Explain this on maui

a reply to: marg6043

"Outside help to spread faster"?

Maybe, like, extremely high winds?

a reply to: anonentity

Lahaina isn’t the “whole island”. Even looking at every fire burning right now it’s a tiny fraction of the island. It is well documented that they had extreme winds last week that fanned the flames after power lines were seen going down.

a reply to: Sookiechacha

Directed Energy Weapon can target a small area. Very high heat in a small area can do alot of damage to an object, but leave other objects untouched even better than an out of control burning fire.

a reply to: CoyoteAngels

Contrary to popular belief and Hollywood, a DEW isn’t some magic weapon with almost unlimited range that can set one car on fire while ignoring another, or start massive fires. The current high end lasers are fairly low power, short range systems. There are none capable of reaching down from space with that kind of accuracy, and none on an aircraft yet.

a reply to: BlueJacket

I am so sorry and cannot imagine what that experience was like. Terrifying.

I used to do business with a company in Paradise, CA. An art glass supplier. They had a beautiful old barn converted into a glass Art studio. Hot glass, torch, stained glass, boro, morano, everything. Big warehouse stocked with tools and glass. When the town burned to the ground, this beautiful place went with it. I remember seeing pics of all the glass melted together in the ashes of the barn and warehouse. It was oddly beautiful in its colorful mass, but heartbreaking at the same time. I don't know what was done with it. Im sure it was very unstable and dangerous to handle.

They aren't building Paradise back. It's gone for good. So many lives radically changed. Luckily not as many deaths as there could have been, with one road out of town.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Forgive my ignorance but haven't we shot down a missile with a laser? The equivalent of hitting a bullet with a bullet and thats been a few years back.

Not that these videos are convincing but this seems to be a repetition of the Cali wildfires . Aerial spraying of aluminum particulates are taken up by the vascular systems of trees and absorbed into the wood making them flammable internally. This is a new phenomenon as only a very few species have naturally flammable sap. We know directed energy weapons exist so the canard "space lasers" as a putdown is worthless. They have much more than just lasers mounted on aircraft and satellites.

a reply to: anonentity
Excuse my language but this was caused by many not climate change but rather piss poor land management same as Cali . Trees were clearcut for agriculture then abandoned and allowed to be taken over by deer grass and other grasses essential turning former jungle rainforest into Savannahs grass dried up after it grew abundantly during rainy season tiring area into tinderbox.. other states use forestry services to do controlled burns and replanting forests and agricultural fields to stop this problem.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

What ever happened with the Canadian fires ?

Kinda weird we have had some epic out of control fires .

a reply to: Zaphod58

I live in Hawaii for 3 years, yes brush fires do happen, widespread fire that destroys and Island does not.

Plain and simple. This was arson.

a reply to: CoyoteAngels

At relatively short range, using a godawful nasty laser that has since been scrapped because it had so many issues and was so toxic. The big problem found with that program was that they found the aircraft it was on would have you practically be on top of where the missile was launching from.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Except they don’t on aircraft. DEW programs have proven to be far, far more problematic than you give them credit for.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Northrop Grumman would like to contest that statement.

Our directed energy solutions are engineered for maximum performance, even in the harsh environments of subsonic and supersonic flight. We offer a range of aircraft-mounted offensive and defensive solutions to ensure air dominance and protect pilots from current and emerging threats. Our advanced technologies provide maximum tracking performance and increased accuracy through enhanced beam control, high power and reliability.

So would Lockheed Martin

The U.S. Air Force has received a high-energy laser weapon that can be carried by aircraft in podded form. The news came today when Lockheed Martin disclosed that at least one of the weapons, which it developed, has been delivered to the Air Force

Edit : to fix link, sorry i was in a rush to eat, hunger pains and all that....

originally posted by: Zaphod58
it helps if you put the URL not the text of the article

a reply to: marg6043

Except, again, this didn’t destroy the island. All of these fires added up don’t even cover a third of the island. So nice try with the hyperbole.

Yeah, the 50-80mph winds knocking down power lines and transformers failing had absolutely nothing to do with it. It HAD to be arson. That’s the ONLY cause for these fires.

a reply to: datguy

Did you bother to look at what the Northrop systems are? Counter UAV, and counter missile, as in antiship missiles in the terminal phase. All short range systems.

The Lockheed system (it helps if you put the URL not the text of the article) was delivered last year, and is still short ranged. It most likely be installed on AC-130s. It’s also a whopping 300kw. That’s the most powerful laser currently in existence.

originally posted by: CoyoteAngels
a reply to: BlueJacket

I am so sorry and cannot imagine what that experience was like. Terrifying.

I used to do business with a company in Paradise, CA. An art glass supplier. They had a beautiful old barn converted into a glass Art studio. Hot glass, torch, stained glass, boro, morano, everything. Big warehouse stocked with tools and glass. When the town burned to the ground, this beautiful place went with it. I remember seeing pics of all the glass melted together in the ashes of the barn and warehouse. It was oddly beautiful in its colorful mass, but heartbreaking at the same time. I don't know what was done with it. Im sure it was very unstable and dangerous to handle.

They aren't building Paradise back. It's gone for good. So many lives radically changed. Luckily not as many deaths as there could have been, with one road out of town.

Thank you, it means a lot. Paradise was a tragedy and their inability to rebuild was based on an endangered frog if I’m not mistaken.

The insane heat of fires like that is indescribable, we could feel it through car windows. It was like towering walls of fire as flames enveloped trees and taller structures, it was so surreal as night fell and we worked our way off the mountain we escaped too, to the south side of Ashland.

As a big Tolkien fan, Mordor was the only description that came to mind as we drove between burning trees and embers on either side.

The melted glass studio you described reminded me of the melted cars on the roads in Talent. The next day I had thrown on a gas mask and hiked 5 miles in after the National Guard let me pass their checkpoint at exit 21. I went to check on our house and bring back my daughters stuffed animals which thankfully both made it, though barely.

I live in Northern California, and went through the Slater Fire in 2020. Our entire town was evacuated and we weren't allowed to return foe a couple weeks. The people that lost their houses weren't allowed to even go on their property until the EPA cleared it of any toxic materials, and that took weeks. It doesn't make sense that they were letting everyone back into their neighborhoods just a couple days after the fire.

a reply to: Zaphod58

but they are still on planes, or did I read that wrong?

The current high end lasers are fairly low power, short range systems. There are none capable of reaching down from space with that kind of accuracy, and none on an aircraft yet.

a reply to: franklydear
If you’re speaking to my post. We weren’t allowed back in for more than a week. I went back the very next day and things were quite loose and likely the two guardsmen that had blocked the entry into Talent were fathers as well… because they let me walk in, and I did.

It’s true of all of the burned down structures had to be cleared by the EPA , but plenty of people were showing up and scavenging their properties in Talent. It was mostly an EPA issue for rebuilding, but most couldn’t afford to rebuild as the price of lumber was sky high at the time.

a reply to: datguy

It was delivered. It hasn’t been mounted yet. The Northrop systems are Navy and Army, so they’re surface based. The Lockheed system still has to go through lab testing, then integration testing, then finally being mounted on to an aircraft for fire testing.

There are LAIRCM systems mounted on aircraft, not they are even more low powered and short ranged. They’re designed to blind air to air missiles, by burning out the IR seeker just before it reaches the terminal attack phase.