I am a volunteer firefighter in Idaho. My department is a suburban department, but we occasionally get involved in Wildland Firefighting too. It is amazing how fast these fires can go.
Grass is the worst, but on a bad day, Even timber can go really fast.
Earlier this year, a lightning strike started a fire in a Wilderness area. The forest service was keeping an eye on it and letting fire do the natural thing. Over about a 3 week period the fire grew to 700 acres in size. Then in one day it grew to 20,000 acres and crossed the Montana border and started threatening homes.
A forest service spokesman the next day said, dryly, “Yesterday we had a wind event”.
I am a volunteer firefighter in Idaho. My department is a suburban department, but we occasionally get involved in Wildland Firefighting too. It is amazing how fast these fires can go.
Grass is the worst, but on a bad day, Even timber can go really fast.
Earlier this year, a lightning strike started a fire in a Wilderness area. The forest service was keeping an eye on it and letting fire do the natural thing. Over about a 3 week period the fire grew to 700 acres in size. Then in one day it grew to 20,000 acres and crossed the Montana border and started threatening homes.
A forest service spokesman the next day said, dryly, “Yesterday we had a wind event”.