California man, 81, reveals how he spent 30
years building his 'dream house' before it
was burned to ashes this week in one
of the state's biggest wildfires on record
Daily Mail (UK) & Associated Press,
by
Rachel Sharp
&
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
8/23/2020 5:10:07 AM
A California man, 81, has revealed how he spent 30 years building his 'dream house' before it was burned to ashes this week in one of the state's biggest wildfires on record. .Hank Hanson is just one of hundreds of homeowners and residents who have lost everything in the devastating blazes that continue to rip through the Golden State. He told how he and his wife fled for their lives from their home in Vacaville Wednesday morning, just moments before the LNU Lightning Complex fires destroyed it, leaving his tomato plants the only thing unscathed.'I worked on it for 30 years.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Highlander 8/23/2020 5:40:36 AM (No. 518105)
If I was going to build in a fire zone; actually I wouldn’t. Nothing built by man last indefinitely. My sister and her husband, both eighty, have a wonderful home in Montana, but it’s all wood. They worry constantly about wildfires every year. Not worth it to me.
15 people like this.
Nobody made you build your home there... Don't feel too bad, if you were in LA or SF the homeless would be pooping all over it... Live in California, you get to pick your poison.
15 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
philsner 8/23/2020 7:01:23 AM (No. 518122)
A wildfire in California is California's responsibility. Rolling blackouts in California are the responsibility of the idiots in California who hate everything that works and love everything that doesn't.
20 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 8/23/2020 7:37:11 AM (No. 518139)
This would be a good time for the GOP( at their upcoming convention) to explain how this happens every year that democrats control the local, state and/or national government. The mere fact that it's illegal to thin the brush and tree growth on your own damned property ......
22 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bmw50 8/23/2020 7:42:09 AM (No. 518145)
There seems to be two types of democrats, and both live and control California; those who base their values and opinions on emotions, like the do-gooder environmentalists, and those that that are fascists, who what to control others. Mix those two together, and you have the tinderbox called California.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Pucky1 8/23/2020 7:52:23 AM (No. 518157)
I've driven through this area many times with its tangle of underbrush and oily eucalyptus trees. Clearing that stuff 100 ft. away helps keep the house from burning.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Lazyman 8/23/2020 7:56:02 AM (No. 518161)
A good metaphor for the USA. Took a long time to build but can be destroyed in a flash.
19 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 8/23/2020 8:17:42 AM (No. 518188)
Not a good idea to build your "dream house" in an area which has raging, uncontrollable wildfires every year.
He should have built it in a safer place - - like Portland.
14 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Bluefindad 8/23/2020 8:36:00 AM (No. 518203)
Every year the wildfires in California have gotten worse. Every year the state fails to undertake measures to mitigate their damage. Instead, the state pours billions into choo-choos and windmills. The last few years we'd lived in the California desert and even though there was no fire damage, the air filled with smoke and ash in the summertime. Our kids live in the Central Valley. Our son said yesterday brought a strange, eerie darkness with an orange-colored sky in mid afternoon. The air here in North Carolina is humid, but fresh and clean!
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Petronius 8/23/2020 9:25:23 AM (No. 518245)
And he probably spent 30 years of voting in the types of government that mismanages the control of dead wood and brush in order to appease the envirowackos.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Historybuff 8/23/2020 9:43:23 AM (No. 518260)
California had a year to clear out underbrush and overgrowth after last years fires. DId they even get a start on it?
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
WestCoast 8/23/2020 9:46:31 AM (No. 518262)
tile roof, stucco walls, swimming pool with gas pump to wet down the structure and about a hundred feet of iceplant around the house is the only way I would have a house in that kind of country. Even then, I was close to some of the SoCal fires years ago and they are unstoppable when the wind blows.
Other posters are right though, deadwood and brush clearing would go a long way toward mitigating the destruction.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Laotzu 8/23/2020 10:12:38 AM (No. 518288)
So what he's saying is, he had 30 years to fix his government and didn't.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/23/2020 10:15:46 AM (No. 518291)
Enjoy your tomatoes, sir. You should have used stone.
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 8/23/2020 10:21:02 AM (No. 518295)
I really feel for these people, it is a real shame to lose your home to a woods fire. We almost learned what that is like two years ago.
Our vacation cabin in Colorado was nearly burned in the Spring Creek Fire. After the fire spread for about 15 miles, the fire crews finally stopped it about 200 yds from our cabin. About 150 homes were burned.
A number of homes are entirely rebuilt now, but many are just cleaned up, empty foundations two years later. Very sad. An illegal alien doper from Denmark was living in Colorado because dope is legal, and an illegal cooking fire was unattended and started the blaze. He is in prison for it.
We are looking into fire resistant siding and an external sprinkler system for the cabin. Apparently the external sprinklers can be helpful in wetting nearby vegetation for a few hours before the fire gets there,
creating a wet/damp zone around the home which impedes the fire. This method is reported to have saved many homes in the north woods of Canada when wildfires sweep the fir and pine forests.
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 8/23/2020 10:42:27 AM (No. 518318)
Californians need to consider using goats to clear the undergrowth.
5 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
tearza 8/23/2020 10:43:32 AM (No. 518320)
Next time pick a different State...
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
HotRod 8/23/2020 11:11:22 AM (No. 518357)
It's an ongoing effort by California to drive the taxpayers out. Burn them out! The environmentalist wackos would love to see California de-populated!
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Citoyen 8/23/2020 11:41:32 AM (No. 518388)
Unlike most here I feel for the man. There is no clue where his political views lie and even if he is a left wing loony my sympathy is with him.
Three days ago I was ordered to evacuate myself from my vacation home in the Russian River resort area due to one of these fires. I work assiduously to remove dead wood and brush from my property but the redwood forest in which it is located is chock full of dead trees under the control of owners who haven’t visited their property in decades.
There is no law forbidding property owners from clearing brush or trees as one poster wrote. We are required to do so but with thousands of unsupervised acreage these fires are inevitable. I’m fortunate to be in the redwood forest rather than in the brush land this poor man’s house was located.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 8/23/2020 12:04:44 PM (No. 518420)
This kind of puts me to shame. Last Sunday night, we had a lightening strike I swear was about 10 feet above our house and somehow damaged our TV and I've been upset about it since then. Will now count my blessings.
0 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Skeptical1 8/23/2020 12:20:47 PM (No. 518436)
This man sounds like a pretty well-adjusted guy. We have a family member who just lost his house to the same fire, and who, like this man, had put years of his life into improving the property. Pretty devastating, at first, but it gets better when recovery becomes (in his words) an "adventure". At least I hope it will, for my nephew, who's a doer and enjoys projects.
It would be nice if people would not be so quick to moralize about this kind of thing. Every place you can choose to live has its own hazards and drawbacks. And Conservatives, of all people, should understand what it's like to live in a political culture that doesn't reflect your values.
6 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Trigger2 8/23/2020 1:01:25 PM (No. 518472)
Go sue your eco-terrorist organization and Newscomb. They're the ones who refuse to let anyone clear brush or diseassed and/or old trees.
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
or gate 8/23/2020 8:27:16 PM (No. 518872)
Wonder if he voted for libs
0 people like this.
No one deserves this and we don't know his political views. He and his wife are lucky to be alive. I wish them well.
Seems like agricultural watering systems would be a good idea, but they don't have the water some states have.
0 people like this.
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