At 06:43 PM 5/19/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>Probably because I was experienced (?), the following encounters with crown
>fires weren't as frightening, but still quite impressive.  Watching Santa

I am not sure that I was ever afraid when a fire unexpectedly crowned over 
us, but as I said, it is an experience that you will not soon forget.  The 
thing that always worried us would be working on a steep hillside and have 
the wind change.  Fire can climb a steep hillside very fast.


>almost as well as a moist one.  As Scott mentions a creek or stream is
>great, if it has enough water in it to help.  However, I haven't seen many

I never fought fire in a place that was really lacking for water.  Unless 
you count the fires that would start 5 miles from the nearest road and all 
you had was what you could carry on your back or have the helicopter drop 
off for you.  In some cases you could blast a small pond in a stream and 
get enough water to work with, other times you just fight fire with dirt.

I imagine that it is a completely different ballgame down here in the 
desert where almost all of the fuel is within a couple feet of the ground, 
and water is pretty scarce.


Scott
Team My Blue Heaven
www.myblueheaven.com/geocache