The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-11-27
A CYCLONE OF FLAME
Fires In Bamboo Forests Are thu
Fiercest Known.
on A EXILE A MINU7,
Like the Rear, Che Roll and the Rat
of a Great Battle Is tho Noise of Il,
Exploding Stalks That sometims
Shoot Hieh Into the Air,

.NF'SN'iS "a S0 SOtUCII"S =
Shoot High Into the Air.
When the forests are afire, when
the smoke makes dusk at moor and
reddens the harvest Zoe n Thousand
miles away, there is the measure of a
conhagration. When the prafries burn,
as they used to before farms had crept
In upon the endless miles of grass,
there was n fire which ran like mad
and left behind 1t a blackened trail of
death. If one could combine the speed
Of the prairie fire with the tumult of
the blazing forest, that would be a
fire indeed
Such a combination is effected when
the bamboo groves catch fire. The
bamboo is but a grass, a grass with
the height of a tree, swaying stems
reaching 100, even $50, feet In air.
In Cambodia, where the bamboo
groves along the rivers cover the space
Of forests, it is no unusual thing for
fires to break out and sweep all before
them for many miles. If the summer
has been dry the bamboo turns e a
and int1ammable as any grass.
All that is needed Is q spark: then
ruin runs red. 1t is not necessary to
rely upon the carelessness of the
woodsman to start the blaze. The
bamboo can kindle itself.
Let two swayirg stalks Of dry bam-
boo be set in motion by the breeze, let
one rub across the other long enough,
and the friction will set the spark, and
the long dry leaves will feed the flame.
1t is known that many fires of the
bamboo forests thus originate. Per
haps it was from observing such Il
sight that primitive man learned the
Promethean secret. That theory has
been advanced.
AS soon as a flame in the bamboos
has crept to the level of the tossing
tips 1t spreads like wildire. The wind
carries a sheet of flame along the grove
at tremendous speed. Some observers
say that such fires have been seen to
move forward at the rate of more thar
a mile a minute. Seen from below, it
looks as if she sky had burst into an
instant flash of flame.
From such a burst Of fire there could
be no escape. Fortunately 1T passes
high overhead at the tops of the BAN.
boos. 1t serves as a warning to the
traveller who may be making his way
along some II Of the water courses
by which the forest is intersected. The
bamboo itself is almost an obstacle to
travel OF any sort. 1t is we'll nigh i'm
nOSGjhIa tn foYoa n u,or fbro,~h t. o-
cept by the slow and toilsome labor of
hewfng out q path.
The fire in the great trunks moves
more slowly, and If warning be takeD
1t may be possible to sink ones boat
and throw up wet heritage and clay
against the bank of the stream to pro.
! shelter until the furnace blast
has blown by. Such a fire in the BAN
boo has not only the speed Of the prai-
rie fire on Its sweep overhead, but it
has the same volume of fuel as is
found in any forest fire. 1t combines
the two types.
Bamboo forest fires nave another
quality which is all their own. They
bang and rattle with %thunderous
crashes, as of artillery fire, without
cessation.
The stalks of these tree bamboos are
frequently more than a foot in diane
ter. Near the ground the joints are
close together; in the younger growth
the nodes may be several feet apart.
But, long or short as they may be, each
Joint Of the sun dried bamboo Is a
tightly scaled chamber filed with air.
The partitions between the cavities are
%singularly tough; the outside rind Of
the stalks is almost pure flint.
When the blast Of the flame sweeps
onward the air in the stalks upon
which 1t is driven is suddenly heated
to a very high temperature. The resid-
uum Of moisture which may be in the
stems is Immediately transformed into
steam and at nee subjected to super
heating. thus becoming a violent explo-
sive. AS the hot breath Of the fame
becomes hotter these joints burst with
loud cannon discharges.
Sometimes the force Of the explosion
near the roots is so great us to shoot
the stalk like a javelin high into the
air, where it flashes into torchlike
fame and ia carried by the wind to
spread wider disaster. The bursting
Of the smaller joints is like the roll and
rattle Of rifles and machine guns. The
effect is that of a battle hotly contest
ed.-Washington Post.