Kooky Local Simpleton On Cause Of Boise Wildfire

As I left work about 7:15 p.m. on Monday evening, I was amazed at the duststorm that had come up; I couldn't even see the Boise foothills from about 3 miles away because of all the dust. As I headed west, I noticed that the dust had been joined by a bunch of white smoke coming from what looked like one spot, but I didn't see any flames. By the time I got home 20 minutes later, they were already breaking into the TV shows with reports of a major fire that had spread to a subdivision.

Aerial pictures of the damage can be seen here, including this picture:

It appears that the fire started from a power pole on the undeveloped land and quickly spread up the hill. And on what does Boise refugee from common sense Bryan Fischer blame this fire? Open space. Here's part of what he says:

Were the BLM property not off-limits to development, it is likely that homes would have been built some time ago in the area where the fire began. Preserving open space is trendy, but it drives up the price of housing and, as last night illustrated, can be dangerous.

That's right -- having any piece of undeveloped property is dangerous. Since no matter what you do, there will always be undeveloped space next to a house somewhere unless everything is developed, Bryan Fischer seems to be calling for the end to wilderness everywhere. I don't think that will go over very well here in Idaho.

The wildfire ended up destroying 10 houses, damaging 9 others, and killed a BSU professor. If you'd like to help those displaced by the fire, here's some information on how you can help.

Update 0909 28 Aug: Here's a more likely explanation for the rapid spread of the fire from house to house -- those darned cedar shake roofs that various Home Owner's Associations require, allegedly for "aesthetic" reasons. (Long-time readers know that I'm not a big fan of tasteful neighborhood beautification.) While the HOA in my neighborhood is non-functional, we still have a covenant in our deed that requires cedar shake roofs on our houses. I'm not happy about it, but since our house already has one, I'm not planning changing ours out yet just to make a point. (Plus, although we used to have a lot of "open space" around us, it's pretty much disappeared in the 4 years since we moved in.)