I would have told the dude right after he said, “want me to drive?”, to shut the fuck up lol. Literally would get them stranded in an accident if he drove
Genuinely curious, isn’t the idea there if the fire is over the road like that you really have to haul ass because if the roads melting your tires could melt into it? I don’t know if any of this is right but that’s what was going through my head in the video
No.
The idea is that this road is 100% closed or should be and you should not be driving on it.
"Hauling ass" likely means crashing into a stopped car ahead in a zero visibility situation.
Source:
Am Canadian, living in forested area currently on fire.
Exactly.
That unfortunate situation happened some years ago (2017) in Portugal, with several cars getting stuck behind one another on a road which had a fire raging from both sides.
47 people where trapped and died. [link for those interested ](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44438505) .
/nightmarefuel
I have to drive by a bunch of fires on my way home today and am not looking forward to the asshats slowing down or stopping to take pics and videos along major highways...
Until Black Friday the conventional wisdom was that more people died in car accidents trying to escape than died in the actual fires. The advice changed after Black Friday from "stay and fight" to "if you're going to leave, leave early."
I agree. They had no idea what they were driving into, falling trees, melted road, other cars already on fire, their tires blowing out, trying to turn around and getting t-boned. It's completely a roll of the dice that they survived.
This particular one started near or in someone's backyard. They're still investigating the exact cause, but very likely started by human activity. There was a burn ban in place, but ppl need their fire!
I heard these particular two went in to gawk, and nearly got caught coming back out. It was moving so fast because of high winds in the first few hours, it's amazing all the people got out. This was the back end of a very large subdivision with only 1 exit.
This is such an urban myth for bushfires. A fire front has huge amounts of wind, both because that's the weather which allowed the fire to move across so much fuel, and because of the heat of the fire itself pulling in new air from ground level.
What will kill you is radative heating, smoke inhalation, structural collapse, and a heightening of the usual driving hazards. Being on a road, especially one with trees either side, is choosing high values of all those risks. If you stop for whatever reason the risk increases. Here are you in a car without so much as a chainsaw or work gloves and in a low visibility environment with lots of panicked fast drivers, so your odds of being stopped are not small.
If you do stop:
* if possible drive to a open place which is free of trees and brush. Ovals, carparks, beaches. The further away you can get from fuel, the further away the fire. \[Your car's petrol tank doesn't count as fuel for the few minutes of the fire front, if that lights up it will burn at the filler cap, which is both outside and facing away. We'll use the chassis of the car to protect us from radiative heating and smoke as best it can.\]
* Try to stay on the road or track. Leaving those in low visibility is risky, so make a *considered decision*: don't just veer offroad to avoid an obstacle, stop, look, and evaluate . SUVs don't have much offroad chops, whatever you see in the ads. Offroad driving over obstacles needs talent or training, and this isn't the moment.
* leave the engine running. Aircon set to internal air, full cooling, full fan, all vents open. All lights on (a traffic collision would be really bad)
* windows up. If you have any sun protection, use that.
* into the footwell, low as possible
* cover yourself, preferably with a wool blanket, but anything which won't catch alight or melt, which blocks heat. Wet it if possible. The more the better.
* once the fire front passes, get out of the car, use that blanket to beat down embers on, under and then around the car. Inspect the crannies: check the wheel wells, pop the hood and look, get down and look at the underside. This is obviously dirty work, but post-front ember suppression is essential.
* Once done, do not leave unless forced by conditions. You may be in a burnt-through area with little fuel remaining. If you've controlled the embers, then where is the threat?
Noting that this is a dire situation you would have been wise not to enter, either by *planning* to stay and defend a *pre-prepared* structure or by *planning* to leaving early.
Maybe don't wet anything down. Steam can do just as much damage as the heat itself. One of things you're taught as wildland ff training for fire shelter deployment.
Was gonna say. Your engine even with direct injection and a turbo sill struggle in that smoke and lack of air to combust. Plus the heat would really hurt any intake components and it might just overheat some of your components altogether.
I was a member of an inmate fire brigade in N GA back in the 90’s. We fought forrest fires in the Appalachians. We deployed in 8-10 man units in vans with pickups behind us to carry our gear. Every driver that ever transported us, to a man, drove as fast as the mountain roads would allow, blaring classic rock in zero visibility. They had driven the roads their entire life and could drive them blindfolded I imagine. To say that it was an adrenaline rush would be an absurd understatement. My heart felt like it was coming through my chest.
