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Amazing video of firefighters rescuing a kitten from a burning home, all filmed with a GoPro camera - get a taste of what it's like to step in a heroic firefighter's boots!
Shot 100% on the HD HERO3® camera from http://GoPro.com. Fireman Cory Kalanick rescues an unconscious kitten from a burning house filled with smoke. Music Dexter Britain "Perfect Moment" http://dexterbritain.bandcamp.com/ Original video here: http://goo.gl/Eyv8Y
Incredible article put out by the New York Times putting fire science in a publicly-accessible format and stunning pictures and moving graphics. A must read!
From the Source:
"By suppressing fires ... we’re saving the landscape for the worst conditions,’ a fire researcher says. ‘We need to choose good fire over bad fire, and if we understand spread we can make better choices."
"Fire has always been a part of the natural ecology — many plant species evolved in direct response to it and couldn’t survive without it; when the sap of some pine cones melts, for example, seeds are released. But the reflexive practice of putting out all fires, which has dominated national policy for so many decades, has turned much of the American West into a tinderbox."
Above: "Scientists at the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula observe the behavior of fire in a wind tunnel."
From the Source:
“In an era when firefighting budgets cannot seem to keep up with wildfires, we seem to be crossing an important threshold, in terms of “acceptable loss.” Our nation continues to be faced with drought, deterioration of many western forests, and growth at the wildland-urban interface, resulting in catastrophic wildfires. Many of these are catastrophic fires; we are past the limits of firefighting effectiveness and the margins of firefighter safety."
From the Source:
“National Park visitors are often familiar with fire’s beneficial role in maintaining ecosystem health. Many national parks routinely burn vegetation and allow some lightning fires to burn in remote areas—if they benefit the resources. Unfortunately, wildfires at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, where native biodiversity is shrinking, have become a threat to native ecosystems. Invasion and colonization of alien tropical and sub-tropical grasses, coinciding with the ongoing eruptions of Kilauea Volcano, have caused fire frequency rates to triple since historic levels and average fire size to increase 60-fold.”
From the Source:
“This year, the U.S. Forest Service has spent hundreds of millions of dollars fighting wildfires, cutting into funds originally set aside to prevent them. Fire historian Steve Pyne compares the way we manage fires today to how we manage health—focused on emergencies, and not prevention."
Above: "A fire team lights a restoration burn on the Dahms Tract, Platte River and Wood River area of Nebraska. The Nature Conservancy hopes to demonstrate that there is economic as well as conservation value in restoring tracts of native grasslands. Photo by Chris Helzer/The Nature Conservancy"
