made an announcement with a bullhorn. He said something about a firestorm. Bob, do you know what a firestorm is?”
Bob, back at the studio, was unsure. Dave switched stations.
Three men sitting at an anchor desk in a frantic newsroom, KNBC, channel 4. One of them seemed to be a fire expert:
“Firestorms are most often seen in big forest fires. If there’s enough fuel, and it’s spread over a large enough area, the fire begins to create a wind. It blows in from all directions to the center of the storm. These winds can blow up to sixty or seventy miles per hour, perhaps even more. That’s gale-force winds, all blowing toward the center of the fire. People nearby can have breathing difficulties as the oxygen in the air is used up. Temperatures can get so intense that trees or buildings at a considerable distance from the storm will ignite just from radiant heat. You can suffer severe burns, even if you’re not near the center. Tornadoes of flame can form, called fire whirls, and these are especially dangerous, as they can hop around and spread the fire even farther.”
“Do we have a firestorm here, Roger?”
“From what I’m seeing from the helicopter shots, there have been several near the epicenter of the explosion. I’m not sure if they’re likely to form in the residential areas that are burning. Some of it will depend on the type of vegetation in those areas. Eucalyptus trees, for instance, can actually explode when the oil inside them is heated enough, and that spreads the fire.”
“But you said these storms happen in forest fires.”
“Not only there. It all depends on how much fuel there is, and how hot it burns. There is a high fuel load in crowded neighborhoods, and the ones that are burning look crowded to me. Firestorms can happen in cities. Dropping a nuclear weapon, as in Hiroshima, creates an instant firestorm.”
“But this isn’t a nuclear weapon.”
“So we’ve been told, and I don’t see the characteristics of such a bomb. But urban firestorms predate Hiroshima. The Great Fire of London, the Chicago Fire of 1871, and the fire that followed the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 are examples. And during World War Two there were a dozen firestorms caused by conventional bombing. Firestorms killed maybe fifty thousand people in Dresden, and over one hundred thousand in Tokyo. The most recent urban firestorm I’m aware of was in Oakland in 1991. Only twenty-five people died there, because there was enough time to evacuate.”
Dave thumbed the remote. KTLA, channel 5. A helicopter view, with a man and a woman at an anchor desk in a box down in one corner:
“This story has been developing faster than we can keep up with it. We will continue to do our best. We are now a little over two hours since the first explosion. What you’re seeing from our channel 5 eye in the sky is the Hollywood Park racetrack. That’s about five miles south of the site of the explosion.”
“Kathy, do we have any information yet on what caused this?”
“Dale, we’ve got Jackson Morris, our City Hall reporter, standing by downtown for a news conference by the mayor, which has already been postponed twice. He just told us that none of his sources seem to have any solid information. We can only guess at what the mayor will have to say.”
“Kathy, we’ve just received word that the president of the United States will address the nation in about an hour. We’ve been told that he is on his way to California, and may make his speech from Air Force One. Has that ever been done before?”
“Not to my knowledge, Dale. But these aren’t normal times.”
“You said it. First the fuel shortage, and now this.”
“They have to be related, don’t you think?”
“Well, I don’t subscribe to any of the wilder conspiracy theories floating around, but yeah, oil wells burning in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, oil wells burning in Los Angeles. But we never had any video on those earlier fires. All those
Bob, back at the studio, was unsure. Dave switched stations.
Three men sitting at an anchor desk in a frantic newsroom, KNBC, channel 4. One of them seemed to be a fire expert:
“Firestorms are most often seen in big forest fires. If there’s enough fuel, and it’s spread over a large enough area, the fire begins to create a wind. It blows in from all directions to the center of the storm. These winds can blow up to sixty or seventy miles per hour, perhaps even more. That’s gale-force winds, all blowing toward the center of the fire. People nearby can have breathing difficulties as the oxygen in the air is used up. Temperatures can get so intense that trees or buildings at a considerable distance from the storm will ignite just from radiant heat. You can suffer severe burns, even if you’re not near the center. Tornadoes of flame can form, called fire whirls, and these are especially dangerous, as they can hop around and spread the fire even farther.”
“Do we have a firestorm here, Roger?”
“From what I’m seeing from the helicopter shots, there have been several near the epicenter of the explosion. I’m not sure if they’re likely to form in the residential areas that are burning. Some of it will depend on the type of vegetation in those areas. Eucalyptus trees, for instance, can actually explode when the oil inside them is heated enough, and that spreads the fire.”
“But you said these storms happen in forest fires.”
“Not only there. It all depends on how much fuel there is, and how hot it burns. There is a high fuel load in crowded neighborhoods, and the ones that are burning look crowded to me. Firestorms can happen in cities. Dropping a nuclear weapon, as in Hiroshima, creates an instant firestorm.”
“But this isn’t a nuclear weapon.”
“So we’ve been told, and I don’t see the characteristics of such a bomb. But urban firestorms predate Hiroshima. The Great Fire of London, the Chicago Fire of 1871, and the fire that followed the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 are examples. And during World War Two there were a dozen firestorms caused by conventional bombing. Firestorms killed maybe fifty thousand people in Dresden, and over one hundred thousand in Tokyo. The most recent urban firestorm I’m aware of was in Oakland in 1991. Only twenty-five people died there, because there was enough time to evacuate.”
Dave thumbed the remote. KTLA, channel 5. A helicopter view, with a man and a woman at an anchor desk in a box down in one corner:
“This story has been developing faster than we can keep up with it. We will continue to do our best. We are now a little over two hours since the first explosion. What you’re seeing from our channel 5 eye in the sky is the Hollywood Park racetrack. That’s about five miles south of the site of the explosion.”
“Kathy, do we have any information yet on what caused this?”
“Dale, we’ve got Jackson Morris, our City Hall reporter, standing by downtown for a news conference by the mayor, which has already been postponed twice. He just told us that none of his sources seem to have any solid information. We can only guess at what the mayor will have to say.”
“Kathy, we’ve just received word that the president of the United States will address the nation in about an hour. We’ve been told that he is on his way to California, and may make his speech from Air Force One. Has that ever been done before?”
“Not to my knowledge, Dale. But these aren’t normal times.”
“You said it. First the fuel shortage, and now this.”
“They have to be related, don’t you think?”
“Well, I don’t subscribe to any of the wilder conspiracy theories floating around, but yeah, oil wells burning in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, oil wells burning in Los Angeles. But we never had any video on those earlier fires. All those
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