On Monday the park near my house caught on fire. Unlike this recent park fire it most likely wasn't caused by a teenager setting a rubber duck on fire. Before Monday was through, my partner and I had received enough messages about the fire that "Did you know Iroquois Park is on fire?" had replaced "Is that your chicken?" as our favorite question to randomly ask one another.
With that sort of a fanfare I had to go for a #wednesdaywalk to see what all the fuss was about. With only the loosest of notions of where the fire was I set out to see the aftermath. It looked like I was in luck and they'd already updated the signs but sadly Burnt Knob wasn't the knob that burnt. The lure of a DO NOT ENTER sign distracted me and I ended up not following the arrows anyway.
It's been downright soggy around here lately, so news of the fire was a bit surprising. I guess anything is possible with 50 mph wind. As I took a random path the scenic route I realized we'd been lucky. Fuel load seems to be a concept with which the city parks department is not familiar. If it'd been just a hair less moist we'd've had a park size bonfire.
It's all good though, Big Brother's got his eye on things. Unfortunately, I was having trouble laying eyes on where the fire had been. The news article was a bit vague as to the location so I just wandered the grassy areas until I smelled smoke.
Took a little meandering back and forth before I was able to pick up the smell of smoke and then a bit more to pin down a direction.
The trail was nice but eventually had to leave it to continue zigzagging towards the fire. Stumbled upon a couple making out but they took no note of me and I did likewise.
Fire truck sign. Getting close now.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, THE GREAT IROQUOIS PARK FIRE of 2023!
Not impressed yet? Yeah, me neither.
But wait, there's more! I spy unburnt kindling. Pretty sure we were better at forest fires than this in middle school. Random question for anybody who used to be in boy scouts: Did your troop have a Firebug Award?
As I was writing this I had a disquieting thought. I was able to find the aftermath of this piddly little fire by smell alone two days after it was extinguished, can't imagine what it's like in East Palestine, Ohio, where they burned off all that vinyl chloride. Random side note: Did you know that 'new car smell' is just vinyl chloride offgassing?
Charcoal, fire's free gift for you! It's the gift that keeps on giving, mix it with some batshit and brimstone and you've got gunpowder! *Do Not Try This At Home
This has gone on longer than the fire did so that's probably enough slightly scorched trees. The fire department had trouble dealing with this since there's no hydrants nearby which says great things about what'll happen if this goes up under drier conditions.
So who has proper wildfire issues in their neck of the woods?
There was a bit of fire in Oregon a couple years ago. Fires ranged from the Mexican border to Canada. They stopped at the borders, though. Apparently the arsonists weren't being paid to attack Canada or Mexico.
Thanks!
Were they the same ones that set Siberia on fire?
On a more serious note, I'm inclined to trot out Hanlon's razor again. What need have you for malicious actors when you have regular, run of the mill human asshattery? The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, the Camp Fire (not making that name up) was a power company fuckup. I've watched drunken idiots build massive fires in the middle of a complete burn ban, it doesn't take much of that to get a proper mess going.
I was out west when everything was on fire in 2017 (that's when the run-in with the drunks happened) but I'm guessing you're referring to the fires in 2020 when everyone was hunting antifa?
You wouldn't happen to have an idea of dates for those fires would you? I don't recall them respecting international borders but I also don't recall getting any real information on where they did stop, you've made me curious to see what the satellite data shows.
Thanks for dropping by!
There were a bunch of arrests, most of whom were immediately released. I remember one guy was arrested 6 times in one day for starting fires. I also recall seeing the pics of the fires reaching to the Canadian border, and none on the Canadian side. The chief government agent of the state fire control apparatus resigned after taking a hard line on the arsonists, and stated he had personally overstepped his authority by searching one of his employees home for bodies, so they would't have to do it themselves.
I was on a different computer then, which isn't spun up, or I'd share a few pics and memes to satisfy your curiosity.
Where is the fire you mentioned?
This poor tree actually looks like it was struck by lightning.
But it doesn't harm to keep people aware of the possible tragedy if some real fire happen.
I was more interested into gunpowder hack. :p
These were taken a couple days after the fire, I just went looking to see what damage it'd done.
The trees I've seen that have been struck by lightning tend to look a little more exploded. Lol, when I was a kid I set the tree next to the propane tank on fire. Tried to convince my dad that lightning had struck the tree but he wasn't buying it.
I wish somebody was aware of the possible tragedy but it seems like 'fingers crossed and hope it doesn't happen' seems to be the city's plan.
Ha, that's the recipe for old fashioned black powder. If you want some fun hacks for more modern stuff check out TM 31-210.
Oh its very sad news. Some time ago there was a similar fire here in Islamabad in Pakistan due to which many trees were burnt and after that it was brought under control after a long time. These are the trees because of which we are still breathing freely, otherwise human beings would not be able to breathe as much as the pollution has become.
Fortunately the weather was on our side and it didn't burn much, I'm just afraid if this happens during the summer it will be like your fire in Islamabad. We already have too few trees and too much pollution as it is, nobody needs more of that.
Thanks for dropping by!
Back in my early twenties I was in the military and got called out to fight fires a few times, hard work and seeing the power of fire, so in a way I cam glad this fire was rather unimpressive and not to much damage
Bet that was a lot of (not) fun. What'd they have you doing, cutting out firebreaks and the like? I grew up in a rural, heavily wooded area and my dad was a volunteer firefighter, so we did a lot of controlled burns growing up. Along with a lot of playing with fire generally... Seen the aftermath of enough 'proper' fires to be quite glad it was nothing of the sort.
In your time in the states, have you encountered kudzu? Once watched a forest fire burn off a hillside covered in kudzu and a month or two later it was already covered again.
NO I havent come across Kudzu
Yes a lot of it was cutting firebreaks, and it was hard work but we had a good group and made it fun as well
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Even though it is a very beautiful park with very lush trees, but unfortunately everything has been burned, hopefully one day the park will be green again.