To the editor: With the destruction of Lahaina by fireplace, it’s so unhappy to see that People are nonetheless constructing and rebuilding with wooden. We don’t appear to have discovered the straightforward undeniable fact that wooden burns. (“A ‘excellent storm’ set Hawaii ablaze. Specialists say it might occur nearly anyplace,” Aug. 20)
I constructed a home greater than 20 years in the past that didn’t use any wooden within the construction. The Occasions printed a function on the house after it was completed. Constructing a house out of one thing that doesn’t burn isn’t that tough.
We have to change our constructing codes, which shield Californians from earthquakes fairly properly and also needs to begin defending us from fires. There are a number of technique of constructing with out wooden, and far of the remainder of the world is already constructing non-combustible homes.
Russell Johnson, Los Angeles
The author is an architect.
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To the editor: When you have got excessive winds, dry circumstances and energy traces, you usually tend to have a fireplace. It’s quite simple.
Why are there usually wildfires in high-wind circumstances? Energy traces get blown down and trigger sparks in dry brush. That begins a fireplace.
The hearth that destroyed the Sierra Nevada foothill city of Paradise in 2018 was began by downed transmission traces. There’s proof that downed energy traces additionally sparked the Lahaina fireplace.
It’s time that we replace our energy grid to handle this, both by burying energy traces in forested or dry brush areas, or by constructing sensor networks to watch winds and shut down or reroute energy to keep away from these catastrophes.
I do know it isn’t straightforward, and possibly the cost-benefit ratio isn’t favorable to the facility corporations’ backside traces, however it’s one thing the state may also help with.
Ed Miller, Sierra Madre
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To the editor: This piece illustrates what everybody ought to be doing — connecting the dots and realizing the peril we’re in. This summer season has been a group of catastrophic local weather occasions.
At the moment, wildfires within the Pacific Northwest are inflicting havoc. A serious warmth dome has settled over the Midwest. A particularly uncommon tropical storm simply hit Southern California. Meteorologists are noting tropical storm exercise within the Atlantic Ocean.
It’s time to significantly think about essentially the most salient reason for our local weather disaster — fossil fuels. Their combustion packs our ambiance with additional carbon dioxide. Unprecedented disasters akin to the fireplace on Maui are the end result.
Years in the past, as a science trainer I taught primary local weather science. I by no means anticipated to witness this degree of local weather destruction in my lifetime. We desperately must ditch fossil fuels now.
Sally Courtright, Albany, N.Y.