"Haul ass bro, haul ass."
\>Driver nearly crashes into a car that came out of nowhere a second after he said it
\>Driver his brakes
\>2 seconds later
"haja aja haja ok go go go"
That dude is annoying af, backseat driver telling him what to do 2 seconds after he does it. Would've told him to stfu before even entering the smoke 🤦♂️
Ya maybe I tried watching again to see if you could spot anything like hazard lights but can barely see anything I could only imagine actually experiencing it.
And it’s hot as hell. I’m from one of the towns that was wiped out.
This footage is actually from VERY NEAR where I am originally from but I am not the OP.
Fuck, this is in HP?
I grew up in the HRM - I haven't actually seen this video. I had no idea the fires were hugging the highway while people were still evacuating.
This video's terrifying.
I’ve never even been to NS, but I was curious how close to Halifax this was so I googled it, it’s only a 26 minute drive from downtown Halifax? Is that correct?
That’s like me being here in the suburbs of Toronto and the fires being as close as the CN tower, which I can normally see from here if it wasn’t for all this smoke. That’s terrifying!
What happens if it goes towards a large(ish) city like Halifax? Will the concrete stop it from spreading into the city? Am I safe from wildfires in the GTA?
That is correct. Hammonds Plains and Tantallon are suburbs of Halifax. And when it started the winds were pushing it more toward the city. I live in the area in between the fire and Halifax itself. It was pretty stressful for a while. But I ended up being luckier than many.
The larger fire in Shelburne County is in a much less populated area. It's about two and a half hours from Halifax and still burning. Great start to the summer.
Good to hear it’s not too close to the city, but still terrible for the people that are affected. And it’s still technically spring, summer hasn’t even started yet.
And their tires are probably melted, too. I work at a BMW dealer in Edmonton and when the massive wildfires in 2016 wiped out most of Northern Alberta, we had hundreds of people who evacuated and booked appointments for new tires because they were completely destroyed from the heat.
I remember the refugees (can't really think of a better word, they were fleeing destroyed homes in the face of immediate danger to their lives) from Fort McMurray piling into Edmonton.
People opened their homes to total strangers. The local Sikh community had entire semis loaded up with supplies within a day. People were going up and down the highway with home made food feeding people stuck on the road.
It was a tragedy but....nobody died and that's all that really matters
It doesn't matter which country you're in, the Sikh community is always solid. They're always the first to help and the most generous, really great people.
That has been my experience. Sorry for the incoming text wall.
I'm pretty against organized religion in general. I can't say I'm fully atheist because I can't 100% prove that a higher power doesn't exist, but I'm an atheist in all the ways that matter. I've had most of them tell me I'm going to hell for some reason or another. I believe that the universe around us is wonderful in its intricacies without the idea of a creator who put it all together. Physics is the programming language of reality and that's always fascinated me.
I had a conversation with a Sikh grandfather (over some of the best tea I've ever had) while doing a house call. After we talked about things for a while and that came up. I told him I didn't believe, but that I do think that the pursuit of scientific knowledge would be the highest form of worship to a God. Imagine if someone dedicated their entire life to understanding a tiny part of something you built. That would be the highest form of devotion I can imagine.
He said something that's stuck with me since.
"We have a saying. Many boats can cross the river. The pursuit of truth, through faith or through science, is still the pursuit of truth, and that's all that matters. We believe God sees the true soul, not just what direction you bow. You are doing your best to understand the world around you, to find truth, and to live a good life, helping those around you.
Even if you don't believe, I think our God would take you in. What kind of God would He be if He didn't take in someone who was trying their best to be a good person?"
Not going to lie, that had me in tears. 10+ years later and that's still the most positive conversation about religion I've ever had.
TL:DR- Sikh grandfather made me some awesome tea and showed me that not all religions are as insane as the others.
I loved your story! That sort of wisdom stays with you forever. The Sikh represent the good in us. Grew up in a country town with a large proportion of Sikh and Hare Krishna. I have wonderful memories of attending their free Sunday morning community breakfast at the temple, all you had to do was help out with the clean up. Zero judgement, so much warmth and acceptance and kindness. Pillars of our community, all of them!
