WATCH IT BURN

This week I had the privilege of watching a prescribed burn. The land owners wanted to burn some scrub and pine for management (fuel burning, open space for some plants, not sure), but they were planning on doing so in San Francisco garter snake habitat, so we were on hand to monitor. The California Department of Forestry had a whole crew there, including a team of inmates from a nearby penitentiary, a couple fire trucks, and a helicopter. The prescription specified a range of wind speed and consistency of direction, and once they were confident that they had the right conditions, they started lighting things up. They had drip torches, which are basically cans of oil and gas with a nozzle that only allows fuel out, not in. You light the fuel and then just walk around dripping burning gas all over the place. They also dropped ping pong balls shot full of an explosives from the helicopter, which started small fires wherever they dropped. The prescribed area was surrounded by a fire break, sort of a road or trail that had already been cleared of fuel so the fire couldn’t cross it. They burned in from the fire break, with crews manning the break with shovels and picks to ensure the break worked.

Watching an entire hillside burn would make a pyro out of anyone. It also makes you feel powerful. Encountering evidence of human puissance is always strange. Big buildings, bridges, fighter jets, etc. all seem to invoke this odd mix of excitement, pride, guilt, and madness. Watching a whole hillside burn and thinking, “We did this,” is a strange sensation. As one of my coworkers said while watching the helicopter land, “Sometimes it’s cool to be human.”

Also, it was hilarious to hear how many times all the CDF folks said the word “fire.” “We’re putting fire on the ground now.” “We’re going to bring fire across the west side.” They seemed incapable of referring to fire as “flame” or even “it.” Even the teams of people seemed to have names like Firing and Firing 2. Maybe that’s just policy, but it’s also quite funny.