The events during the fire are slowly creeping out.

[warrior1]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21478621/

Read and be disgusted.

Bureaucracy hampered initial Calif. fire efforts
Rules kept firefighting aircraft on ground as devastating blazes took hold

LOS ANGELES - As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California’s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.

It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.

[devilgrrl]

1. two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy...

If that's not a call for privatization, I don't know what is.

See people, government doesn't work!!!!!!

:sarcasm:

[KT2000]

5. Parts of forestry - especially

firefighting are in the process of being privatized now.

[Webster Green]

9. Oh man, I was getting ready to go off until till I saw the sarcasm thingie

You got me!:P

[kestrel91316]

2. The fires are still burning, BTW. They just aren't spreading much now.

NOW there is not the slightest breeze, and it's still hot (90s), and the smoke is settling in. I am seeing patients made sick by the days of heat and dry, windy air and now the smoke. And my own chest is starting to hurt.

My assistant could barely talk this AM from her laryngeal irritation. I have a sore throat, too, and a headache.

I'm not so sure this new situation is an improvement.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I am reaching for the inhaler

yes it is going to be worst for patients

Good luck

[Kagemusha]

4. Would those uh rules and regulations be Posse Comitatus?

I'm reading that the people who were missing were California forest and fire officials who MUST accompany National Guard and U.S. military helicopters when going out on what is clearly a civilian mission. So is this a way of ensuring that the action is not in violation of Posse Comitatus?

[billyoc]

11. Not for the National Guard, the Governor calls on them whenever they want.

They're more like the state police than the army in that respect.

[babylonsister]

6. And it's already being spun that the winds were too severe for the

planes to fly. Will the truth of that ever be known? Were commercial airlines grounded? :think:

[Pavulon]

7. 7 bodies

generally do not operate within a few hundred feet of terrain..

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. That was the story from day one

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

8. Oregon firefighters

sat at the border with Cal for similar reasons. These are dedicated professionals who wanted to contribute whatever they could to the efforts down south, hobbled by a byzantine Nero-like bureaucracy.