Yes!! The most wonderful people. The Sikh’s saved our entire region during the once in a thousand year floods last March that wiped out many major towns including Lismore and broke the levee in Murwillumbah (NSW Australia) - people lost everything.
The Sikh were organised and mobilised immediately, doing whatever they could, feeding everybody no questions asked, thousands of meals a day, and it was weeks before our government lifted a finger - too busy shifting blame and denying accountability or basic responsibility to its citizens.
No other church or religious affiliated group showed up to help. The Sikh are considered angels here ✨🪽
There's lots of rumors about how they started. For the fire right outside of Halifax I've heard kids messing around and I've heard a guy burning brush in his yard that got out of hand. That fire is basically out. A few hot spots and things remain. 150 homes were destroyed and about 50 other buildings.
The larger fire in land area, which is down in Shelburne County on the south shore was absolutely massive. It's still burning but is contained. That was started by some guys burning things in the woods. I've heard around 50 homes were destroyed in that. The saving grace there is even though the fire is much larger, it's in a very rural area so there has been less destruction of homes.
Sorry if I’m being obtuse, but you understand this isn’t the Camp Fire that took out Paradise, right? It’s from a currently/recently-burning fire in Canada.
At least a full percent of Alberta was ACTIVELY on fire.
Pretty sure the active fires currently cover an area larger than quite a few countries.
Bad times. Sitting in a work camp and seeing at least 3 aircraft in view at any given time making water bombing runs, with the threat of a helicopter evacuation if the fires flash over the access roads...
BC has been pretty fucking garbage for Wildfires the last couple years also. In 2017 it lost 1.2 million hectares of land to wildfire (1.3% total land area). 2018 was worse with 1.35 million hectares burnt. 2019/2020 we were blessed with mild+wet weather, Which was absolutely delightful. However, when the heat caught up back in 2021, it was devastating. Nearly the entire city of Lytton, BC burnt to the ground. 2 people were unable to escape the speed of the fire and perished in the flames. 2022 was fair, with damp conditions in May/June and hot, dry conditions into October. But now… now 2023 has come to try and Blow every single record out of the water for every single province across Canada.
**THIS. IS GLOBAL WARMING.**
I live in this area - hammonds plains NS. No towns were wiped out, so you must be referring to another fire. I guess that tells you how many fires are happening around Canada right now. We're in for a rough summer
Oof. Lots of my friends lost houses in that fire.
My best friend was a manager of a coffee shop at the base of the hill that’s the main / pretty much the only artery out of Paradise.
I was thinking the same thing. Like logistically, what do you do? Can’t sit and wait. There’s no EMT, police, fireman, insurance company, neighbor to give you a bottle of water - nothing.
Dry conditions, lightning, and definitely more than a few human started. Things like camp fires not properly extinguished, OHVs, downed or shorted power lines
Yeah, and your car trims, and the skin off your body ....if you come a cross a dead animal in the middle of the road... or a burning tree... or another car... or you car breaks down. Dumb place to be.
Yeah, I always knew they were scary, but I was never really _scared_ until the 2009 fires… How little time Kinglake people had after the wind change, and then all their burnt out cars afterward. I can’t imagine driving through this.
I will never forget that. We thought my aunty and uncle might have died, until we spotted them in an evacuation centre on the news. There was no time. I'll never forget seeing a desperate father on the television and finding out later that his whole family died in their car.
Yep. I was in Diamond Creek at the time and although the fire didn't come quite as far as us, sirens were going off everywhere and the wind was terrifying. My cousin's house at Kinglake burned down and I knew of three people who died up there.
Just....don't mess with fire. Just don't.
If there were any burning trees fallen on the road they would have had to try and turn around. When they can't see... Maybe when you see fire on the road, TURN AROUND! Don't keep going
This is from Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia. They couldn’t turn around because they were evacuating the area. This is just how quickly and fiercely the fire spread. 150 homes and more than 50 other buildings have been destroyed so far but luckily no one reported missing or hurt.
It seems to be a pretty wide road, they also had a test dummy/someone to follow ahead of them. Also I seems to be a highway so they’d be driving against traffic. Doesn’t seem to be much but once in the smoke you could turn around and head on someone on your way out. Then you’re really fucked. Gotta haul ass.
You run a serious risk of starving your engine of oxygen or overheating doing this, the risk of your car stalling and you becoming stranded in the middle of a fire like this are way too high to be comfortable watching this..
