pretend it prevents wildfires. Government is corrupt and incompetent and keeps doing showpony blame shift events like this to avoid responsibility.
Best just leave it long I guess
...you could run out of beer? Wait, this isn't Florida! Step up your game people, just say I will not be an idiot today.
When did CalFire acquire the power of arrest?
calfire has sworn police officers with arrest powers like any other state peace officer
People get arrested by the police who are alerted by calfire about crimes committed. Both of these cases involved calfire investigation by necessity of them having extinguished the fires.
All fire departments have power of arrest. Even volunteer fire departments
@@AshGreen359 that's not true
@@anthonyg13emergencyvideos I was a volunteer firefighter, it's absolutely true. However they usually only use it for people acting like fools at fire scenes
Shout out to California! Where you get arrested for trying to do the right thing and prevent fires, but steal less than a thousand dollars worth of whatever, with no consequences! How about educating people first? I’ve lived here over forty years and have never heard anyone say anything about the proper timing or method to use for abatement. On the other hand I’ve never heard of anyone from PG&E getting arrested for starting a fire either.
This is such a braindead comment. Such a lack of critical thiught here
If you start a fire due to negligence you can go to jail. What part of this doesn’t make sense to you? There is a safe time to be working with these tools and that time is not during the middle of the summer under red flag conditions while the temperature is 110 degrees.
@@dust1209 I agree for the most part with you. I can understand where you’re coming from. These guys were extremely foolish. What I’m saying is that it’s the wrong way to go about things. The public needs to be educated (obviously, or this probably wouldn’t have happened). Teach the people on how and when to properly go about preparing for fire season. I have never heard or seen any program in California that addresses this, just maintain a safe distance around your house or property, etc. It’s like telling someone to avoid a heart attack by living a healthy lifestyle. Ok how? Some people need to be told what, when, and how, and they should. Just arresting people is not going to work- it’s going to have the opposite effect, people won’t want to maintain their properties if they know that if they make a mistake they can go to jail. If there is a detailed program that Cal Fire or some other California entity has out there on this issue I’m unaware of it, but I may be wrong, and if so I stand corrected.
@@molassescricket6663 You're right and that's a fair point. I didn't immediately find any info from cal fire about specific brush abatement guidelines like when to remove brush. In the country though, it seems self explanatory to me that 100-110 degrees with a breeze in the middle of summer isn't a good time to be mowing 4' of brush. I've had a few close calls in my area so I wouldn't have any patience if I saw one of my neighbors doing this. Sorry if I came off as rude before.
@@dust1209 hey no problem! I just think that we could manage things in California much better and two, some people are, let’s say not that smart and need to be taught.
So they arrest these guys for, obviously questionable decisions, but ultimately trying to clear vegetation.
However, they show zero arrests of individuals starting fires via illegal fireworks not to mention the ones happening during illegal street take overs. Hmmmm… 🤔
Ah, more made up stats to feed the internet monster...
LOL, felony for vegetation control in kalifornia. No wonder homeowner's insurance is so hard to get and expensive there. Exodus
Not to mention their insurance agency probably came out and told them to do it or their policy would be canceled
I have a fire extinguisher mounted on my mower for that very reason.
Need to clear brush and grass a little sooner like in May.
That John Deere riding mower must have been turbocharged if it actually was cutting four foot high grass. Count me incredulous about that portion of the report.
Cal Fire arrest demonstrates the risk of being highly stupid.
About time !
California was burning when the Spanish first showed up. The sailors thought the arrived at hell.
That's hilarious and the Spanish brought Spanish cattle grasses are the ones that grow four feet tall. California native grasses are rather small and benign clump grasses
Arrest is a bit much.
Well when you charge someone with a crime, arrest is part of the picture.
If someone drove their truck into a farmer’s market because they ignored the signs would you be saying the same? Fire kills people and destroys property. These guys were literally playing with fire under red flag conditions. They probably got off easy for what could have happened.
PG&E went bankrupt for the same form of stupid.
They're pushing for battery powered devices, this is sick
Been in the gardening business for over forty years- our weed whackers never sparked
Battery machine are better. They work better, they’re quiet and don’t smell.
This was my first thought. Somebody using their grease.
Have you used the latest battery powered tools? Aside from leaf blowers and anything over 20” needing a chainsaw- I have continually been surprised by how much more efficient and generally easier working with the electric tools have been. I think just the electric tech now is finally good enough for the mass majority of use cases to switch over and only see benefits.
Only in ca
In Texas and Florida it would have been sparks from the guns...
Use goats or sheep
This happens a lot. I was evacuated from my last place from someone running over barbed wire doing abatement work. It burned down my friends house but we escaped damage. I would never do anything like this even with our battery operated tools. We live in a very rural area and you simply have to stay on top of it BEFORE it dries out. We got behind this year and are hoping no issues arise nearby.
A riding mower in dry grass is stupid, but if you're going to arrest someone for a weed whacking accident then we shouldn't let people do smash and grabs, violent crime, live in tents on sidewalks, and do and sell drugs in the open. Bunch of Karens everywhere....punish the right people.
this stuff should all get done while the vegetation is still green and the weather is cooler and more humid. What's with all the lame arguments about the state and government? They're not the smartest apple on the tree either but common sense should tell you not to do this stuff in these conditions. If you want to educate people, start right there. Common sense commercials/classes in community college etc. Hell, there should be a college degree offered in it.
