Gotta love fire season in South Africa
We don't have winter, we call it fire season.
For some odd reason there is an attitude that has developed in parts of South Africa that if grass is dry it must be burned.
So typically not a day goes by when there is not a pillar of smoke rising into the air somewhere in the vicinity.
This picture above was just down the road on Friday. Most of the locals are on Watsapp groups or some other means of communication.
If its windy these fires spread rapidly and a fire a couple of kilometers away can quickly become your problem in just a matter of minutes or hours. It's simpler to all band together as quickly as possible and put the fire out as early as possible before it rages along a broad front. This way you have many neighbors co-operating to put the fire out as soon as one is detected.
The best place to defend against fire is at a road, fire-brake or other suitable area devoid of flammable material.
The wind behind this fire was too strong and it easily jumped this road seconds after taking this picture. Luckily the winter frosts have been mild so far so there was still some greenness in the grass on the other side of the road and the wind turned. We were able to put it out and then back-burn from the road verge towards the approaching flames and prevent any further fire jumping the road.
That reminds me of my time in Kerala, India. There were many open dump areas where trash and dead leaves would be set ablaze together. In your case it's different, I think, if it's just dead grass. Is it a natural (pyromanic) compulsion that's been gradually accepted, or what is the reasoning behind burning it? I suppose some could view that it would encourage regrowth quicker, as occurs after natural wildfires.
Most of the fires are started by people just setting it alight. Just for the fun of seeing it burn.
It's a vary big cultural problem and it destroys millions of hectars of farmland each year.
That makes a lot of sense. The urge to burn things, and the odd pleasure humans derive from it, seems to be rather strong. As you say, when it occurs on a large scale, it's a major problem.
I think it will be better if you will uproot all grasses near to your house at least 50 meters in radius so that fire will just stop in the place where there is no grasses at all. Thats so dangerous and it will be very alarming if it will happen at night. Be very careful.
@gavvet - a subject I am only too conversant with. As a firefighter for 12 years grass fire season as we called it (winter for other readers) was a real pain in the butt. we worked 24 hours shifts during the week and 48 hour shifts over the weekend. It was commonplace that fire crews would be out 80% of the time often having to be relieved due to exhaustion, hunger etc. It was not uncommon that crews would attend to 25 plus grass fires in a 24 hour shift.
Malicious ignition of bush-veld as you eluded to can be very dangerous. Even a controlled burn can be very dangerous due to the unpredictable nature of the wind. For example we have had firemen having only their fire appliance to hide under, had a thatch house catch fire, motor vehicles in a grass car-park badly damaged due to the fire changing direction.
Some people are so stupid...
Oh...we have in Siberia, in the middle of spring forests are constantly burning. The main reasons are stupid degenerates that burn fires in the forest, as well as garbage left after them, namely bottles that are exposed to sunlight and they become like a magnifying glass that ignites dry grass.
We can see this in India as well. In the season of summer we can see fire season often in the part of Rajsthan.
God always take care of them and avoid major damages
Steep post described clearly.
In many parts of the world, grass is scorched and I do not think that's good.
After the grass has fallen, if the fire meets some kind of a barn or a house or something else it will burn out instantly.
Thank you for sharing.
This type of fire season we can see many country as like usa and many other country the basic reason is that environmental temperature is increase day by day.
Wild fires like this can be devastating. What is amazing is how fast they can get out of control. Out west in Alberta they have had some major issues with wild fires in the past with the most notable being a fire that destroyed a big part of Fort McMurray and saw thousands of people displaced.