Subject: Re: Just Three Months Ago
This L.A. dad vowed he’d be ready for fires. His plan saved his home — and others Neil Desai learned a lesson four years ago when a fire came precariously close to his family’s house. He geared up.

He's lucky, goofy. Anecdotes like this are interesting but I guarantee you this: the more people who try, the more will die or end up like my old childhood aquaintance, George.

The LAFD red tags neighborhoods, like my family's homes in Malibu, Sullivan Canyon and Mandeville canyons, where the value of the firefighters lives outweighs the risk of defending property.

Commercial salvors know pumps. Gas, diesel, electric, 3/4" to 4", for dewatering vessels, controlling leakers on long tows, or crappy weather, and spraying water on burning vessels & docks, we depend our pumps every single day.

2" pumps are great little workhorses WHEN they're working right, but they are ALL are apt to fail on scene and cause momentary panic. They require constant testing and checking in between jobs. A failed o-ring, a missing gasket, and it won't prime or worse, backspray the engine. A hose cam clamp snaps and backsprays the engine. A smidge of water and the spark plug grounds out and you can't restart it. A contaminated diesel filter and it won't start or it stalls at the worst possible time. A pull cord snaps. It's a horrible feeling when these things happen, and it always happens at a critical time (or you wouldn't be deploying the pump).
We always carry backups. Even the 2" pumps the USCG lowers to vessels in distress from helos in sealed canisters, pumps that are checked and tested fail.

A successful home defense requires planning, BEING THERE, physical ability, and a degree of luck. A reliable pump system requires regular maintenance and testing. The climbing body count undoubtedly includes people who were not as fortunate as my surfing peer from the Palisades, George Trafton.

In a sad postscript to this story, a friend just send me a news story about a “harrowing scene” on the iconic Pacific Coast Highway early Wednesday morning.

“A man, his body severely burned and most of his clothes incinerated, was found stumbling on the side of the road. He is now fighting for his life.”

The man was George Trafton. Today he is undergoing surgery and skin grafts at UCLA and my thoughts are with him.