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Take a look at this pic......
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...1&d=1193498371
How is it that the entire side of this house can be scorched nearly black, yet, there are no signs of fire on the ground, the water heater box is fine, and there are unscorched pine needles everywhere?? I was looking at the pic from Arrowhead, and you have burned down homes, with untouched pine trees right next to them...take a look at this one...
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...1&d=1193498685
There is slight damage to the area surroounding the pad of the long gone home, and scorching of the fire on the bark of the tree.....but the surrounding areas show very little evidense that a fire was ever there....how does a fire move across the hillsides without hardly touching anything in some places, and scorching everything in others....?? By looking at the second pic, it almost looks like the house caught fire for some other reason....just wondering.....
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Looks like radiated heat. Just not hot enough to get the combustibles to their flash point. Nor did it probably have direct flames on it. My guess. :) Lucky.
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"how does a fire move across the hillsides without hardly touching anything in some places, and scorching everything in others....?? By looking at the second pic, it almost looks like the house caught fire for some other reason"
My bet is the house HAD a wood shingle type roof:idea: , or a load of combustibles on the deck (such as plastic covers on patio cover, tarp over a bunch of fire wood) an burning ember fell from the sky and when you get enough of them on a shingle or other source of fuel. . . . you get a fire. Much like a "Spot Fire" that starts in the brush, 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile ahead of the main fire - with the winds that we have had. It is blowing these embers down wind, if they don't go cold before they land. You get the above results.
Sorry for any lost - you or your friends may have suffered, but the resources are really thin this time.
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Take a look at this pic......
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...1&d=1193498371
How is it that the entire side of this house can be scorched nearly black, yet, there are no signs of fire on the ground, the water heater box is fine, and there are unscorched pine needles everywhere?? I was looking at the pic from Arrowhead, and you have burned down homes, with untouched pine trees right next to them...take a look at this one...
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...1&d=1193498685
There is slight damage to the area surroounding the pad of the long gone home, and scorching of the fire on the bark of the tree.....but the surrounding areas show very little evidense that a fire was ever there....how does a fire move across the hillsides without hardly touching anything in some places, and scorching everything in others....?? By looking at the second pic, it almost looks like the house caught fire for some other reason....just wondering.....
Heat transfers three ways. Conduction, convection and radiation.
Looks like this cabin suffered from radiant heat.
Notice the windows are gone? Radiant heat could have shattered them.
Take a look at the gas meter. Notice the clean/unburned area immediately behind it? The gas meter absorbed the heat there-by protecting that small portion of the house. You can see the same thing on the trees. Burned on one side only. Seems to be consistant with the burn patterns on the house.
One of the things we do when protecting a home from an approaching fire is prep the house itself. Time permitting, we'll clear highly cumbustible items from the outside. On the inside we'll typically remove the drapes or curtains from the windows so the radiant heat wont ignite them.
ROC
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I'm surprised with that much heat that the window coverings didn't light up, they look pretty lightweight.
As for your question on the second pic, it could have been flying embers landing on the house or maybe the fire came from the right side of the pic that we cant see. the ground cover in front of the house in that stand of trees has definatley burned , just look close, it burned very clean
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The first pic is probably due to radiant heat as for the second pic, I would have to say embers being pushed ahead of the fire due to the high winds.
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I'm not a wildland guy, so I can't add much to what was already said except that at both of the big fires in our city that I dealt with, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to why one place burns down and one doesn't. Fire has a mind of it's own. I mean, I've seen places that did everything right, tile roof, plenty of brush clearance, etc., burn to the ground and a home with a shake cedar roof next door was spared.
