On 10/24/07, Alberto Monteiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Years ago, I watched a Botsuana movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy", > where the bushman hero used an interesting technique to fight an > out-of-control fire: he used fire to start a controlled fire, > creating a barrier of ashes, so that the uncontrolled fire > would not get close to where he was. > > I don't know if this is possible in California, but maybe that > would be the best solution to save what can be saved.
They're using backfires quite a bit. They can be risky, though, when winds shift... and the backfire can backfire, so to speak. The Santa Ana winds tend to stay consistent in direction -- but once a fire reaches a good size, it starts creating its own weather, including unpredictable winds, so the backfires have to be set fairly far away. Along those lines, I saw some video of a "fire tornado" in the San Diego area... scary. Also, I would note that he was protecting them from a grass fire, which is quite a different beast than a the kind of wildland fires happening here, although the principles can be the same in some cases. Or... perhaps what California needs is a lot more rhinoceroses, if you remember that part of the movie. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
