Heroes Insider Weekly

Extreme Weather Survival - Forest Fires

 MNdreamer AKA Storm

 Writing Survival for Extreme Weather

 Forest Fire Survival

          Hi friends!  This week I decided to talk about forest fires.  Now you may be thinking, how in the heck is that a form of extreme weather?  Well it comes in a few forms.  One, it is true most fires start from humans, but the rest usually start from lighting (a form of extreme weather).  They also can be started in some places from lava leaking from a nearby active volcano (another form of extreme weather).  Second, extreme weather phenomena can literally spin up in forest fires in the form of fire tornadoes or fire whirls.  Forest fires contain heat that brings up the temperature of the area all on its own.  The fire even causes winds to kick up.  In my opinion they deserve to be classified as extreme weather and therefore will be getting their own article.

          So you fell in love with the vampire craze and decided to write your own vampire love story.  Or maybe you don’t want it to be a love affair, but instead, a war between vampires and werewolves.  Either way you need cover.  We are going to go with a vampire for the sake of this article.  The Forks, Washington scenario is quite overdone so perhaps you are looking for something a bit more modern.  Northern California has all the appeal of forest cover to conceal during daylight hours, and an upbeat night life to keep any vampire entertained for a few centuries.  It’s the perfect haven for the modern vampire.

      So as morning comes along, your vampire must retreat to the vast forests of Northern California.  The tall redwoods stretch high off the ground reaching infinity high towards the sky blocking out all the morning sun rays.  Your guy is moving amongst the trees thinking how nice it is to be the biggest predator in the area, and realizing it’s been a while since his last meal.  He begins to feel the tingle in the back of his throat; the burn starts to move its way up as the thought sets in deeper that he needs to feed.  Soon it is all he can think of.  He needs blood, human blood.

          It’s early morning; campers will be waking up soon.  He smells the air and locks onto a scent in the distance.  He inhales deeply and holds onto it as he begins to follow it.  He tracks that scent for miles and miles not caring how far he has gone from the main roads.  The aroma gets more and more powerful.  The human is so close now that he can feel the warmth of his blood.  Then he spots the tent.  As he prepares his plan a crackling distracts him right before he sees the human take off at a sprint.

          Several loud cracks are heard just before a thunderous crash.  That gets his attention away from the fleeing human.  Your vampire was so focused on his meal that he didn’t even realize he stumbled into a death trap.  The forest surrounding him is engulfed in flames.  Not a good place for a vampire when one lit match can end your eternal life permanently.  So now what?

          Well since your character is a vampire you have one advantage right off the bat, they don’t need to breathe.  Animals and humans are going to have an issue because the fire is going to be sucking the oxygen out of the air.  So if your character is not a vampire, be sure to spin this into your story.  Make sure they gasp/struggle to breathe a bit.  It is also going to get very hot.  I know this sounds dumb and obvious and you are probably thinking, duh, of course fire is hot idiot.  But the air near a fire can be just as hot as the flame, if not hotter.  One thing some authors miss the first round when writing about fires is the noise.  There is a lot of popping, cracking and whizzing.  Anyone that has been in a forest fire reports how shocked they were at how loud it was.

          Loud noises, low oxygen, temperature rising; what does your vampire do?  Get the heck out of there of course!  They want to head downhill as fast as they can.  The fire is going to be heading up, so they want to head down and away from the flames.  As the fire rages on it will create its own wind current that accelerates it, pushing it faster uphill.  So keep moving downhill!  One big mistake is jumping into a ravine or ditch.  It may seem smart at first because they are low ground and the fire may just skip over them.  But the reality is the fire will use it to its advantage.  The ravine will accelerate the winds of the fire and funnel the smoke through.  Your character does not want to be caught in that.

          The most important thing to keep in mind is: KEEP MOVING!  Do not stop until they are out of the forest or until a fireman or some other official has cleared them.  So is there anything else you can do?  Can I douse myself in water like when I am in the shower and my house is on fire?  Well yes, but where are you going to get enough water to get out of a forest fire?  Not going to happen.  Can I hide in a tree?  Sure, if you want to burn up in that tree when the fire takes it down.  Are there any tools I can buy to help me?  Yes.  If you know your character is going camping in the woods and its fire season there are things you can buy. But that is setting up the story and making it predictable.  Do you want your reader predicting there is going to be a fire?  If so buy a fire shelter and take that with you.

          So now for something really neat, during forest fires there is this really fascinating thing called a fire whirl, which is basically a fire tornado?  They are scary as hell but really beautiful.  Bring them into your story and fascinate your reader.  When a forest fire gets really intense and out of control the winds really get whipping.  The combination of heat and wind create a tornado.  But this is not ordinary tornado, this one is pure fire.  Picture a cylinder of orange, whipping around at fifty miles an hour, chasing you through the trees.  Not only can it suck you up into the sky, but it can incinerate you as well.  If I was a vampire I can’t imagine being afraid of much more than that.

          So friends, I hope you are a bit more prepared to write about a forest fire now.  Why not take my friend Hawkeye’s advice and kill off one of your characters by using a fire whirl.  You’ll leave your reader’s in so much awe over the beauty of the fire tornado that they won’t even miss the character you killed.