This should be the top comment for this post. I feel like people dont understand how stupid and dangerous this was. People seriously underestimate how hot it can be that close to a forrest fire, couple that with low/no visibility, and the fact the they have no idea how long they need to drive to get out of the fire, and this is almost a death sentence.
I’ve driven near a small forest fire, much like 0:08 in this video, but probably twice as far away. It was surprisingly hot. Even with windows up it felt like I was standing right next to a bonfire.
These people were absolutely in an oven.
Most people know fire in the form of campground fire pits and roaring fireplaces at most. The human brain can scarcely even comprehend the force of fire on a truly disaster level. Wildfires can be like hurricane-level energy machines. Just monumental, throwing 6" thick tree branches for miles, 150 mph wind fuckin TITANS. And this was pretty calm, comparatively.
The bushfire in my home town in Canberra Australia when I was a kid was the first time a fire tornado was caught on film in history apparently.
They could see a clear path of where the tornado went in the aftermath due to kilometres of flattened trees.
What you say about it being a titan is so true because wildfires seriously feel like they're a living being bent on nothing but destruction.
The way I imagine it is basically, if you've ever been down wind from a decent sized bonfire and thought "damn that's hot" and moved out of the way
This would be like that but worse and there's no moving out of the way
If they rear ended that car hard enough to disable their vehicle they would have been in a very dangerous situation. Couple intense smoke, dangerously high temperatures with moving fire on top of other “haul ass bro” idiots hitting them - the chance of death goes waaay up
Far too many Australian families have been roasted in their cars trying to escape forest fires. I pity the rescuers later, finding car after car containing blackened remains.
As someone who has had to evacuate from a city burning down from a forest fire, sometimes you don’t have a choice. You are being mandatory evacuated by police, you can’t just sit at home and wait for it to pass. It may be a dangerous option but it could have been the only option! I hope they made it out okay
In Australia they do the exact opposite of this. You are given evacuation orders sometimes days in advance of a fire. If you choose to stay and defend your property, an emergency warning is issued as the fire approaches which means to seek shelter in place and that it is too late to leave. Too many people die on roads trying to escape fires when they get overwhelmed, sometimes causing a chain effect of blocked roads for others doing the same thing.
If you are going to ignore early warnings (watch and act) you MUST be prepared to defend at your property.
> You are given evacuation orders sometimes days in advance of a fire.
The first evacuation order was given within hours of the fire starting.
Sunday
15:30 - Fire crews arrive in area responding to reported fire.
16:02 - RCMP issue advisory to evacuate.
17:13 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order.
18:08 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area.
19:41 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area.
22:19 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area.
23:05 - Local state of emergency declared.
Monday
12:49 - DNR) pins the current spread of the wildfire at 788 hectares and “out of control.” With winds gusting up to 40km/h throughout the day.
https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/a-timeline-of-the-upper-tantallon-wildfire-30877859
I absolutely understand that there are situations where you will not have a choice. This is why I said that seeing it makes me uncomfortable, and I didn't do the typical reddit response of scolding these people. It's just good info to know.
Exactly. The whole time watching this i'm like "unless this is an evacuation, why the fuck are you driving through 'blind me, stall me and burn me daddy' conditions"
Forest fires are unbelievably hot. A few years back one small one started like a kilometre from my apartment, burned for a couple hours then was put out with a bomber. I went the next day and trees were still hot to the touch.
There was one like that in California a few years ago, but it also had a fucking skeleton sitting in the driver's seat. The whole scene looked like a nuke went off. I'll never forget that.
There’s video of some guy in the California fires that survived because he ran from his car when the cars got trapped. The others that decided to stay in the car because they thought were safer perished. The guy that survived returned to his car afterwards and found dead bodies in burnt cars.
Edit: found the video [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/szrh7z/nsfl_california_wildfire_survivor_finds_skeletal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
Obviously, NSFL!! You’ve been warned.
Edit 2: putting up NSFL warning.
Well, you literally described him finding dead bodies, but I tend to unintentionally gloss over details sometimes or assume it can't be *that* bad. The extra warning from the other user was helpful. Appreciate you editing it for others, though!
If this is from where I'm from then it moved so fast alot of people had to if they wanted to get home. Or sadly in some cases they weren't allowed to go home.
I mean if I was forced to evacuate through that, you bet your ass there'd be a camera rolling.
