In the early ‘80s I spent my summers fighting fires in British Columbia. One year I got hired onto the biggest fire of the year near the small town Canal Flats, not too far from Banff.
A couple of days after my arrival the fire bosses decided a back burn was in order. By sheer chance I walked by the truck they were loading with equipment and one of them said to me, “Hey, you, jump in the back.”
We drove into an area untouched by fire and they strapped a piss-can filled with diesel to me, lit the nozzle and said, “Walk that way about a hundred yards and come back.” I did so and we headed back down the mountain.
The wind chose not to cooperate. Within 48 hours the fire doubled in size.
Again by sheer chance, when the two fires merged I was being moved in a helicopter at about 1000 ft. and a couple of miles from the merge point. I had the perfect view of something few people have seen.
I had read about the firestorm in Dresdan during the war but I never expected to see one. A tornado of fire at least 2,000 ft. tall. Entire trees, root systems intact, were sucked up into it and incinerated, I saw none of them return to the ground.
And my hands had caused it. Not my decisions, but my hands.
that’s a wild story… thanks for sharing it.
Don’t blame yourself for that; setting backfires are COMMAND DECISIONS, the time and locations are all chosen at the Fire Command Center.
By the 80’s all the people who occupied those Command Centers had COLLEGE DEGREES and were smart (but had never fought anything bigger than a single match) but had never fought a WILDFIRE on the ground in person.
SOME TIMES EDUCATED IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR STUPID!
Don’t blame yourself for that; setting backfires are COMMAND DECISIONS, the time and locations are all chosen at the Fire Command Center.
By the 80’s all the people who occupied those Command Centers had COLLEGE DEGREES and were smart (but had never fought anything bigger than a single match) but had never fought a WILDFIRE on the ground in person.
SOME TIMES EDUCATED IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR STUPID!