in the "heresy" thread on carrying fire making materials, I am sure I came off as a die hard carrier of fire building items, but it is worth mentioning that there are also times when you absolutely do not want to build a fire. With the approach of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, that time is near for many of us.

In dry woodlands, any fire can be disastrous, growing from innocuous sparks to thousands of acres in mere minutes. Rates of spread for some vegetation communities run to 3,000 acres and more per hour.

I did a little internet checking on recent fires and recovered data on the Chediski fire of 2002 in Arizona, which eventually burned over 400,000 acres after merging with an arson caused fire. The Chediski fire was started by a stranded motorist's signal fire.

A year later, the Cedar fire in the San Diego area burned over 280,000 acres. It began with a hunter's signal fire.

Besides the lost of timber and vegetation, there was considerable property loss involved. Multiple fatalities were attributed to these fires.

A personal experience - a few years ago the doggie and I went for a very dry hike in the local mountains. I could see that the woods were powder dry, and as we returned to the car, I thought "That's the last trip up here until we get some rain." About forty-eight hours later, ricochets from a plinking session along the highway sparked the Wolf fire, which burned 21,000 acres,including the trail that still retained my footprints.

So, while firemaking goodies are essential components of any decent survival kit, there are times and places where they should not be used. In the western US, the driest time is early summer before the rains come. The weather is usually quite warm, and you do not need a fire to get through the night. Your critical need is likely to be water, even at fairly high elevations.

There will always be fires in tinder-dry woodlands, fires started in dry grass and whipped into a disaster by wind, fires alongside every road in America from cigarettes tossed from cars because there will always be stupid people.

It would be interesting to have an accounting of how much damage and how many deaths are attributed to just plain stupid people.

As with drunken driving, placing the bills in the hands of perps isn't going to happen. And the only fix is illegal (attractive, but illegal), so what are we gonna do?

Sue

Actually, a good many destructive fires, especially in Southern California, result from deliberate arson, like our recent biggie near Los Angeles,the Station Fire.

They are often destructive because the kooks who set them choose optimum conditions for ignition, most particularly Santa Ana winds.

I believe about half of all wildfires, in the US at least, result from lightning strikes. Many of these can be insignificant, because they may be accompanied by rain.

Very good reasons to pack alternative means for heat, boiling, cooking, light, moral, etc.

My best friend always thought I was wacky for packing a stove and fuel on our trips and in my emerg kits - until we crossed paths with a fire ban a few years ago. Now she carries one religiously too.

Depends where you draw the line. If you exclude smokers, drinkers, druggies, bad drivers, "poor choices"/Darwin candidates, I believe you come up with approximately 17 deaths annually in the US.


Yes, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but we can't cure "stupid."

While in the forests, I hold to an old Native American saying: White man build big fire, move away. Red man build small fire, huddle close. Granted, you can't cure stupid and we will,unfortunately, always have those. But, the warmth from a small fire is quite the soother when you're hungry or cold.

Do not build a fire when:

You do not need a fire.

Building a fire would endanger your survival more than it would enhance it.

The law prohibits a fire and your survival is not on the line.

You would rather see your companions shiver, snivel, and suffer more than you value your own comfort.