fire tower burns itself down

[RoySwkr]

The 74-year-old Needles Fire Lookout Tower near Porterville CA burned down when an ember from the wood-burning fireplace escaped from the chimney and landed on the tower's wood-shingle roof, catching the roof on fire. The female tower attendant, a U.S. Forest Service employee, tried unsuccessfully to use a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames. The woman was able to get out of the tower safely before it was consumed by the blaze. Several buckets of water dropped on the roof of the tower when it was ablaze by a USFS helicopter did not extinguish the blaze.

Four other fires less than an acre each in size were started by the tower's burning debris that rolled down from the rock on which it was built. It will take firefighters some time to extinguish the four fires because the terrain where they are burning is steep and rocky. The tower, which was completely destroyed, was still smoldering and dropping debris.

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

Irony at it's best...

 

[Puma concolor]

That's why they say truth is stanger than fiction.

 

[DougPaul]

I'm not sure I'd call that burning itself down... I'd call it a result of human actions. (A human built fire in a device without an adequate spark arrestor.)

I'm sure plenty of cabins have been set on fire by sparks from fires in their fireplaces or wood stoves. This one was simply on top of a tower...

Doug

 

[RoySwkr]

From: PEAKMASTERONE

Now it can truly be called a "FIRE TOWER"! Or more correctly was.

I'm sure plenty of cabins have been set on fire by sparks from fires in their fireplaces or wood stoves. This one was simply on top of a tower...

The irony being that the tower is there to protect the woods from fires, not to start them