Scouting Magazine article makes me :(

[5yearscouter]

http://scoutingmagazine.org/2016/04/survival-strategies-help-escape-forest-fire/

 

How to escape a forest fire.

 

Suggestions like don't go where the fire danger is too high, see a forest fire and walk into the wind to get away from it, look for an area with no vegetation and stuff like that.

 

Ends with this "In a situation where you cannot escape the flames and cannot make it to a safe location, your best option is to locate a trench or deep gulley. Dig a hole in the side, cover the opening with a tarp or blanket, and then crawl into the hole. Alternatively, dig a trench and lie down in it with your feet facing the direction of the flames, and cover yourself with dirt. Make sure you can breathe, and wait for the fire to travel over you."

 

This makes me think of scouters telling scouts to dig a hole and bury themselves. If you have something to dig with and time to dig a hole wouldn't it make more sense to find an area clearest of vegetation you can find and try to start digging a fire line around you? There should be at least four of you if you are hiking in a scout situation in the backwoods, right?

 

 

[desertrat77]

I read the article's ending as "as a last resort, when you can't out run the fire and you have no other options, do this:...."

 

Ideally, there will be four folks with four shovels and a bunch of energy.   In reality, by the point you have to resort to digging a fire line, everyone is probably already drained physically, one or two folks lost in the confusion, one or two stunned into inaction or in a panic.   To me the best option would be to find that ditch or gully, hunker down and hope the fire skips me.

 

An eye opening experience lately at my friend's ranch.   We were performing a controlled burn on his property that got a little out of hand.   No wind, beautiful day, and the fire moved further and quicker than we anticipated.   I was working the shovel as fast as I could, on short grass and dirt, and was barely putting a stop to anything.   My friend had his tractor/disk harrow on hand, and spent a good while encircling the fire, making a break.   Even afterwards, we were putting out hot spots that had jumped the break.  

 

It took about three hours, and all was well.   But it was a good dose of reality for me...once a fire gets big enough, there's no stopping it.  

[qwazse]

Never had to deal with a forest fire -- just hurricane force frozen winds on an appalcian plateau. That sense of panic came on and there was a desire to try everything except plan A: a four mile hike in the open through blistering winds.

Fortunatelly I found us a laurel thicket where the troop could gather and think without getting an ice-blasting. Every boy had managed to find a bite to eat, had water that wasn't frozen. And was ready to move as a team, and regroup once the trail turned to the lee of the ridge.

I could not imagine that same place on fire, but it had once been. Finding those clearings and boulder fields if you had not done your homework would have been nigh impossible. Digging in and hunkering down in that hard grown? Dreadful. But, I guess that's where you call up that 10th point of the law and do with a hope that you can make it through.

[Oldscout448]

In a situation like that I would also be utilizing the 12th point as well !

[Stosh]

If a forest fire is coming towards you and you cannot outrun it. Start a fire of your own and follow it down wind.  Eventually your fire will burn a head of the forest fire cutting a pie shaped burn that will cause a break of unburnable material in the forest fire and go around you on both sides.

[bradne]

The advice to get as low as you can is standard wildland fire training as an absolute last resort.  Some wildfires can surround you so quick that you may have no choice but to shelter in place.  There have been many wildland firefighters killed over the years by being overrun by a wildland fire.  Those firefighters are issued fire shelters (think an aluminum foil tent) to use in the event they become trapped, however they are not always effective depending on the severity of the fire.    Generally fire goes up hill, however wind changes everything.   I have seen a wildland fire travel across a valley at about 20 miles an hour in 60 mile an hour winds.   While clearing the brush around a trench is ideal if you have time,the idea is to get below the smoke and the majority of the heat as that is a major cause of death in the event of an overrun.

[Beavah]

Yah, I always understood fire's ability to travel up-slope, eh?   I always wondered how da fires made it downhill, though, especially with a decent-sized rockpile or cliff.  Figured it was sparks.

 

Then at one point a fast-moving fire got a bit too close as we were retreatin'.  Not a scout trip, just a few friends.  Fire was on a ridge above about a 200 foot cliff; we were down below retreatin' down toward the river.  The fire was throwin' burning trees over the cliff that were rollin' down the slope settin' other things on fire.  Full burning trees!   Absolutely terrifyin' and awe-inspirin'.

 

Don't mess with fire.

 

Beavah

[vumbi]

I frequently visit a place that has an annual 'burn' and the locals swear it's a naturally-occurring event. That one also seems to start on the other side of the ridge, rage through the high dry grass and then tops the ridge and works its way down the other side INTO the wind. I think the flame front is just so hot that it keeps igniting even the smallest wisps of fuel. The bare rocks remain bare but everything in its path is burned. And then it burns into the forest a short distance and stops...after expanding the area that will be regrown in grass for the next burn. I'm working on a way to reverse this trend.

Edited May 1, 2016 by vumbi

[Stosh]

If a forest fire is coming towards you and you cannot outrun it. Start a fire of your own and follow it down wind.  Eventually your fire will burn a head of the forest fire cutting a pie shaped burn that will cause a break of unburnable material in the forest fire and go around you on both sides.

 

Why the ding?  The forest can't burn twice in the same spot. 

[JoeBob]

Hey Stosh, I dinged your answer.  Your idea might work if you have a leisurely moving fire, in a dependable wind, with navigable terrain in the direction that you want to travel.  If you're waiting downwind of an existing fire for a freshly burnt area to cool off enough for you to move into it, the smoke, cinders, and heat might ignite you.

 

In a wildfire situation, if you can't escape the flames on good trail moving across the direction of travel, the article's approach to surviving being burnt over is valid.  The basic idea is to get enough dirt and sand on top of you to insulate you from the heat, to not catch fire itself, and to provide enough porous surface area for you to breathe through and somewhat filter the smoke.  I'd say that a wool blanket with 5 or 6 inches of loose non-flammable cover would be ideal.  A plastic tarp, not so much.  The idea is to cover your buddies, and somehow get the last man underground.

Sheltering in a ditch or crevasse provides some protection from falling trees and limbs. Being low helps keep you cool as most heat rises and the thermal mass of the earth will stay cooler, but you're still gonna get some radiant.

Edited May 2, 2016 by JoeBob

[Stosh]

Yet a break in the wall can be created faster than shoveling and removing burnable materials by burning them in the first place.  That space along with sand/cover might work but if the wind is blowing towards you and your fire provides burned area of some safety it's better than having burnable brush right over you when the wall passes.

 

If one can't create a fire break by hand clearing the land, burning will work just as well and as long as the woods are already on fire, there's no problem with the authorities.  For me clearing the land, however, small even if the fire is split 30' where you're burn went, that's 15' of no brush that would otherwise be on top of you.  I have no idea how much break one would need, but any is better than none.  Even then if the fire is intense enough, the lack of oxygen is still going to be a concern and a break in the wall would help with that as well.

[JoeBob]

I think you're working with a brush fire scenario, where the fuel is consumed quickly and the fire moves on or starves.  I'm describing a mature timber burn, where the blaze can take hours to die down and the smoke days.