› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 23 Total Comments Show All

• 

  kwatt at 11:00 AM JST - 18th March

  What stupid story it is? Persons who set fire on fields were burned themselves. Fire is always out of control on fields.

• 

  cleo at 11:04 AM JST - 18th March

  Someone was saying on the news last night that flames that are usually no more than a couple of metres high were up to ten metres high and jumped over the fire-breaks set up to contain them. The question is what made the fields burn more intensely than usual.

• 

  LFRAgain at 11:44 AM JST - 18th March

  Watched this on the news last night. What a horrible and terrifying way to go.

  I regularly see these 70- or 80-year olds working in the fields, and it seems a lot of these folks have only two speeds: Slow and stop. Granted, they're a damn sight sprier than the old folks from my hometown, but I know that if this kind of fire can trap and kill young, healthy firefighters, it's no surprise that these elderly farmers couldn't get away in time.

  "Selfish bastards..."

  Well, not really. This is a fairly regular community event done primarily to replenish lost nutrients in the soil of a number of fields where crops are grown. These crops support the local economy and put food on the shelves at the supermarket. Not exactly selfish.

  Now if you're talking about the lone guy who takes the weeds he just pulled out of his little backyard garden, puts them in a little pile between your house and his, and lights them up, then yeah, that's not very neighborly.

• 

  tanyurine at 12:30 PM JST - 18th March

  Sounds nuts to me, but here's an article on controlled agricultural burning:

  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/miqn4182/is20060922/ai_n16749652

• 

  bobbafett at 01:02 PM JST - 18th March

  Controlled burning is something for the able bodied who can outrun fire, not for people who need motor scooters to get around.

• 

  timorborder at 01:44 PM JST - 18th March

  Hint, when burning off, always stand downhill of the fire line.

• 

  timorborder at 01:58 PM JST - 18th March

  Fire naturally goes up hill faster than it comes down. An upward draft is often caused by a fire on a hillside which encourages it to work its way upward (this hot draft heats the fuel in front of the fire line to temperatures that are closer to ignition point - hot air rises). As you point out, standing in the black is also another option. Either way, however, you have to be conscious of the fire and be careful that it does not jump firebreaks. Furthermore, in places like Australia, eucalypt fuel does not burn, it explodes. Sometimes when you have people safe on a fire break they still die from lack of oxygen. Growing up on a farm (dog kennel) in rural Australia, I can tell you that grass fires can move really quickly (especially up hill). Furthermore, when met will a wall of flame, you can actually here the oxygen being sucked up by the fire front.

• 

  scoobydoo at 02:59 PM JST - 18th March

  It not good they died or got injured but after having lived in an so called residential area for 4 years and putting up with the smoke spoiling the washing, fires lit near our house and choking smoke around most part of the year with out any consideration to others its hard to feel sorry. The bottom line is that if you do stupid things you pay the price. These farmers burn any thing any where and get really annoyed if you say any thing. If it was truly only done in the country areas there would be nothing to complain about but its not.

• 

  cleo at 03:39 PM JST - 18th March

  The field burning is not burning 'anything anywhere' nor is it carried out 'most part of the year without any consideration to others'. I think you're confusing it with private individuals burning rubbish at home, which is completely different.

• 

  dennis0bauer at 04:54 PM JST - 18th March

  Next time the young fast people in the middle of the field and the slow old people on the sides.

• 

  notimpressed at 04:54 PM JST - 18th March

  actually, they do burn anything, like rubbish and plastics. I have seen plenty of charred rubbish pits full of half burned plastics around the fields in my area.

• 

  cleo at 05:45 PM JST - 18th March

  actually, they do burn anything, like rubbish and plastics. I have seen plenty of charred rubbish pits full of half burned plastics around the fields in my area.

  Yes, but that's rubbish burning, not field burning. Burning rubbish in a field is not the same as burning the field. We're not talking about a few selfish people burning domestic rubbish with no consideration for other folks' washing. It's a major local event, involving hundreds of people, and fliers go out months in advance so you know not to put the washing out on that day.

  http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~aan53170/wtrs/news/yoshi.htm

  http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/imgdata/topics/2005/tp050511.html

• 

  soothsayer at 09:02 PM JST - 18th March

  Fire is always out of control on fields.

  No, it's not. Do some research before posting. Fire can get out of control if weather conditions suddenly change, though.

• 

  shiuu at 09:42 PM JST - 18th March

  If the wind was anything like it was here in Kansai, I'd say it was not a good day to be lighting fires.

  Then again, you can't tell old people anything.

• 

  cleo at 06:50 PM JST - 22nd March

  We went to watch the reed-bed burning at Watarase yesterday, but found that not only were sightseers being kept well away from the area, but the fires were being kept very small and strictly controlled. Normally it takes all morning and the sky is thick with ash that settles everywhere in a papery black layer that has to be swept off the doorstep, but yesterday there were just a few plumes of smoke and very very little ash. Looks like the organisers were afraid of a repeat of what happened in Oita.

Register or Login to leave a comment