The End to All Forest Fires

Mr Alien this would be assuming they actually want to stop bush fires from happening, or any type of disaster event.

So the truth comes out - too much money to be made on the fires - why stop a money making disaster - same could be said about war - how much was made rebuilding Europe after WWII?

I see where your coming from, hopefully you can see where I'm coming from when I say human civilization at this
point is still rated '0' - it doesn't exist.

reply to post by AlienView


Aren't forest fires important? Dont they create new life from old?

reply to post by AlienView


Aren't forest fires important? Dont they create new life from old?

There are trees which depend on natural fires for regeneration, as their pine cones do not release seeds until one happens. Fires also create clear spaces for grazing wildlife.

Forest fires have always happened as long as there have been trees on planet earth. Just ask the Ents.

reply to post by AlienView


It would seem someone has trouble understanding or grasping the importance of ALLOWING forest fires to occur to certain extents.

Here, I'll make it easier on you: Fire Ecology

Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and conifer forests, have evolved with fire as a necessary contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. Many plant species in naturally fire-affected environments require fire to germinate, establish, or to reproduce. Fire suppression not only eliminates these species, but also the animals that depend upon them. Finally, fire suppression can lead to the build-up of flammable debris and the creation of less frequent but much larger and more destructive wildfires.

We LET forest fires happen and run their courses to a certain degree. We use to not do so and as a result the ecology suffered.
Now, we control the burns more so than attempting to stop them.

Originally posted by AlienView
You watch the news, you see the forests going up in smoke, thousands of fireman risking their lives and millions of dollars spent; And then after a week or two and thousands and thousands of acres of forest up in smoke they let
local residents return to their homes - if they still have a home left - too often they don't.

And as it is going on you see one, sometimes two or so planes with fire-retardant spraying the forest to help control
the fire; And you ask [at least I do], if these planes are actually capable of controlling forest fires how come they do
not have a large force, say a hundred or even a thousand of these planes at specially built regional airports around
the country and the moment a forest fire begins the well trained force of air fire control pilots go out and in a pre-
planned attack kill the fire fast before it spreads - My alien imagination asks aren't you humans capable of
stopping a simple forest fire? - Can you at least graduate to a 'Stage One Civilization' and control your own environment?

Think about large areas such as Siberia and Australia, you do realize that even thousand planes are not enough. Forest fires can spread very fast, and they might hide well, you wouldn't notice starting forest fire easily. And there is no reason to put out forest fires in middle of nothing. Forest fires are actually very useful, without them, the forest dies. Your alien mind seems to be lacking.

reply to post by generik

i would think he is suggesting a "federal forest fire air combat system". it could be done, yet the cost of a "fleet" of this type of aircraft for this purpose would be astronomical. figure the price for a Bombardier 415 a water scooping water bomber is 32 MILLION dollars EACH as an example.

That's actually small potatoes in the grande scheme of things isn't it?

$32 Billion for a 1000 dedicated water scooping aircraft, perhaps a $1 Billion or so running costs...chicken feed compared to the $2.3 TRILLION that was announced 'lost' by the Pentagon the day before the Pentagon got hit on 9/11.

The cost of taking lives always seems to take precedent and is acceptable over the cost of preserving and enhancing lives...strange that isn't it.

(I hear what you're saying Alien)

But curiously enough, forest fires and periodic burning of vast swathes of land is completely natural and beneficial to the forests and fauna...not so healthy for Humans of course, but fantastic for the plants, many of which actually need fire to spread seeds and complete life cycles.

But then again..people will always build towns and cities on the slopes of active volcanos, around tsunami prone coasts, in regular Tornado and Hurricane areas and on earthquake fault lines, then turn around and get all shocked and surprised when their homes are obliterated!...Just goes to prove that Humans can be SO stupid i suppose.

Since there never has been a documented instance of a fiery balled foofighter in it's landing stage, of ever having caused a forest fire here on Earth --- must mean the space aliens have the wherewithal --- to stop and control any fire from a starship landing from the original [burned out] landing zone.

It's another of the well kept secret's that the otherworlders have...that would benefit all of mankind if we could unlock it.

