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.
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.
I’m walking on sunshine...
Absolutely. I was a hot shot and we did it all the time.
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.
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.
I think they meant to say “sleeping on a##es”.
I know that if I slept on ashes, I would keep myself awake all night coughing. Why would anyone be so stupid to sleep on ashes? There’s better ways to stay warm. Building a fire is one of them. Building a shelter to contain your body heat is another way. Going primitive and sleeping on ashes is not a healthy way to go.
What is CDF?
Our colonials during the mini ice age had special bed warming pans in which they put ashes. They also heated bricks then wrapped them in cloth for the same purpose.
You sleep in the ashes because there is no moore fuel for the fire if it were to turn back on you.
Has nobody here seen Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford? Am I that old?