# Have rainstorms ever put out severe fires? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854 "2008-07-09T16:25:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/21 "2008-07-14T18:53:22Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] There isn’t really such a thing as “government insurance” for hurricanes, AFAIK. The tab is mostly picked up by homeowners’ insurance. State and/or Federal funds may be allocated to help rebuild _after_ the fact. [/QUOTE] There is National Flood insurance, which is part of the reason people build so damned close to the water (and even _on_ the barrier islands) in places where hurricanes strike. It’s generally a great deal for the homeowner, and a really crappy deal for the taxpayers. [Linky](http://abcnews.go.com/business/insurance/story?id=94181). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/22 "2008-07-14T19:10:59Z")
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=] There is National Flood insurance, which is part of the reason people build so damned close to the water (and even _on_ the barrier islands) in places where hurricanes strike. It’s generally a great deal for the homeowner, and a really crappy deal for the taxpayers. [Linky](http://abcnews.go.com/business/insurance/story?id=94181). [/QUOTE] That’s interesting. Also, stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/23 "2008-07-14T20:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Remember, forest fires are endemic to forested areas and are to some degree part of the natural cycle. Every wooded area grows too dense to sustain itself eventually; a fire comes, burns off most of the undergrowth and a lot of the mature trees - some survive even severe burns - and the circle of life can continue, etc. [/QUOTE] Every wooded area? While eventually is a long time, surely there are forests in wet climates that never burn. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/24 "2008-07-14T20:31:41Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] Mopping up means you get dirty. Real dirty. Black ash from head to toe dirty. And the best, most effective mopping up is done on your knees with bare hands… That entire 200 square foot area of yours must be completely bare hands cold to the touch all the way through the ash and timber to mineral soil. [/QUOTE] I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Give me a well-involved 5-story New England mill getting ready to take it’s neighbors with it any day over a western-style wildland fire. Respect for the wildland guys (and girls)? You betcha. Get me to do it? No way in heck. I’ve done about 140 acres or so the New England way: break a path to the fire and put it _all_ out with water. At least 10 departments came to play, better than 20 pieces of apparatus in the woods. Call it over 150 firefighters. Over a thousand acres? Heh. Good luck. A bad day for all concerned. Western stuff? No way. When I went to school for aircraft firefighting, one of the guys in the class was a wildland firefighter from (I think) Oregon, looking to start a company providing fire protection for helibases. His line, mangled in my mind in the years since, was something like “all you guys are wimps, you bring _water_ to your fires.” You guys got big brass ones. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/25 "2008-07-14T20:33:25Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] Every wooded area? While eventually is a long time, surely there are forests in wet climates that never burn. [/QUOTE] Forested areas, not _rain_ forest. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/26 "2008-07-15T04:41:03Z")
[QUOTE=KCB615] I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Give me a well-involved 5-story New England mill getting ready to take it’s neighbors with it any day over a western-style wildland fire. Respect for the wildland guys (and girls)? You betcha. Get me to do it? No way in heck. [/QUOTE] And I won’t go near a structure fire. You can have them. 😃 > [@](#): > > Pretty much every year we see footage from the US, Australia and occasionaly southern Europe of millions of dollars of property going up in flames and emergency crews risking their lives to try to protect them, from brushfires which are pretty much guaranteed to happen every few years. I’ve always wondered if it would be possible to build a home that would be fire-resistant, so that you could button it all up, tell the fire crews to concentrate their efforts elsewhere, and be 90% confident that when you came back it would be standing with just some smoke marks on the outside? Keep in mind that fire fighters all have to carry [fire shelters](http://wildfirenews.com/fire/articles/ted.html) just in case they find themselves caught out. Training requires you must deploy [your fire shelter](http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/newshelt72.pdf) (PDF warning) in under 30 seconds. That seems like alot of time but I assure you, it’s not always the case in the face of a 60 mph firestorm coming your way. Even in practice, these shelters are hot. Now imagine spending up to an hour or more in your “shake and bake” while a 2,000\*F fire passes through. In Australia, people are often ordered to stay in their homes while a bushfire burns through. That advice seems to hold if you have a bricks and mortar house. At the same time Australian bushfires seem to burn through rather fast in residential areas than her in the USA along the urban forest fringe. OTOH, I had the opportunity to join the local county fire service when I live there but declined. Australian bushfires are way too dangerous for me. Eucalyptus trees give off a volatile oil that when vaporized in bushfire heat, can generate huge fireballs. Think BLEVE fires. Umm, no way for me. Give me a simple USA-type wildland fires any day. As of today, there are more fire fighters on the fireline (29,000+) on wildland fires this early in the season than anytime in history. BTW, more than two thirds of the federal fire budget for this fire season has now been spent. If the traditional length of a wildland fire season is to be expected (think through October), there will shortly be no more money for wildland fire unless Congress authorizes the cash. Congress traditionally takes the month of August as a recess, probably more so this year so they all can campaign at home to keep their jobs. Neither Congress nor the President are willing to authorize more funds for wildland fire fighting. If this proves to be true, land management agencies will have no choice but to divert operating funds to pay for fires. Those decisions among the agencies is expected sometime this week. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/27 "2008-07-15T05:26:56Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] And I won’t go near a structure fire. You can have them. 😃 Keep in mind that fire fighters all have to carry [fire shelters](http://wildfirenews.com/fire/articles/ted.html) just in case they find themselves caught out. Training requires you must deploy [your fire shelter](http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/newshelt72.pdf) (PDF warning) in under 30 seconds. That seems like alot of time but I assure you, it’s not always the case in the face of a 60 mph firestorm coming your way. Even in practice, these shelters are hot. Now imagine spending up to an hour or more in your “shake and bake” while a 2,000\*F fire passes through. \ [/QUOTE] Have you ever been burned over? My husband did wldland from age 15 to 22, both ground and helitac. (He’s now an EMT/FF in an urban setting.) He deployed his fire shelter a couple times, but was only burned over once. It sounds like the most frightening thing ever. He’s been in several life-threatening situations, (we call it “burning a kitty” as in, cats have 9 lives.) but, that was the worst. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854/28 "2008-07-15T08:10:38Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] In Australia, people are often ordered to stay in their homes while a bushfire burns through. That advice seems to hold if you have a bricks and mortar house. [/QUOTE] :eek: Y’what? I’m all in favour of fireproofing houses, but purely so I can do a ‘Brave Sir Robin’ and maybe have something left to come back to without endangering others. Sitting tight while mother nature tries to KILL ME WITH FIRE!!? Not so much. Perhaps if there was some sort of fireproof tornado bunker in the cool depths of the earth, but it would have to be more than your average root cellar. As for ‘fire shelters’ - damn. Words fail me. double :eek: And yes, it must have been the flood insurance thing that I was thinking of - I’ve seen something like that referenced several times as to why homeowners are forever playing whack-a-mole with hurricanes on the most exposed pieces of land on the entire coastline. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-rainstorms-ever-put-out-severe-fires/455854.md?page=1)