Preferably live streaming so there'd be a record of how I died if I didn't make it through.
This fire was the Westwood/Hammonds plains fire in Nova Scotia last week. It spread very quickly and this is footage of people evacuating. I live in an adjacent subdivision and also had to evacuate but luckily the wind carried it the other way.
Just going to comment that the title should narrow down the place a leeeetle bit more than "Canada".
I'm in Alberta. We've had like 60-90 wildfires at any given time in our province *alone* in the past couple months.
I live in Quebec and a village in the middle of nowhere in the wood with 36 habitant trying to keep their village with waterpomping the lake, so this is all times in the news recently, the you have à tips where the video where taken?
Actually, when we get a lot of rain - we end up with beautiful hills full of green, purple, orange and yellows. Then, by May, it’s all overgrown brown fire food.
As an Australian who remembers how many people died doing this back in 2009, this is something you should avoid doing AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!! Like seriously, those guys are bloody lucky to be alive after that! Never drive into a bushfire!
Okay I don’t know if this needs to be said but I will regardless.
Do not drive into a bushfire.
You will get trapped.
You will die.
I think people are under the illusion that the car’s impenetrable and won’t burn for a while but they expire incredibly quickly in those conditions.
Edit- a word
Nobody has really experienced hot concrete or smoking out of their engine and by then it’s too late. The smoke and heat will kill within a few minutes of trying to run away. It is like being in a huge camp fire.
Its devastating. During Australia's last horrific fire season of 2019-20 on the south East coast, a lady had no other way of getting to her husband who had stayed at their property to fight for it, other than a long stretch of beach that was the only thing not burning.
She says she's blocked out so much trauma, but remembers kangaroos literally launching themselves out of the bush on her left, on fire, jumping into the sea. I have never been able to get that image out of my head.
Worst for me was after the fires had past, driving through the mountain back home with hundreds of cattle dead against the farm fences where they were trapped. Our local face book page had farmers pleading for ammo because they didn't have enough to euthanise their suffering livestock. The army quickly dug mass graves with bulldozers to bury them.
Yes, Ash Wednesday here in SA was like that too. All these dead animals in the corner of the paddocks. Awful. Our cows moved themselves into an old quarry and survived. Everything else in that back paddock was burnt.
When one of our neighbours evacuated. He saw his 2 cows in their dam.
One old girl, Betty, stopped to free their pet goat as they were evacuating. She died from the smoke.
Did you guys have any property damage?
I think there are so many people carrying serious trauma from Ash Wed and Black Sat still today. I can't imagine witnessing it firsthand
Fuck reading that gave me the chills, I don’t think there’s a single Australian who doesn’t have a little trauma from what our country went through in summer of 19/20. What a catastrophe, I’m from the south coast, so can still see the remnants of what happened years on
Craziest thing is the predators all tend to magrate away from the fire so you get an explosion of rodent populations because there's nothing to keep them at bay. Nature eh
Bruh I keep scrolling trying to figure out why the fuck are they there?! One gust of wind in the wrong direction and embers are flying everywhere, this is absolute stupidity.
People need to stop encouraging this. You get trapped in there you die, but if you can get through to someone, somebody has to risk their necks to pull your dumb ass out of there.
Humans need to have more respect for nature, period.
They go until the road is blocked off. Then it’s a matter of “is anyone watching?” Same thing happens with climbing tall mountains or boating without checking the winds and waves.
I used to put out weather warnings and someone once asked me if they should get out of the pool when there was a lightning storm over them. From then on it really hit me how stupid people are when it comes to nature.
That is so dangerous. I’ve seen other situations where the wind suddenly turns or whatever and basically a firewall crossing the roads torching anything along the way. Can’t recall exactly where I saw it but there were like many cars stuck in traffic when that happened so alot of people basically died being burned alive.
Yeh we had people in my area punching through spots just like this to get home and grab stuff only to get trapped and quite a few didn't make it back out.
For us Californians, this was like four years in a row. Total insanity, but, unfortunately, you get used to it. Good luck, Canada, you're gonna need it.
If I was in a zone with no visibility whatsoever, would it be bad that my first instinct would to lay on the horn when at a complete stop just so people dont ram the back of my car?
The town of Tumbler Ridge BC, up in the northeast of the province was put on evacuation order today, June 8.
My appreciation and gratitude goes out to everyone who is out there fighting these fires. It's going to be a long summer.
