Sources:
John Vaillant: Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast
Jerron Hawley, Graham Hurley, Steve Sackett: Into the Fire: The Fight to Save Fort McMurray

Sending love to LA.
/fin

it's already low, as it is in Alberta most of the time too), and creating lightning that will start more fires, as well as tornado like activity, and winds of its own.
10. Fire rips quickly up hill.

This is the information I carry in my head.

where there is not yet already a fire. Spontaneous combustion is real.
7. Sparks, ashes can travel long distances. In Fort Mac the fire breached a 1 km wide river, easy peasy.
8. Everything is combustible.
9. Intense wildfires create their own weather, lowering air humidity (and in California

(There is a harrowing account of this as described by the first responders in John Vaillant's Fire Weather. I wept through that entire chapter)
6. The heat inside of a house surrounded by flames will boil water, and the freakish high heat alone can cause combustion—

(thereby collapsing the house too and removing easy fuel source), meant that they were able to lower the height of the fire, and create fire breaks and prevent some vehicle explosions.

5. Vehicles with gas tanks are bombs. In Fort Mac, first responders discovered on the fly that using heavy equipment to move vehicles out the fire’s path (literally bulldozing cars out of the fire's path), or push them into the basements of houses—

—and the spray becomes too fine even if it hasn't vapourized. Nor can water bombers fly over and douse them effectively (they can’t get in close enough, fly low enough to be effective-- steam, fine spray).

3. Wildfire in urban centres can not be fought by conventional methods. The water in hydrants and hoses literally turns to steam.
4. Flames are taller. Hundreds of feet in some cases. This means that fire fighters can’t get hoses on top of the flames to douse them, it turns to steam, for one —

2. Houses that contain a lot of synthetic material will burn faster (think carpets, synthetic drapes, sofas, things made from wood composite with lots of glues, vinyl siding, laminate flooring.) Traditional (antique) furnishings, hardwoods burn more slowly.

1. Wildfires burn hotter. A 2500 square foot house can be entirely consumed to ash in 5 min. To ash. Fire fighters can not contain this. This is not a typical house fire.

that we actually don’t really understand fire-- in fact I urge you to do this. These are things that stood out to me, as I pondered, how this can happen in big cities with good fire-fighting resources and experience.

—the things that make what we are watching happen in LA, a well- resourced, experienced, metropolitan centre.

Wildfires burn differently. I’m not a fire specialist, so I won’t attempt to explain in great detail. You’re welcome to read up on it and learn about how these fires taught us

Here are some things I’ve learned from reading first hand accounts from firefighters, wildfire fighters, and other first responders following the Slave Lake (2011) and Fort MacMurray(2016) and Jasper (2024) fires--

Yup. Me too.

Hi! Thanks for doing this!! Please add me. <3