By Jason Wade Matthews
Special to Rich Civic Times
Garden City, Utah. September 29, 2018. It’s been a busy fire season in 2018, California burnt and we lost a local firefighter there. Utah has had its share of fires as well. Loss of structures and even firefighting equipment hit us here at home. Thanks to a brave group of firefighters our fire here locally was caught and put out.
There are a few fires ongoing in our state and a few fairly close that are impacting the hunt. Safety around the burn scars is something I want to make a short mention of. The accepted rule is .05” of rain within 60 minutes will result in flooding.
What is a burn scar? Easy answer is what’s left after a fire has passed through. An area devoid of vegetation on the ground. In a burn scar water has nothing to absorb or slow water from moving rapidly downhill. Nothing to stop water soaked dirt from moving as well. So if the thought of flash floods isn’t enough, the mudslides should also cause concern.
When out on one of these fires, we say keep one in the black for safety. The opposite holds true after the fire. Stay off the burn scar in wet weather, don’t cross under a scar either. It’s the revenge of an extinguished fire, one last assault if you will. A scar will cause floods and it will give you mudslides.
Be smart out there this year when on the hunts, this week we are expecting some rain. Don’t be the reason Search and Rescue has to deploy. There is a wealth of knowledge just a “google” away, look up burn scars and floods for more info.
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