Rapidity of a Fire in the Forest

This video was presented by Supervisor Ray Nutting at the August 4, 2009, El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting and demonstrates the dynamics of a fire burning in a highly vegetated forest.  It is an excellent representation of the forest’s fuel load and how in less than two minutes the temperature rises quickly from approximately 86 to 900 degrees.  Though this video is not of an actual fire in our county, these catastrophic conditions currently exist on the landscape of California’s National Forests, and more specifically, in our local El Dorado National Forest.  With the present state of our forests it is not a question of if this will happen, but when.
Video produced by University of California.