Wednesday, January 6, 2016

First fire response


My first experience with fire was a small human caused wildfire.  In a remote mountainous part of the county I live in, a homeowner was burning cardboard behind his house.  There is a small flat yard, which goes up a steep Virginia pine covered mountain slope.  It is a southern facing slope, and was very dry.  Our fire seasons here are the spring and the fall when the humidity is low, and this incident occurred in the fall. 

The homeowner thought the cardboard had completely burned out, and went back inside.  The fire then grew and started up the slope.  When the family realized what happened they called 911, and began hauling buckets of water up the slope.  They also used their garden hose to spray what they could reach.

Upon our arrival we hiked up the flank of the fire, and set a line on a ridge above the fire.  This may sound crazy to western firefighters, but here in the southeast we often attack the fire’s head.   The fire’s advance was stopped and eventually controlled.

This incident really showed me how easily a fire can start and spread.  The conditions were just right for the small fire to become massive.  This area is very close to Smoky Mountains national park.  If the fire had not been contained, it could have burned a lot of forest.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience. It was an interesting read. I was putting myself in the shoes of the homeowner. It must have been rather scary when they realized they had started it. I guess they’re lucky it didn’t move toward the house. Even more fortunate is that it didn’t get to the park. I wonder why they thought they should burn cardboard in the first place? Seems like it would be easier to haul it to a recycling center. Anyways, it definitely makes me realize how we should all think twice before we start small seemingly harmless fires.

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