Since there never has been a documented instance of a fiery balled foofighter in it's landing stage, of ever having caused a forest fire here on Earth --- must mean the space aliens have the wherewithal --- to stop and control any fire from a starship landing from the original [burned out] landing zone.

It's another of the well kept secret's that the otherworlders have...that would benefit all of mankind if we could unlock it.

Some of you seem to be saying there is some benefit to forest fires, and maybe this is sometimes true, but some
of these fires destroy massive amounts of forest and often rage out of control for days and sometimes more than a
week - much good forest is being destroyed, homes are lost, lives are lost. And what bothers me is that the
technology exists where they could be better controlled and snuffed out when peoples homes are threatened.
and the fires rage out of control. Sure it will be expensive to build a tactical airborne firefighter force but how much money will be saved in the long run? It often costs many millions to use the large ground force of firefighters
necessary to control even one of these fires.

reply to post by Druscilla

As of today August 20, 2013, 53 forest fires are raging in the Western US. To me it is crazy that man who has
the technology to create a force to control and stop these fires does not do so. Many of these fires are started
by natural phenomena but many may also be caused by arsonists and terrorists - Are we going to wait for most
of the forests to be destroyed before taking action???

reply to post by AlienView


I would suggest you do a little more research on exactly how much forest there actually is in comparison to what is burned ANNUALLY, yes, every single year, as well as following up on the inferred line of research I suggested in my previous post regarding forest ecology, and how forests have evolved to NEED a good burn from time to time.

On another note, what did the forests do when there were NO HUMANS?
Naturally occurring forest fires certainly occurred long before there were humans, and even before dinosaurs.
Somehow, the forests seemed to have gotten along quite swimmingly burning all willy nilly without a care or even the slightest bit of control and continued to soldier on quite amicably.

There's more forest than you think there is, and, these burns happen every single year, and have been happening every year since there were forests around to get burned Yet, we still have forests. Imagine that.

reply to post by Druscilla

BUT what appears to be happening now would indicate more than just natural forest fires. There are a a lot of nuts
[ie. arsonists & terrorists] roaming around and a lot of people have homes in forest areas. I'm not saying we should
necessarily stop all forest fires even though I did begin this post suggesting it but still the ability to stop forest
fires that represent threats to particular areas would still be worth while - Man has the ability to overcome his
environment when it is threatening and not to take advantage of the technology that could do this is foolhardy.

Again, today there are 53 forest fires raging in the Western US some now threatening the homes of famous people, how many more do you have to see before you realize there is a problem and the problem can very well be more
than just 'natural' forest fires.

reply to post by AlienView


You've got it backwards.
Living on the side of, or in the shadow of a volcano, living on a flood plain, living in a seismically very active area, and many other natural disaster prone areas including areas KNOWN for YEARLY forest fires, is the foolhardy part.

It's nature. Let nature do what it does.
Sure, there's nuts that might like to get in on the action, but, that's beside the point when it already happens naturally anyway.

If people want to live in Forest fire zones, then they should stop making their houses out of wood. Cement, Steel, and natural stone, I would think would be the no-brainer choice.
Same thing in coastal or flood plain areas; build with the biggest baddest natural disaster relevant to the area in mind; build 4 story homes with DEEP supporting pylons where the top floor is well above and beyond the level of even biblical flooding.

Nature is natural. Let it do. Let it be. Build and live with what it could or might do in mind, and keep insurance policy good for when the worst does happen.

reply to post by Druscilla

I see your points and they do have some merit. I however have a different perspective. There are some physicists who are 'futurists' and prone to speculation. One theory is an attempt to rate the level of human achievement if
compared to some hypothetical civilizations that are more advanced then us. By this theory, which I believe has
4 [or 5] levels of achievement in the rating scale, would currently rate human civilization at 0 [zero]. To get to stage one Man must first be able to control his local environment and this of course would include things like forest fires, and probably be extended to include the weather, etc. Science fiction you say? Science of the future I say! To me it's a pity that humans need to exert that much effort to gain control of a forest fire when technology exist which
could stop it in its tracks when necessary.