Give me a good'ol fashion Earthquake.

The pictures I saw, there were stucco houses still standing next to the ruins of other stucco houses. Each neighborhood is built all at once, in the same construction style. You don't have wood siding/shake roof houses in the same neighborhood as stucco/Spanish tile houses for the most part.

Most houses in California are built the same way as those houses, with wood frames. Most places have stucco exteriors, although some have wood siding or exterior brick. Homes here aren't built of solid brick, for the simple reason that solid brick houses perform poorly in an earthquake. Brick siding won't prevent the house from burning down.
 
A resident begs a National Guardsman to let him pass a checkpoint.
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Huh? I thought they were all in Iraq heading up BushCo's illegal war for oil.
 
A BOY playing with matches started one of the devastating southern California wildfires, officials said yesterday.

The blaze just north of Los Angeles caused 15,000 people to be evacuated, gutted 21 homes and destroyed 38,000 acres of land.

Five people were also injured by the fire — one of 23 which ravaged the US state last week.

LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Moore said yesterday an arson investigation had led to the boy, whose name and age have not been released.

The sheriff said: “He admitted playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire.” Cops may charge the boy.

Meanwhile, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to track down anyone else who lit any of the blazes.

He warned: “If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we’re right behind you.”
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Source

Now send the bill to his parents.
 
The kid is 10 with no prior history of trouble.

LA Times said:
Prosecutors on Wednesday began reviewing the case, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, and it remains unclear when they will decide what to do with the boy.

State fire officials said they believed that the boy's age made it unlikely he would face criminal charges for the Buckweed fire, a blaze that at its height drove more than 15,000 people from their homes.

When someone under 12 sets a fire, his or her actions are considered "playing with fire" and not arson, said Dave Hillman, chief of investigations for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Although there are exceptions to this distinction, Hillman said, they are rare.

"You have to draw the line somewhere," he said.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles County prosecutors refused to file charges against two teenagers who touched off a blaze that charred 160 acres in the Hollywood Hills. The boys, who were visiting Los Angeles from Linden, Ill., were playing with a lighter in the back of the Oakwood apartments when they accidentally set twigs on fire. The flames spread up the hillside through deep vegetation. The boys, who turned themselves in to authorities, were not prosecuted.

But in Orange County, a 12-year-old girl was arrested Oct. 22 for allegedly setting a seven-acre fire in Anaheim. She remains in the custody of the Orange County Probation Department.

"The fire came dangerously close to some homes in that area," said Maria Sabol, an Anaheim Fired Department spokeswoman.
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yep, terrorism can now be counted out on several of these fires.....
still a few to investigate though.

Winds picking up here tomorrow...red Red conditions.
 
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