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Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

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Re: Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in Boulder too and I think the comment means, imminent in Boulder proper. But you are of course right, this is a horrifying thing happening right now for many people just a few miles away.

I meant imminent to the Rocky Flats area. Of course all the buildings were razed, but I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

> I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

The radioactive stuff was all removed or well buried. I’m more worried about the large subdivision built on the site burning down.

Re: Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

#26

I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy

> if structures near fire-prone areas were designed and maintained to withstand fire, we might not need to fight some wildfires at all.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-to-burn/

I think you might be getting downvoted for "fireproof" which sounds absolute, and is probably not realistic. But you're right that regulations should evolve to require responsible home design and maintenance in fire-prone areas!

Re: Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

#27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant imminent to the Rocky Flats area. Of course all the buildings were razed, but I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

> I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire. The radioactive stuff was all removed or well buried. I’m more worried about the large subdivision built on the site burning down.

I think the issue is how well remediated it’s actually is. I presume that there are a reasonable number of people who doubt that the remediation was actually complete enough to be safe against wild fires

Re: Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

#29

I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy

I’m not an expert in the matter, but I’ve heard that modern wood frames are just as good as steel frames. If the fire is close and strong enough to ignite a wood stud, the steel stud would already fail. Though would love input from an expert here.

Re: Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

#30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant imminent to the Rocky Flats area. Of course all the buildings were razed, but I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

> I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire. The radioactive stuff was all removed or well buried. I’m more worried about the large subdivision built on the site burning down.

Eh, the place that built the subdivision sues the crap out of anyone that tries to get more testing done. And there's a lot of methodological issues with the tests that they do have. Like using gamma radiation tests for plutonium contamination (plutonium is primarily an alpha emitter as it decays).

Also the fuckers had the audacity to name the subdivision 'Candelas'. For those following along at home, Rocky Flats was a plutonium warhead manufacturing facility raided by the feds back in the day for doing crazy stuff like lighting plutonium on fire, and not coming anywhere near close to what would be expected for storing contaminated materials. It then became one of the first super fund sites.

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