[LINK] Bush Fire Speeds (was Re: home emergencies)

[Lea de Groot]

On 22/02/2009, at 6:01 PM, Jan Whitaker wrote:

> Back to burning patterns, I made a comment that fire burns up hill
> faster than down. To me it made sense because the fire would be
> closer physically to the hill upslope than to the downslope. Does
> that hold, assuming of course there wasn't wind driving down a hill
> for some reason?

The firies did a demo at the local annual show last year.
They had this model, about 8 foot by 4 foot, of a hill, made of  
hessian with fake houses on it which they *set on fire* and showed how  
the different conditions around each house varied how the approaching  
fire hit it. (The model house with model long grass around went  
*phoom* up in flames!)

And IIRC and haven't gone mad, yes, they said fire goes faster up hill  
than across level ground. (Can't remember about downhill - the flames  
were getting a bit big so they put it out and we didn't see the  
downhill part. :( )
Very effective :)

Glad to hear you're ok!

Lea
-- 
Lea de Groot
Brisbane, .au