Posted on 09/02/2017 8:42:41 PM PDT by rey
I have a friend who is on a CDF crew. He says they sleep on the ashes of the fire they just fought recently to stay warm. I call foul. This sounds like the old wives' tale (why I'm not married) of sleeping inside a gutted animal to stay warm. I wold be worried that my clothing or bedding would ignite.
What say you?
No way.
Dunno, but please thank him on behalf of this member of public for his service next time you talk.
Depends on the terrain, but if the fire was hot enough that you were sure everything combustible was burned up, and also hot enough to warm the ground underneath, then maybe. The survivors of the Peshtigo fire did that.
I think you would scrape away the ashes and just sleep on the clean, warmed soil. I think you’re gambling sleeping on ashes ever. How many homes are burned by ashes they thought were cold in the can?
Ashes are a good insulator.
I sense that sleeping on the ashes is a metaphor for something profound that I just can’t quite grasp.
It almost calls for an answer in haiku form.
A haiku:
Sleeping on ashes
Defeat bitter in her mouth
Her lips mouth “Russia”
But enough about Hillary.
Another, more upbeat:
Rising, Phoenix-like
Trump craves sleeping on ashes
Of defeated foes
I’m walking on sunshine...
Isn’t “haiku!” what a Japanese quarterback yells?
Resting within undeterred
Our slumber in peace
Absolutely. I was a hot shot and we did it all the time.
Very good. I agree that “sleeping on the ashes” sounds very poetical.
Sounds legit to me too. But I file calluses off my heels and big toes with a Surform wood rasp.
Have done that many times. Shovel 2” or 3” of dirt on top of the ashes so that you get the warmth but do not ignite.
Why is this confusing? They are sleeping on warmed earth and ashes - not embers. Some people can tell the difference lol.
High Temp of 110 in the SF Bay Area the last 2 days.
Overnight lows in the high-60’s.
I call BS...
When fighting forest fires using pumper trucks and a convoy of water tankers you have to chew the soil with the force of the water from the hose nozzle as you move forward. The fire you thought you had put out can otherwise travel from tree to tree underground through the roots and also erupt from where a root reaches the surface. Failure to follow this procedure can result in the fire burning through your hose somewhere behind your team as the fire closes the path back out (losing the hose is extremely bad btw because it doesnt just bring you water, its your breadcrumb trail back through the smoke and the poles you use to climb up and down into rock crevasses to fight fires on the other side of a gap). The ashes are wet, the earth is wet, and small smoldering and still potentially dangerous embers lay all around and are still falling from from standing trunks. A re-eruption of flame if you erred or the fire re-spreading to standing fuel from an as not yet controlled part of the forest makes sleeping on the ground there nearly impossible as the ashes are part of the mud and extremely foolish due to falling drifting ignition sources.
I have never fought forest fires in coordination with aerial fire suppression teams though I suspect much of what I stated previously remains true.
You can sleep on hot coals if you put enough non burnable green leaves and grass on top. Stay nice and warm too.
So, it’s not too far fetched that they could do this.
...Oh ya, and there is a lot of steam from all the hot trunks and things youve sprayed, sometimes it can be thicker and harder to see through than the smoke. Imagine sleeping in a steam room with all your clothes on...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.