People are so stupid.
I haven't read about one arrest in hills of San Diego county for setting off illegal fireworks this last July 4th! Yet you can't use common yard tools to clear weeds? Maybe you should use those grade school safety scissors LOL! This heat wave caught everyone by surprise but maybe some suggestions on how to use the tools available to us would be better than "don't clean up your weeds in the summer" arrests.
Steal $950 daily from a store, Do Donuts and burns-outs for hours in the middle of the night, take a crap in the middle of the street NO Problem!!! Accidentally start a grass fire --- JAIL! 😒
Hey, let’s not forget the “summer of love” 2020 all up and down the west coast, and some eastern cities, rioting, looting, and arson every night burning these cities…, and who was arrested…? And if they were, there was funds for their bail out.
Does “Cal-Fire” have authority to make arrests..?
Until that lithium battery explodes and starts a fire, the batteries are hard to put out. Smart for the fire extinguisher. Might as well grab a scythe.
You clearly don’t have a lot of lithium battery experience.
We've had power tools for decades. Did you suddenly forget that?
I did all my weeding earlier june
Booked for 1 felony and 3 misdemeanors? Which ones?
~ Excellent Information ~ Keep putting it out there ~
Use a scythe.
The city waits until the grass is brown & mows it with a diesel tractor with metal blades. They might do it in the morning.
My guys Vlad and George holding it down!
So, what are you in here for? Mowing tall grass.
If the grass is 4 foot tall and crunchy dry you have already committed the crime. Lets not blame a mower or the act of mowing. Don't they have people driving around looking for these tinder boxes??
Goats, native species, and stop building residential housing in wildfire prone areas (that last one will set off all the anti-urbanist freakazoids.)
Suburban housing is generally fine in these wildfire prone areas. It's the sparse rural homes that need more defensible space.
The Coral Fire in Tracy for example was one of the first and biggest fires in California this year. It occurred literally across the street from the new Tracy Hills suburban sprawl, and not one of those homes were damaged.
There is the Tracy Country Club where you have more rural large expensive homes with large yards. One guy didn't cut their grass, and that cost them their house.
Native species is easier said than done when dealing with thousands of acres and invasive grasses.
Much of the lang that burned in Tracy used to be used for grazing, but the State of California fights grazing due to methane emissions. They're also fighting lawnmowers.
And for the record, I'm not an anti-urbanist. I'm pro-everything. We have a homeless crisis - we should be building what we can. What's happened is there's a critical stall - we're not building enough of anything.
It's extremism and micro-managing to dictate how big or small a house someone can make on their own property within reason.
@@PhantomRiver Paradise had a "road diet" where their main road was narrowed from 4 lanes to 2 lanes to create bike lanes. This made it very difficult for fire fighters to enter and residents to exit.
The thing that happened with all of the devastating fires including Oakland Hills, Paradise, and especially the Dixie fire is the quality of roads.
If you've lived in the Oakland hills, then you've seen the roads there. Tracy Hills wasn't lucky, it was planned properly with modern roads which allow easy access for firefighters.
Oakland Hills have terrible roads which makes it difficult for firefighters and ambulances. Paradise's road was made terrible which restricted access. Dixie Fire, it took hours to reach because the roads were terrible.
You can't effectively fight a big fire unless you can effectively get firetrucks there fast and quick.
The Oakland Hills are not modern suburban sprawl, there's many custom luxury custom houses many of which predate modern 1950s suburbia.
It's an ultra-affluent area with scenic views, and that's why they made roads as small as possible to maximize the usage of that expensive land.
Bring in the goats!
While i believe that clearing any grass, weeds or brush is necessary.
It should be done earlier in the year.
March or April maybe.
On another note, the EPA has been wanting to ban ALL gas powered tools: lawn mowers, chainsaws, weed eaters etc. for years.
You have no idea what you're talking about! You watch fok snooze and it shows.
Just because grass is dry doesn't mean it's dead. The longer we let wild grasses grow the more they bring moisture into the surrounding air overnight. If you're going to make a fire break just make one. If you want to replace it with a native actually plant some after you clear-cut everything. The majority of the mowing & grass clearing I see being done here seems to be made up to justify ranger's salaries and get random people their service hours for whatever reasons they might have.
You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Rent some goats.
They don't know what they doing, but l do
What law did he break by cutting the grass? Of there isn’t one. Not guilty.
Expert on the law are you? Well maybe these two idiots should call you for their legal defense.
If you start a wildfire because of negligence, you are guilty of a crime.
:29 - what a poor choice of words. aren't they just enforcing the law?
Only in California will the state waste taxpayers money to pursue a law that doesn’t exist 🤤
Enjoy your freedom sir , you’ll walk away free 👍
How much money do you think it cost to extinguish the fires caused by these guys’ negligence? I can see retardant lines for one of them so that means aircraft were used. If the bill was under a million dollars I would be surprised. How many places can you cause a million dollars of damage due to negligence and not go to jail?
Make peace, not war on fireworks
End the war on fireworks