The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-12-04
A CYCLONE OF FLAME
Fires In Bamboo Forests Are the
fiercest Known.
SWEEP ON A MILE A MINUTE
Like the Rear, the Roll and the Rattle
of a Great Battle Is the Noise Of the
Exploding Stalks That Sometimes
Shoot High into the Air.

Exploding Stalks That Sometimes
Shoot High into the Air.
When the forests are atire. when
the smoke makes dusk at noon and
snddens the harvest moon a thousand
miles away. there is the measure of a
sonflagration. When the p~rairies burn,
IS they used to before farms mad crept
In upon the endless miles of grass.
there was Il fire which ran like mad
and left behind it a ~blackencd trail of
death. If one could combine the speed
OF the prairie fire with the tumult of
he blazing forest, that would be q
fire indeed.
Such a combination is effected when
b 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 Cambotia. 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 fer many miles. If the summer
has been dry the bamboo turns scar
and infammable as any grass.
All that is needed Is Il spark: then
ruin run red. 1t is not necessary to
rely upon the carelessness Of the
wOodSman 70 start the blaze. The
bamboo can kindle itself.
Let two swayirg stalks Of dry BAN
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 fame.
1t is known that many fires of the
bamboo forests thus originate. Per
haIs it was from observing such Il
sight that primitive man learned the
Promethean secret. That theory has
been advanced.
AS soon as n flame in the bamboos
| has crept to the level of the tossing
tips it spreads like wildfre. 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 than
a mile a minute. Seen from below. it
looks as If she sky had burst into an
instant fash Of fame.
From such a burst Of fire there could
be 10 escape. Fortunately it passes
high overhead at the tops Of the bam-
bOOs. 1t serves as a warning to the
traveller who may be making his way
along some one Of the water purse
by which the forest Is intersected. The
bamboo itself is almost an obstacle to
| travel Of any sort. 1t IL we'll nigh i'm
possible to force q way through it ex-
cept by the slow and toilsome labor Of
hewing out a path.
The fire in the great trunks moves
more slowly. and If warning be taken
1t may be possible to sink ones boat
and throw up wet heritage and clay
against the bank Of the stream to pro-
vide shelter until the furnace blast
has blown by. Such a fire in the BAN
boo has not only the speed Of the prai-
RE fire on its sweep overhead. but 1t
has the same volume Of fuel as is
found in any forest fire. 1t combines
the two types.
Bamboo forest fires have 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 III dried bamboo is a
tightly sealed chamber filled 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 fame sweeps
onward the air In the stalks upon
which it 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 once subjected to super
heating. thus becoming a violent explo-
sive. Al 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 20 great as to shoot
the stalk like a javelin high into the
air, where it flashes into torchlike
lame and is 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 holly contest
od.-Washington Post.