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  • From: "Michael D. Thomas" <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: two madmen
  • Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 12:00:08 -0400




> the sarcasm about the sarcasm (about the alleged sarcasm) is killing me.

Now, now, it's just a backburn getting loose.... Happens all the time..... All
part of playing with fire.... Nothing to see here...

Here's some info about real backfires or backburns -- "fighting fire with
fire."

(Just everybody try to keep the flames away from the "pristine, unburned
old-growth forest," ok?)

http://www.fire-ecology.org/research/soldiers_story.htm

OF THE MANY "WAR CRIMES" I AM ASHAMED TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN, one stands out:
the deliberate torching of scenic Sherman Pass on the Colville National
Forest. Working on the White Mountain Complex Fire in 1988, we were ordered by
a Type II ("second stringer") Incident Commander to set a huge backfire along
Highway 20. Although those of us on the ground knew that the conditions were
not right that night, we "just followed orders" and lit the woods anyway. The
fire jumped the highway and surged into pristine, unburned old-growth forest.

WE SPENT A DESPERATE, TERROR-FILLED NIGHT TRYING TO CHASE DOWN THE FIRESTORM
WE HAD CREATED. The next morning, the scene of devastation along the roadway
was astounding. Hundreds of burnt trees had fallen across the road, and the
intense heat of the blaze had destroyed the guardrail, leaving the metal
twisted and blackened. The highway was closed for more than a week as trees
continued to fall. The agency's top fire bosses were forced to take over
command of the firefighting operations in order to pacify an outraged local
populace. The White Mountain Complex was renamed the Sherman Fire, not only
because a brand new human-caused wildfire had been created at the top of
Sherman Pass, but also, perhaps, because it appeared that we were using the
same "Civil" War tactics as Sherman's March to the Sea. The Forest Service
later completed the destruction of this place by salvage logging this and
other places where we had set backburns. Now, large black stumps line Highway
20's new "ob-scenic" corridor.








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