Not long ago Greece had a wildfire problem that went on and on and on and I distinctly remember thinking that they must have a serious issue with firefighter availability, and they must be somewhat backwoods compared to us to not be able to stop those fires by now, especially in the populated areas....I never posted those feelings but I stand corrected..

i think we need to install sprinklers all over the world so the earth will never see wildfires like this in our life time

I think the thing to do is to cut temporary roads every so many acres and wipe out ALL the trees for how  many feet is required as a firebreak and reseed... Five to  Ten Years later cut roads in DIFFERENT spots.. It doesn't seem like rocket science to me .. I am sure Firefighters and Forestry experts  could work out the formula very easily. Perhaps with proper management they would never have more than a few thousand acres burn up..Is that too much to ask ??

I think Al Gore might be interested in your sprinkler idea..It might also cool down the earth especially if we used it up North to make more ice.Sprinklers on the Glaciers

I'm pretty retarded about this, but I do have a question for the experts.

Isn't the reason these fires spread so uncontrollably typically due to the very high winds?  If so, wouldn't the firebreak have to be prohibitively huge?

I'm city folk, so I don't really understand probably how big these forests are.  In my opinion Central Park is a HUGE forest.

sunday morning, the first day of the fire, a beachfront house in Malibu caught fire from embers blown from easily 1/2 mile away......

funny thing is, Malibu was contained pretty quickly because of all the FF'rs from around SO.Cal...

problem is, Irvine FD was in Malibu while Irvine started going up in flames....

"I'm pretty retarded about this, but I do have a question for the experts."

 I agree I am also not a expert that is why I recommend Firefighters and forestry experts to come up, with a plan

"Isn't the reason these fires spread so uncontrollably typically due to the very high winds?  If so, wouldn't the firebreak have to be prohibitively huge?"

 Huge is what this fire has become..If the roads need to be one mile wide so be it..

I'm city folk, so I don't really understand probably how big these forests are.  In my opinion Central Park is a HUGE forest.

  Central Park is huge as far as City Parks go but it is not a Huge Forest..

at Smugglers' Notch, or Mad River Glen, or Stowe, or Killington... etc....

Haven't ya heard? We are running out of water cause'a global warming.

that's one of the businesses that will be spawned by the hyperventilating about global warming

if you get everyone to wet their pants, think of the bull market in diapers!!!

From the northern most fire to the southernmost is approx 250-300 miles..Aqua Dulce to TJ...yup.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21436901/

that (1) the winds up to 80 mph were the major factor, that (2) home construction was a better predictor of risk than the width of area cleared, that (3) slash and burn clearing would create more problems than good mgmt practice, like avoiding some non-native species, and thinning to a certain %.

Who knows?  Firebreaks in so calif can create the follow-on problem of fires, ie, floods & slides.

Seems like something for the forestry & fire depts.