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Death by Fire
- tomcam 10y agoIncredibly well-written and a window onto a life I prefer not to contemplate
- pdelbarba 10y agoI live in Colorado and see the fires regularly. Just about two months ago I stepped outside on a weekend morning and smelled smoke, then saw a firebomber fly overhead towards the mountains. It's a strange thing to get used to, though I'm not near the forests, just close enough to get a tax-payer funded airshow once or twice a year.
- throwanem 10y ago(I'd have liked to answer your earlier question on the LGBT movement and my opinions thereof, but found the thread killed and replies unavailable before I had the chance. If you remain interested, drop me an email to the address in my profile, and we can proceed via that route.)
- fujipadam 10y agoBeautifully written. While I see the horror, it read more like a romance. The author loves fire despite her ruthlessness
- Neil44 10y agoYes reminds me a little of Cormack McCarthy.
- te 10y agoNorman Maclean's "Young Men and Fire" tells the story of the Mann Gulch incident. Recommended.
- FrozenVoid 10y agoPerhaps the idea of having forests near population centers should be reevaluated. Clearing a few km of city-bordering forest will create a gap in which fire will not spread, if there is nothing flammable on the ground. The aesthetics of having "natural trees" nearby is not worth the risk, and polluted air from forest fires definitely doesn't help the overall health.
- smhost 10y agoOutdoor fires (which include wildfires) result in ~50 deaths annually in the U.S.[0] You want to ban trees for that? I'm curious about your thoughts on how we should deal with the actual problems we have. For example, cooking-related residential fires, which kill ~150 people annually in the U.S.[1] Clearly it's not worth the risk to cook our food. ---- [0] https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v9i2.pdf https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v9i2.pdf [1] https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/res_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/res_bldg_...
- FrozenVoid 10y agoThe economic damage from ruined buildings, evacuations, burned property/vehicles/etc is another factor. Its like living in a cheap wooden house in tornado valley. I'm not for "banning trees", there should be just a safety zone which separate vulnerable urban/suburban housing and forest zones. That way fire will not become an emergency in principle. I'm just advocating for a system where firebreaks are several km wide and prevent winds from spreading fire material(which short firebreaks fails to do). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebreak (this is the general concept ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensible_space_(fire_control) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensible_space_(fire_control...
- gonvaled 10y agoWho pays for cleaning the gap? How do you guarantee that the city does not extend into it? Is pollution from fire offset by the cleaning effects of trees?
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- cko 10y agoThe last paragraph reminded me of the end of "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean.
- noahmbarr 10y agoNow that's an essay
- moritzplassnig 10y agoRead quite a bit about it over the weekend. For anybody else who's interested in it: - South Canyon Fire: https://youtu.be/ZzGTjfTHihU https://youtu.be/ZzGTjfTHihU - Yarnell Hill Fire: https://www.outsideonline.com/1926426/19-true-story-yarnell-hill-fire https://www.outsideonline.com/1926426/19-true-story-yarnell-...