Are Wildfire Safety and Energy Awareness Related Issues?

It seems that people are learning to be more energy smart gradually. Conserving energy in our homes and driving is very worthwhile.  Even though oil prices have come down to half of their peak in mid-2008, we know that they could go up again in a hurry.

My vehicle is a large Yukon, which is great for hauling things.  Unfortunately it does not get great gas mileage so I have trimmed the number of trips I make to the office as much as I can. That has helped my fuel budget.  I would get a smaller car, but this baby is pretty useful for carrying loads and large groups of people on a trip.

We have tried to cut back on energy usage at home by installing extra insulation and double-pane windows.  The news stories do have some influence on our way of living, hopefully making us think about ways we can cut back with all the energy talk.

Talk about a waste of energy—the fuel spent on airplanes, helicopters and trucks in fighting wildfires in California is insane.  Also, think about all the gasoline used by folks vacating their threatened homes.  There is some related discussion of this on the Minutemanfire website, which includes wildfire prevention in its sphere of interest.  It is amazing that homes could be destroyed even with tile roofs and a swath where the vegetation had been removed.

Rebuilding a fire-damaged home likewise utilizes energy that would otherwise be saved, a further link between fires and energy usage.  We may not think about it much, but in fact there is a connection between fire prevention and conserving energy.

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