Bush fires...

[Aust 520exc]

...or Wildfire in your lingo

You lot over there must be really feeling the heat right now. I just caught on the early news here that there is something like 300 fires out of control over a couple of hundred thousand acres:scream: :eek:

I'm from rural area outside of Melbourne and have seen my share of bushfires and there is nothing more terrifying than a 50 foot wall of flame tearing through the bush. Good luck to your firefighters and with luck and the right weather you will get them under control.

I was amazed at the area burning when I looked the fires up and found this map:

U.S Fire Maps

Looks like a lot of your riding areas will be black for a while, just think of all the new trails you can cut in autumn (fall)

 

[Ol'89r]

Aye, Aust. Great link.

Part of the problem is, the environmentalist, in their imminent wisdom, have made it very difficult to manage and fight fires. Thanks to them, many areas are now considered 'Wilderness areas'. In a 'Wilderness area', you cannot use anything engine powered to fight the fire. No firetrucks, no pumps, no chainsaws, nothing, only hand tools.

This makes it very dangerous to try to stop a fire. You may have heard about the young firefighters that recently lost their lives in a similar situation.

They have also made it very difficult to clear the forest of the overgrowth since some of this growth is home to several endangered species. So, now we have young firefighters in the prime of life, losing their lives in the name of species protection. Something is very, very, wrong here.

The only good thing about all of this is, most of the normal, clear thinking people, are starting to see how over the edge these envio freaks really are.

I am amazed at the lack of public outcry.

Ol'89r

 

[bbbom]

That is a great site. Fortunately, we haven't been hit hard here. I was awake most of Sunday night though because we could see the ground strikes right out the windows.

The next couple of months are always very stressful around here. The forests are so dry and most are overloaded with plenty of fuel.

 

[SirThumper]

There is a small (if you want to call it that) fire 40 miles East of me right now, in the middle of one of the best trophy mule deer areas in the state:( . Last I heard it has burnt 7,000 acres and was 90% contained. It is a result of lightning strikes from a storm that went through here over the weekend.

 

[MBFTY]

Down in Florida...

Down here in Florida, 100,000 acres is like a bonfire! Where I live, fires are extremly common in the upcoming time of the year. There are whole portions of my town that get engulfed. Sometimes it gets pretty scarry... Usually the fires are blamed on Dirtbikes and ATVs :scream:

 

[JWW]

Originally posted by Ol'89r
. In a 'Wilderness area', you cannot use anything engine powered to fight the fire. No firetrucks, no pumps, no chainsaws, nothing, only hand tools.

Ol'89r

That is the most freakn outrageous thing I have ever heard

 

[Aust 520exc]

In a 'Wilderness area', you cannot use anything engine powered to fight the fire. No firetrucks, no pumps, no chainsaws, nothing, only hand tools.

That is a ridiculous situation, over here we haven't gone to the same extremes, but the the best prevention against fuel building being off-season "cold-burns" or back-burning is now frowned upon by 'Joe Public' because the smoke is unsightly, unenvironmental and it makes <surburban hosewife voice on> my clothes on the line smell of smoke <surburban housewife voice off>.

The problem is without such measures the fires have a lot more fuel to burn and are far more intense and harder to control and therefore are more dangerous to firefighters and landowners. Let alone the fact that native Australian flora relies on fire to bring germination on.

. You may have heard about the young firefighters that recently lost their lives in a similar situation.

This is completly wrong that lives are put in danger just because a "greenie" wants to protect the habitat of "the speckled toed frog", what about the helmet wearing firefighter???

Just my $0.02

 

[ktmboy]

Jeff. it's true. And I freakin' laugh everytime a Wilderness area goes up in flames because of laws these stupid whackos get passed!:silly:

 

[sfc crash]

i saw some back in N.C back when i was at ft bragg. scarey stuff. i feel for the families of those fire fighters burned alive. gov reg bs! remember all those bs laws were passed because some one of them sounded good to the average joe blow. remember that when some one comes up with another sensible helmet , drug, manditory sentencing,cafe, gun control ,etc law.!

 

[MBFTY]

Brush Season

They make it illegal to barbecue durng fire season here... The police also get on us more for riding. This is because somebody wrote a letter to the paper recently about a fire. They said they witnessed a dirtbike and an ATV "showering" sparks all over the place and that they started the blaze.

When I get stopped, I just point to the "USFS Spark Arrestor" plate on my MegaMax and cross my arms...