Wildfire

On April 1845, Thoreau was with Edward Hoar and they were on the river. They pulled over and started a fire to cook some fish, but the fire got out of hand. The fire raged quite a lot, and in the end the whole town turned out to battle the fire. Thoreau was mortified, and couldn't write about it for 5 years in his journal. Forest fires were an issue in those days and this wasn't the first or the last forest fire that threatened Concord. He imagine collective action, where the town would have a volunteer fire department.

One farmer had cut 60 cords of wood to sell, and it burned in the conflagration. His daughter would never forgive him. She would go to school with charcoal smudge because when she collected wood, there was so much burnt wood. Some would hold it against him, but others would recognize that him not hiding and telling everyone immediately was a good move. It ended up being 100-150 acres burnt. The newspaper estimated $2k worth of damages, a huge sum in those times. Because Edward Hoar was Samuel Hoar's son the incident was downplayed. 

When it came out when his unpublished journal was read by a journalist, he was against chastised for pretending to love nature. And in this day and age when people find out about it they can be shocked. I was shocked the first time I heard about it. This nature lover was careless and started a wildfire. 

Thoreau was hard on himself for the incident. He expresses guilt, shame and regret, but also beauty at the powerful force of nature. He saw humans as part of nature, and similar to lightning when it comes to starting forest fires. A force of nature. 

There's a kind of sharp talk when you go camping about having campfires. Usually they have metal or rock pits to help contain the fire. Getting humans to really grok the potential of spreading fire isn't easy. 

In a way, they are unavoidable, if you prevent them, the load of fuel in woods increases, and just lead to bigger fires later. 

There are currently wildfires in Canada that impact New York City where I live. There was that day where the sky was orange and you could look at the sun. (One, two)

When I was a little kid growing up in Madison Wisconsin, I was unsupervised, I played outside quite a lot, and would start leaf pile fires. I'm so glad nothing ever came of it. I played with fires as a 4 and 5 year old. When my parents smelled it near the house, I just moved my fire making to the woods around Eagle Heights and University Housing. I would push together leaves and then set them on fire. Luckily nothing ever spread. 

Later when I was training to be a social worker psychotherapist, I saw on an assessment that they asked if the child ever set fires. I felt horrible for a moment, but then realized setting fires in the city is a different thing that a kid setting small fires in the woods. And yet I knew the instinct of being curious about fires. I've taken my sons camping and they liked the fires quite a lot, I think fascination with fires in a natural thing. The destruction of fire is very important to understand a child. It's one of those things it's hard to understand, or get an understanding without experience. Thoreau certainly was adult enough to understand what he had done, and must have been mortified. The town may have judged him, but he was honest about it and sought help. 

Edward Hoar would go on to be a district attorney in California from 1850-1857. 

The danger of fire is shown by this nature loving and mindful Thoreau causing one. I am really lucky that none of my fires got out of hand. I could see a gust of wind and dry weeds spreading the fire fast. You really have to think about these things. 

I think wildfires as a metaphor for the spread of misinformation is also interesting. 

Thoreau would wander through the burnt woods and see things grow back. Native Americans would sometimes start controlled fires as part of land management. 

NYC forbids even attempting controlled burns inside the city limits. There was a fire down by Willow pond, which was small and contained, I thought it was a controlled burn, but it wasn't. It grew back pretty quickly. No larger than a baseball infield.

Things are different out west where it sometimes doesn't rain a lot. There are almost deserts. I'd be a lot more careful with fire in a desert, really make sure the fire pit is lined, and watch sparks that fly off. Make sure the fire is really small and banked when you go to bed, I'd probably pour water over it if I had extra. 

In Concord, the effected area was quickly green again. Thoreau was surprised at how quickly nature snapped back. I remember driving out west in a park where a wildfire didn't snap back the arid landscape. Again, I think things are different everywhere and you should know where you are. Fire out west is different. 

Then there's the Chicago fire in 1871. They even name the local soccer team fire. 

One of my many part time jobs was to be a fire marshal. I worked in at a bible society when they were cleaning out the tanks on the roof, and I would walk around a building watching out for fire. Since the library had many priceless bibles they had tanks on the roof that would quickly squash out any fires. It was a regular office building and there shouldn't be any fires anyway, but you know humans, they're a force of nature, unpredictable. Pretty quickly the tanks were cleaned and my job was over. NYC is considered a Sodom but there's a bible society with a library and displays in NYC. There are endlessly preachers trying to save the secular society. Thoreau had a secular preacher's kind of ferver about self development. 

Reading the news today (7/11/23), there's a wildfire in Wisconsin. (Source, source, source)