The rumors and misinformation about the wildfires is spreading as fast as the fires themselves.

The basic truth is that a kid with matches started at least one:

Officials: Boy With Matches Started Fire

Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.

The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney's office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives.

The others will likely be found to have a been either accidents or similar negligence.

But the rumour mill really loves to make hay out of this stuff. 

One email I got claimed that the fires were the work of an Anti American Illegal Immigrant rights group.  This is now being reported as a hoax, but in a area where tensions already run hi, I am not surprised to see some reactionaries on the Anti-Immigration side seize the story as a way to make their case even harsher. 

While I admit the stories that also surfaced about illegals stealing supplies from Qualcom stadium are concerning, I cannot with any degree of honesty expect that lawful citizens were all behaving perfectly, so making the case against illegal immigrants in that just proves that the Immigrants are greedy and or desperate, just like the residents. 

Personal I think the case against illegals is well made without resorting to sensationalism.

OF course in the Senate, a different theory emerged.

According To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the culprit is (you guessed it) GLOBAL WARMING!

Wildfires get personal for lawmakers

 “One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.

Moments later, when asked by a reporter if he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster.

Where most lawmakers were focusing on damage, displaced people and getting federal assistance, Harry is playing the GW card.

And its working:

Reid’s inconvenient theory will get House airing

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has been derided for saying that global warming contributed to last week’s wildfires in Southern California.

Conservative political blogs mocked him. Skeptics complained he was using a natural disaster to push his party’s energy agenda. The Nevada Republican Party said Reid had “lost touch with reality.”

But

On Tuesday the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming announced a hearing:

“A Spark Neglected: Wildfires and Global Warming,” it labeled the proceedings scheduled for Thursday.

“Select committee to examine link between changing climate, frequency and intensity of wildfires,” the description continued.

A committee spokesman said the hearing “was prompted by the wildfires out West and the view of some scientists that the increasing size, frequency and intensity of these fires is affected adversely by global warming.” A panel of scientists will testify.

Of course poor forest management, interference in brush clearing by environmental regulations and such have no impact?  Please.

The only thing this shows is that the quest to prove man made Global Warming is a dire threat outweighs logic and reason.  Yes there is a warming cycle, we all agree.  But man isn't causing it and we need to learn to adapt.

The LA Times actually takes the position of prudence and reason for a change.

Global warming not a factor in wildfires

Are the massive fires burning across Southern California a product of global warming?

Scientists said it would be difficult to make that case, given the dangerous mix of drought and wind that has plagued the region for centuries or more.

But they said the extreme conditions that stoked the wildfires could become more common as the world warms.

Research suggests that rising temperatures are already increasing fire damage in many parts of the West.

In a study published last year in the journal Science, researchers looking at Western federal forests found nearly seven times more land burned from 1987 to 2003 than in the previous 17 years.

The analysis mainly attributed this to a 1.5-degree rise in average spring and summer temperatures. With spring arriving earlier and snow melting faster, the forests dried out sooner, extending the average fire season by more than two months.

But

The study, however, found Southern California was different from the rest of the West, with no increase in the frequency of fire as temperatures rose.

Well, isn't that interesting?

"In Southern California, it's hot and dry much of the year," said Anthony Westerling, a climate scientist at UC Merced and the study's lead author. In other words, Southern California was already perfect for fire.

"That is a fire-prone environment regardless of whether we are in a climate-change scenario," said Tom Wordell, a wildfire analyst at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. "I don't want to be callous, because many people are homeless and suffering, but if you live in a snake pit, you're going to get bit."

Exactly.  Southern Cal has always had to deal with wildfires and it always will.

So the real cause of this batch?

Scientists said more persistent drought would inevitably lead to more fires, as long as intermittent periods of moisture allowed vegetation to grow as fodder for flames.

In Southern California, hillsides were ripe for fire because big rains two years ago allowed vegetation to flourish, then severe drought during the last year dried it out.

And the Santa Ana winds? 

The winds, which typically gust to 45 mph, were recorded at more than 80 mph several times this week -- strong but inside the range of normal variability.

That seems to be the cold hard truth.  This was a bad year for a lot of reasons.

But a lot of it was just normal Southern California, which is an accident waiting to happen for a lot of reasons.

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