what with more people traveling through the countryside and having campfires, do you think forest fires will be likely? 'cuz if yer careful enough you can keep from burning yer own house down, but if the whole forest catches, what're ya gonna do?

But it seems like the only time I hear of wildfires is in the summer. Do they happen in the winter in the northeast US? Are they less likely if there's snow on the ground?

-- y2kbiker (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), July 02, 1999

Answers

TROLL ALERT !!

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), July 02, 1999.

I apologize for the troll alert. Maybe you are serious and maybe you have never lived beyond the sidewalks. Fire danger is pretty low when snow is on the ground, but get a big enuff one going and you can probably ignite the forest. Certainly in the dry and warm months the fire danger will esculate. And if you are a biker, make sure your exhaust system on that bike is not throwing off sparks. Motorcycles start lots of forest fires. Always be careful with fire when in the woods and never leave one untended. Buy a boy scout hand book. You are going to need it if you plan on surviving "beyond the side walks" which is a term originating with JD Belenger owner and editor of Countyside Journal.

Taz...who was raised in another time and can't remember not knowing how to survive.

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), July 02, 1999.

Welll - having campled out in the wood in even moderately low temperatures - when the coffee freezes in the cup during a fifteen minute flag ceremony, I'd say it's usually very difficult to get a forest fire lit off anywhere in the northern hemisphere in the winter.

Let's assume you're serious, and follow the seasons: through the end of March (further south) its muddy and wet - no danger. Up north, spring (and of snow and complete drying of the ground and underbrush/pine needles) can be as late as June. More tilekly, no adanger at all (regionally) until early July. Early June in South/CA/NV/AZ forests - if little rain.

If the y2K problem lasts until the summer - so bad that the forest service can't fight the fires with trained crews, aircraft, and ground equipment - it's back to the original way of fighting them - also known as "letthemburnthemselvesoutnaturally." Or until the snow falls again - which finally worked in Yellowstone about 15 years ago!

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 02, 1999.

So now the definition of troll is anyone who accidently asks a stupid question ?

Man, you guys are on a hair-trigger these days.....

-- (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), July 02, 1999.

hey - we answered the question - what did you contribute? Fuel for the future forest fire? Or at least a match to thaw my coffee out?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 02, 1999.

Our forests on the left coast are being decimated by the pitch canker fungus. Conservative estimates are that in 5 years 90 percent of the mature pines will be infected in my area, some nearby tracts are already 100 percent. Wait until it hits the Sierra Nevada. Remember --your & our mileage may vary.

-- flora (***@__._), July 02, 1999.

Sorry for the misspellings up there - my error.

Worry far more about uncontrolled fires in the cities if people have no power or natural gas to keep warm. If no lights, candles/accidental fires will greatly increase the danger. Here, every Memorial Dayl spots one or two apartment building fires when somebody lights off a grill on a balconey. Expect many times the worse when fires are moved "indoors" for heating and cooking.

Lack of water pressure - also possible - fires then will kill in cities, only inconvenience in the country.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 02, 1999.

Perhaps this is OT, but a few years ago in October I was visiting loved-ones in LA. A transient near Sierra Madre got a little chilly one evening and started a fire. From this grew a holocaust... we have the Santa Ana winds there...please, make your BOB or SUE bags -- wherever you are, write your loved one's phone numbers down on a slip of paper -- your mind does not function in a normal way during an emergency. We ar all subject to emergencies, and gifted with the foresight to prepare a bit & be of service to others.

-- flora (***@__._), July 02, 1999.

Thanks for your answers

Taz, apology accepted, and I am aware of the danger of fires caused by motorcycles. I am a street biker, but I am looking for a dirtbike now, and I will put a spark arrestor on the end of the regular muffler.

Robert, I would be glad to give you a match. In fact I have some book matches which I may give away, but I hope that people (not you, other people) would use them on the other side of the river from me.

The danger of fire is one of the biggest reasons I am getting out of the city ahead of time. Fire could well happen the first night the power is out whereas disease, famine etc. might take a little longer.

-- (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), July 02, 1999.

The biggggest whiners I've heard at FIRE time are the yahoos that build way out in the foothills/mountains & want everybody to &*$#-off until fire time, when they start SCREAMING for services.

Rant mode off.

-- flora (***@__._), July 02, 1999.

Hey I was always taught "there are no stupid questions only stupid answers" get a grip here.

-- Daryll (twinck@wfeca.net), July 02, 1999.

There are no stupid questions......hmmmmmmmmmm.....sounds like a challenge to me......

How about.....

Can you please tell me how to spell Bob? Why don't elephants live under water? Am I wearing a hat? Where in the world is Jupiter? Has your computer ever crashed? What's the difference between a duck? What is the square root of a theory? How would you like me to stick a lizard in your underpants?

IMHO, 9 out of 10 people would consider those stupid questions. Even Al-d might consider them stupid.........

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), July 03, 1999.

must be the damm Alberta Education system

-- Brian (imager@home.com), July 03, 1999.

At least here, along the eastern slope of the Rockies, the chance of starting an accidental fire is probably greatest in the early winter. After the long summer and fall the grass and weeds are tall and tinder-dry and until about the third DEEP snowfall, standing up tall just waiting for a spark. When a storm passes, the low pressure moves off to the east and for a day or two the winds just howl out of the west. Even if the storm brought little snow (or the wind blew it all away,)the temperature can easily drop 30 or even 50 degrees lower than it was just days before. If your only source of heat is a wood stove hopefully you remembered to mow the grass and weeds out a good long way from the house. When your fire is just getting started, before you start turning down the damper, those sparks fly out and blow for a LONG way, and a spark can turn into a runaway fire in a heartbeat in a 50 mile an hour wind.

-- Roger (pecosrog@earthlink.net), July 03, 1999.

The majority of our forest fires in the State of Jefferson (far northern Calif.) are caused by lightning strikes. These are quite common and number in the hundreds during a typical summer storm. Local fire restrictions require a permit to burn in spring and then no burning is allowed during "fire season" until fall rains. The silver lining is that it creates a system naturally rich in nitrogen, which is good for promoting lush grasslands.

I agree about the pitch canker virus severely effecting forest stands. Our worst time was during the long drought when trees were most vulnerable. We also got hit with the bark beetle and the new mistletoe that effects pines. I had 40-50 foot trees with big cankers just fall over during wind storms. You could see the line of bark beetle damage just march across my forest in a line.

Now the Forest Service is not allowed to do sanitation or salvage logging because of the owl, murrelet, salmon and steelhead. With the "let it burn" policy and the build up of forest fuel, we are going to cook if mother nature or careless campers let go.

Light burns are natural, if fire is not artificially surpressed. The larger trees survive and it cleans out the undergrowth and opens up the stands, but conditions are not natural and fires will burn so hot that they will sterilize the soil, microbes and all. Then in the winter, the mud will slide, clogging streams and salmon spawning beds. Sometimes bureaucrats "fix" one stupid resource policy by imposing another "stupid resource policy." Common sense and moderation do not live in agency conference rooms. JMHO

-- marsh (siskfarm@snowcrest.net), July 03, 1999.

I have never heard of a fire of any magnitude in a forest during the winter anywhere there is snow. Now fires inside dwellings is highly likely.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), July 03, 1999.

Thats not a question...

"How would you like me to stick a lizard in your underpants?"

Carefully...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), July 03, 1999.

angie,

what kind of lizzard?

leapin live lizzards you're a silly willie.

.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), July 03, 1999.