Daily Prompt

Fierce

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Fierce Forest Fires

When we think of the word fierce. We might think of the many wild animals some very fierce, very deadly. When I first met my mother-in-law. I thought she was a little fierce, but later realized, she was more intense, intent on getting me out the door ASAP. The word fierce usually involves acts of nature. There are very few things that can compare to the fierce forces of hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoon, earthquakes, landslides and tidal waves. Mother nature can destroy or damage very large areas in minutes.

There is another fierce thing happening all the time, forest fires. There are very few things start with one tiny little spark and turn into a blazing inferno. Destroying forest land, homes and everything that’s in its path. “Last year’s wildfire season set a record with more than 10 million acres burned. That’s more land than Maryland, the District and Delaware combined. More than half the total was the result of mega-fires in Alaska, where dryness due to historically low mountain snowpack and a freak lightning storm created perfect conditions for a huge blaze. The nation’s overall toll was about 4 million acres more than the yearly average, scorching a record set in 2006.”

This year 2016, forest fires have a lot of burning to do yet. It could very well be a brand-new record set again this year. Fires are burning all over the country, even in the central part of the United States. The maps below from Nasa is a very good place to view all of the different fires that are going on at this time. Since records were first kept starting in 1910. There has been 1099 forest fire fighters have lost their lives fighting fires.

I had an uncle named Edmund who worked for the forest service for over 40 years. He spent most all of that time in the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California, as a heavy equipment operator. His wife Elizabeth dedicated almost the same amount of years working in a lookout tower spotting forest fires when they would first start up. She had a hobby of skinning and tanning rattlesnake skins. There were a lot of very large diamondback rattlers in that area.

Uncle Edmund used to tell about when a fire got close and conditions would get just right a whole canyon would explode, as if it was full of explosives or gasoline. Everything would be instantly on fire in that canyon. He happened to get trapped once as a fire was approaching. He had no way to get away from it, so he crawled underneath his Caterpillar, with the blade down and the engine running wide open. That fire burned right around him and his Caterpillar, he survived it. His quick thinking, no doubt saved his life.

The fierce forest fires seem to be setting new records almost daily. I hate to think it might be another indication that there is such a thing as global warming. The number of people who claim there’s nothing to it might fit on one bus soon. A lot of evidence is pointing in the direction of very drastic climate change going on. Time will tell, the next generation will pay the price.

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