A friend of mine is retired from working in forestry for over 30 years (and the air force before that). He's always told me that a fire is always worth the risk of a forest fire because forest fires could be put out (he'd have been unemployed without them he says) but you can't be brought back to life. He also told me that you still need a bit of common sense with your how and where you build your fire. More importantly to him since it's not always possible to set a signal fire in a perfect risk free area is once you get rescued (no matter by who), call the forestry department when you get back to civilization and tell them about the fire and where you were. They'll send somebody out to check it out and put out anything still burning before it gets out of control.

Now Alberta and Arizona are very different and I don't know how much that has to do with it and the article doesn't say what type of signal fire they made (unless I missed it). They could have set a tree on fire intentionally as a signal instead of doing it properly.

Addendum: Personally I've never heard of a search operation waiting like that (though that's just my experience. I'm sure it's happened before and will happen again). I could never live with myself if I were the search manager who made the call to wait if there were a chance this fire wouldn't have been so unstoppable had they acted immediately...or worse, if somebody died because they hesitated.

Latest update: up to 2400 acres

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/30/20080630abrk-lane2-0630.html

If you were truly in a life or death situation, just how many acres should you be able to burn?

Just wondering.

"...controlled..."

That would apparently be the key word here...

comments at azcentral.com are harsh!

Yeah, the comments are pretty harsh.

"He also told me that you still need a bit of common sense with your how and where you build your fire."

Common sense? You want common sense? Isn't that illegal? Isn't there a stiff fine for using good judgment? There must be, as so many people seem to avoid doing it.

And members here want people to take responsibility for the stupid, damaging things they do? THIS IS AMERICA! WE DON'T DO 'RESPONSIBILITY'!

Sue

Yep, If its a choice between my ass and your forest guess which one I'm going to pick?

Having said that one wonders if a signal mirror might not have been a better choice? Which they were probably not carrying or might not been able to use. If its high canopy forrest then a signal fire might be your only choice.

Please do remember that tiredness, dehyration, injury etc significantly reduce your ability to make considered decisions. Particulary when those decisions have to be made fast.

Now tell us how you really feel

Speaking of responsibility I haven't heard anything more about who's wise idea it was to wait until morning before beginning the search.

So the signal fire worked?