Initially posted on Friday, August 24, 2012
'Road-hopping' refers to a wildfire literally hopping onto or across a road. There are inaccurate notions that a fire will stop dead in its tracks if it does not have fire feeding elements to keep it going, such as trees, leaves, paper, etc. The reality is, especially when a fire has become so hot and so intense, a fire can still spread and continue to grow, over areas that do not have the fire feeding food. Other inaccurate notions are, roads and highways aren't going to be burnt by a forest fire. Exacerbating the situation, is some people wrongly think that if they are on the road, or sitting in their car on the road, to avoid the flames of a wildfire, that they are actually safe. Making a decision that if you make it to the road during a huge wildfire will guarantee your safety, is a false and unsafe assumption to make.
Small fires that might burn in your fireplace during an evening dinner, might not have the force to road-hop, but, when fires get as big as some of the wildfires witnessed the summer of 2012 in the Midwest U.S., it is found out, fires can be different, in different circumstances. Instead of a wildfire reaching its endpoints at a highway, or major road, the fire will act more like a legged being, taking on characteristics, in terms of the things it can do. The very intense wildfires of magnitudes in the square miles, will 'walk' or 'hop' right over a highway, and continue burning more acreage on the other side. Think a pond or a lake will stop the wildfire, these intense wildfires seem as if they can swim and float right over the water; if water is going to be used to put wildfires out, there has to be enough water force and pressure, to really drown it out, and because the temperature of what it was burning has gotten so hot, the water need to prevent the material from re-catching fire moments later.
Lessons:
- Highways and roads are not safe-havens for evacuations of wildfires
- Highways and roads are not reliable stopping structures for the spread of wildfires
- If it has been determined by fire authorities to evacuate 10 miles from a fire, don't decide to only evacuate 9 miles away because you are on a road or highway, and highway does not seem like fire fodder; it is best to go the entire distance you were or are instructed
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