Saved by Nina Goodheart
Centralia, Pennsylvania
There is a non-linear relationship between the age structure of vegetation and the intensity of fires. Fifty-year-old trees burn fifty times more intensely than twenty-year-old trees. However, because of the power of influential residents living in the Malibu region, since 1919 the local policy has been one of ‘total fire suppression’. This means t
... See moreJohn Urry • What is the Future?
The "Bronx is Burning" Era
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The phenomenon you're describing has deep historical roots in the Bronx. During the 1970s and 1980s, the South Bronx experienced one of the most devastating periods of arson-for-insurance fraud in American urban history:
Scale of Historical Arson: In total, over 80% of the South Bronx was burned or abandoned between 1970
... See moreAfter they could find no source, Danielle and Jason decided to drive to a neighbor’s house to report a possible gas leak. The family had no phone of their own. Borrowing Danny Smalley’s truck, they set out, but the truck stalled a few hundred yards away. When Danielle, who was at the wheel, tried to restart it, the ignition lit an invisible cloud o
... See moreJane Mayer • Dark Money
The Carr Fire, as it came to be known, ignited on July 23 near the hamlet of Whiskeytown, fifteen miles west of Redding, due to sparks thrown by a trailer wheel with a flat tire. Three days later, the fire roared into the city. The temperature that day was similar to Black Saturday, 2009: 113°F (tying a local record that was 13°F above the average
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