8/10: Brush fire

Tony Shepps • Aug 10, 2001 11:59 am
Image

This was a brush fire in Washington State, and the amazing thing about this image, aside from the fact that it's pretty cool, is that the house in the picture was saved. I don't know how, but it was.
Slight • Aug 10, 2001 4:35 pm
I am no fire expert, but from the looks of it, the wind is blowing the other way when the photo was taken. Fires usually spread it the direction of the wind. But I am as amazed as Tony to why this house is still standing.
jaguar • Aug 10, 2001 11:03 pm
yea i think you right slight, looks like the entire area is charred though - damn lucky indeed.
Slithy_Tove • Aug 11, 2001 6:59 am
Originally posted by Tony Shepps
This was a brush fire in Washington State, and the amazing thing about this image, aside from the fact that it's pretty cool, is that the house in the picture was saved. I don't know how, but it was.
It may have been saved through the miracle of telephoto photography. Telephoto lenses squish everything together, and make distant objects look much larger. The fire may have been a long way from the house. It's a night shot, too, without much detail, and it's very hard to judge the relative position of objects in three-dimensional space.
Katkeeper • Aug 11, 2001 7:13 am
Did anyone hear the NPR report about fire fighters risking their lives and spending lots and lots of money to save "trophy houses" of the very rich that were built in places they should not be and then not protected by clearing the bushes and trees from around the house? Interesting questions were raised about whether the fire fighters should do this...
elSicomoro • Aug 11, 2001 9:20 pm
Money talks, bullshit walks...whoops!

Seriously though, if you throw around enough payola, it works wonders. Reminds of that episode of "Law & Order" I saw last night.
kaleidoscopic ziggurat • Aug 13, 2001 2:08 pm
if you remember the fires in that posh district near LA in the early 90s you may have heard about the miracle house out there... it was built by its owner to be fireproof and actually withstood the blaze while every house on his block got totalled.