Arborist insights on Maui (and other) wild fires

GeoHorn

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Fake News and Amatuer opinions.

The stoves don’t turn to white ash….because they are made of steel. The other appliances are commonl aluminun sheet-metal and are consumed quickly…just like many auto wheels.

The trees didn’t burn because the bldg materials of the houses were synthetics and “flashed”…. but the trees are full of water and therefore survived.

This “expert’s” opinion is B.S. , and it should be obvious from the very moment he claims that he saw the “water burns”…. and refuses to believe that all the vehicles around the area which burned didn’t release flammable fluids which entered the streams and, floating on the surface…was actually what was burning.

Pure B.S…..so common these days….yet people are willing to believe soothsayers and “experts” who deliver fake news as if it were factual. :poop:
 
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mikester

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For some reason I don't have the patience to watch a 60 minute video of talking heads that only want to hear themselves speak. Ranks about the same as talking to a wasted crack head begging for money at a stop light.
 
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GrizBota

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What does and does not burn at the wildfire/urban boundary is very interesting. I’ve seen five gallon gas cans that the fire melted the top off of, that were half full of gasoline afterwards. This is in an area no fire suppression efforts were made. I have no idea why the gas wouldn’t have burned the whole plastic jug to the point I wouldn’t have known it existed. In the same area, I saw cars that had burned, where the engine block was a puddle of aluminum that ran a dozen feet down slope and the plastic tail lights were still on the car. I saw roadway guardrails with timber post where only one post was completely burned in the middle of the run and other runs where dozens upon dozens of the posts had burned completely but every once in a while, in that same run of rail would be an unburned post with no damage.
 

Biker1mike

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I had to stop at the burning water statement. If he had a point to make I could not listen anymore.
The whole microwave thing had me confused.
This guy has never been on a hose line !
 
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will721

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Try throwing a newer wheel in a good hot fire. It will blow your mind.

Pretty much everything made over the past 10 years has aluminum wheels. Aluminum we use is kind of an odd alloy with quite alot of variations depending on the mix which changes both strength, weight, and melting points. They also use flammable metals in the mix like magnesium.

Reguardless if you were to throw an aluminum wheel from a newer car it likely won't even melt like you would expect. They use different aluminum for thr barrel than the centers. I threw a wheel from a newer chrysler in a fire once out of curiosity. The center didn't melt it popped and disintegrated.
 

Daren Todd

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What does and does not burn at the wildfire/urban boundary is very interesting. I’ve seen five gallon gas cans that the fire melted the top off of, that were half full of gasoline afterwards. This is in an area no fire suppression efforts were made. I have no idea why the gas wouldn’t have burned the whole plastic jug to the point I wouldn’t have known it existed. In the same area, I saw cars that had burned, where the engine block was a puddle of aluminum that ran a dozen feet down slope and the plastic tail lights were still on the car. I saw roadway guardrails with timber post where only one post was completely burned in the middle of the run and other runs where dozens upon dozens of the posts had burned completely but every once in a while, in that same run of rail would be an unburned post with no damage.
I've had similar experiences witnessing hurricane and tornado damage.

It's amazing what does and what doesn't get destroyed.
 

The Evil Twin

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Judging by y'all comments, I'm not going to give him the web traffic.
Fire does some weird things. It bypasses some things and consumes things you wouldn't think would burn. It'll hop over fields and houses, travel underground then pop up somewhere else. I seriously doubt some U tube wanna be knows as much as he thinks he does.
 
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Daylight

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Earthquakes do the same: I've had a house completely destroyed (Haiti 2010), but a bottle of wine was standing intact, upright amidst the rubble.

I've had similar experiences witnessing hurricane and tornado damage.

It's amazing what does and what doesn't get destroyed.
 

Jchonline

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But what about the green lights! All China's fault trying to take over Hawaii! Space lasers I tell ya!
 
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Poohbear

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But what about the green lights! All China's fault trying to take over Hawaii! Space lasers I tell ya!
Yea ! That's the ticket.
Or was it the SaceX rocket had the death ray ? I gotta go make my tinfoil hat to be ready
 

will721

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I try not to joke about conspiracies anymore. Too often they turn out to be true no matter how bizarre.
 
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chim

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I try not to joke about conspiracies anymore. Too often they turn out to be true no matter how bizarre.
We've all heard that the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is often approx. 6 months:)
 
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mikester

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Judging by y'all comments, I'm not going to give him the web traffic.
Fire does some weird things. It bypasses some things and consumes things you wouldn't think would burn. It'll hop over fields and houses, travel underground then pop up somewhere else. I seriously doubt some U tube wanna be knows as much as he thinks he does.
I cleared a fence line and made a burn pile of branches in the fence line in the middle of the field. Towards the end of the day I noticed a little smoke coming from the middle of a tree stump about 30 feet away from the fire pile. By later that evening the stump turned into a blow torch with a flame shooting up out of the top of the stump. Green grass all around it. The fire was transferred underground from the fire pile to the stump.

Root fires are pretty scary! Never seen anything like it!
 

Daren Todd

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I cleared a fence line and made a burn pile of branches in the fence line in the middle of the field. Towards the end of the day I noticed a little smoke coming from the middle of a tree stump about 30 feet away from the fire pile. By later that evening the stump turned into a blow torch with a flame shooting up out of the top of the stump. Green grass all around it. The fire was transferred underground from the fire pile to the stump.

Root fires are pretty scary! Never seen anything like it!
I had the same thing with an old rotten stump near a burn pile.
 

Jchonline

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I try not to joke about conspiracies anymore. Too often they turn out to be true no matter how bizarre.

I don't. Sarcasm is about as accurate as theories on the internet these days.
 
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D2Cat

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I'm not sure how to explain a wooden fence painted white with 4x4 post with nails or screws attaching the rails that has burn charcoal marks where the boards were attached. The boards laying at the foot of the post on the ground unaffected, and the post not affected except where the boards were.
 

The Evil Twin

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I cleared a fence line and made a burn pile of branches in the fence line in the middle of the field. Towards the end of the day I noticed a little smoke coming from the middle of a tree stump about 30 feet away from the fire pile. By later that evening the stump turned into a blow torch with a flame shooting up out of the top of the stump. Green grass all around it. The fire was transferred underground from the fire pile to the stump.

Root fires are pretty scary! Never seen anything like it!
Worse yet, they could take days to pop back up.