Fire or Control Burn on Apache Peak?

[Rick M]

From the "Amateur (Ham) Radio and Hiking" topic I said

Once when going up Gorgonio we stumbled across an abandoned campfire that had spread in some brush and a tree. Fortunately, there was no wind and we were able to put out all the fire except above 8' on the tree. Using a homemade roll-up J-pole antenna I was able to reach someone on the Laguna Peak repeater who relayed my message to the forest service who had no clue as to where I was talking about until I discovered they were in the Cleveland Nat'l Forest so I gave the Lat and Long and within an hour a helo landed with a hand crew to chain saw the then sparking tree down.

I wonder if the hikers were carrying a cell phone and it's hard to say why they couldn't limit its extent, maybe not be able to extinguish the deep embers but at least keep it from spreading. We used a combination of dirt, stomping and our water but if you've ever tried to put out a campfire then you know how much water is needed. Not having been there it's easy to second guess but I think I would have changed my plans to "babysit" the thing till help arrived. But then that is a bad place to be caught in a big fire so perhaps your life is more important and as C23 said

don't blame him at all for getting the heck out of dodge

From that second photo of the stump right next to the trail, it would be hard to believe it wasn't human caused Having been a volunteer/pcf with San Bernardino County Fire for 12 years I've seen a lot of destruction and hope no one gets hurt or worse on this fire. With our dry conditions already upon us, it goes without saying that everyone needs to be very careful with fire.

[Tim Le]

if you've ever tried to put out a campfire then you know how much water is needed.

I don't have a lot of camping/backpacking experience but I know what you mean.

Last year I went on a backpacking trip to Ostrander Lake in Yosemite with a large group, maybe 15 people. They made a fire and told ghost stories till 1am. Everyone was tired and wanted to go to sleep but the fire was still going good. I insisted that it be put out. Most of them thought it would burn itself out so they went to sleep. A few people stayed and we spent 30-45 minutes gathering water from the lake and pouring it on the logs. Man, it takes A LOT of water to put out a hot fire! Even then the logs kept smoldering. Then we put dirt on it, which didn't work too well because the logs kept smoldering but now we couldn't pour water on it. I told the others they could go to sleep and I would babysit it until it was out. I spent another half hour or so trying to put out every ember and then went to sleep.

I was the first one to wake up that morning at 6am. I looked over and holy cow, smoke was rising from where the fire was! Somehow small bits of pine needles on the ground outside the fire ring had ignited and were smoldering. Had there been logs or brush nearby, it would have been a disaster. From now on I'm insisting that a campfire burn itself out with no fuel left well before we go to sleep.

[FIGHT ON]

[quote="cynthia23"]I am going to start a new post about this. I just checked FightOn's link and the MSJ park is currently closed. Many people doing C2C this weekend; they need to be aware of this ....[/quote]

FIGHT ON'S Link? can't take credit for other peoples posts.

[FIGHT ON]

I am going to start a new post about this. I just checked FightOn's link and the MSJ park is currently closed. Many people doing C2C this weekend; they need to be aware of this ....

gonna figure out this quote thing if it's the last thing I do!

[Hikin_Jim]

gonna figure out this quote thing if it's the last thing I do!

Can I quote you on that?

[Rick M]

Tim Le said

...I was the first one to wake up that morning at 6am. I looked over and holy cow, smoke was rising from where the fire was! Somehow small bits of pine needles on the ground outside the fire ring had ignited and were smoldering. Had there been logs or brush nearby, it would have been a disaster...

That's exactly what we found at the San G fire. Looked like they had poured some water on their campfire that was built on pine needle covered ground. They might have cleared a circle couple of feet in diameter and then put some rocks around it and made the fire. When we came upon it on our way up San G, three snake like fingers had smoldered their way outward from the fire in the pine needles maybe six to twenty feet out before one ignited some dry grassy brush next to a tree.

We stomped the needles and brush out and put dirt on it but used our water to try and put out the bark burning. We were successful up to about 8-10' high and just couldn't do anymore on it. We babysat the thing till the fire crew landed just in case flying sparks or embers coming off started any spot fires.

But as you mentioned, rekindled campfires are responsible for an awful lot of brush/forest fires. I have probably come across twenty abandoned still smoldering campfires during my lifetime. I remember one actually had large flames and sparks flying from it in a wind that had brought it back to life . I've even heard in fire training that a campfire built on an old root can solder for days until it reemerges many feet away only to later start a fire. Please be very careful with campfires.