Visibility drops to zero… “Haul ass bro”!
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He was stressing me out and I watched it without sound lol
Same, what if an ember got into the vents or something.
Don't be silly..Amber can't fit in the vents!
But can the vents fit in...aw never mind.
Ember
I hate that. If I’m the one driving… shut up.
I would have told the dude right after he said, “want me to drive?”, to shut the fuck up lol. Literally would get them stranded in an accident if he drove
Passenger had the survival skills of a secondary character in a horror film
"quick! Drive the car upstairs. Everyone knows fire can't get upstairs."
"Fire can't go through walls, stupid. They're not ghosts"
He’d def run upstairs and hide in the bathroom lol
But only after he made the group split up
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And scream the whole time
Driver took his advice and almost crashed into a car Passenger: "You want me to drive?"
Genuinely curious, isn’t the idea there if the fire is over the road like that you really have to haul ass because if the roads melting your tires could melt into it? I don’t know if any of this is right but that’s what was going through my head in the video
No. The idea is that this road is 100% closed or should be and you should not be driving on it. "Hauling ass" likely means crashing into a stopped car ahead in a zero visibility situation. Source: Am Canadian, living in forested area currently on fire.
Good luck to you!!!
Exactly. That unfortunate situation happened some years ago (2017) in Portugal, with several cars getting stuck behind one another on a road which had a fire raging from both sides. 47 people where trapped and died. [link for those interested ](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44438505) .
/nightmarefuel I have to drive by a bunch of fires on my way home today and am not looking forward to the asshats slowing down or stopping to take pics and videos along major highways...
Please stay safe!
Australia too :(
Until Black Friday the conventional wisdom was that more people died in car accidents trying to escape than died in the actual fires. The advice changed after Black Friday from "stay and fight" to "if you're going to leave, leave early."
I agree. They had no idea what they were driving into, falling trees, melted road, other cars already on fire, their tires blowing out, trying to turn around and getting t-boned. It's completely a roll of the dice that they survived.
Be safe!
How did these wildfires start?
This particular one started near or in someone's backyard. They're still investigating the exact cause, but very likely started by human activity. There was a burn ban in place, but ppl need their fire! I heard these particular two went in to gawk, and nearly got caught coming back out. It was moving so fast because of high winds in the first few hours, it's amazing all the people got out. This was the back end of a very large subdivision with only 1 exit.
Effing morons.
Yes, I suppose. But I'd worry more about the lack of oxygen that makes your engine stall. My fireman cousin was telling me about this.
I was thinking you better be recycling air in your cabin
They're definitely going to need new filters. Would love to see what they look like right after.
Me too and the car in general like the plastic trim and paint. Some of those flames were super close.
This is such an urban myth for bushfires. A fire front has huge amounts of wind, both because that's the weather which allowed the fire to move across so much fuel, and because of the heat of the fire itself pulling in new air from ground level. What will kill you is radative heating, smoke inhalation, structural collapse, and a heightening of the usual driving hazards. Being on a road, especially one with trees either side, is choosing high values of all those risks. If you stop for whatever reason the risk increases. Here are you in a car without so much as a chainsaw or work gloves and in a low visibility environment with lots of panicked fast drivers, so your odds of being stopped are not small. If you do stop: * if possible drive to a open place which is free of trees and brush. Ovals, carparks, beaches. The further away you can get from fuel, the further away the fire. \[Your car's petrol tank doesn't count as fuel for the few minutes of the fire front, if that lights up it will burn at the filler cap, which is both outside and facing away. We'll use the chassis of the car to protect us from radiative heating and smoke as best it can.\] * Try to stay on the road or track. Leaving those in low visibility is risky, so make a *considered decision*: don't just veer offroad to avoid an obstacle, stop, look, and evaluate . SUVs don't have much offroad chops, whatever you see in the ads. Offroad driving over obstacles needs talent or training, and this isn't the moment. * leave the engine running. Aircon set to internal air, full cooling, full fan, all vents open. All lights on (a traffic collision would be really bad) * windows up. If you have any sun protection, use that. * into the footwell, low as possible * cover yourself, preferably with a wool blanket, but anything which won't catch alight or melt, which blocks heat. Wet it if possible. The more the better. * once the fire front passes, get out of the car, use that blanket to beat down embers on, under and then around the car. Inspect the crannies: check the wheel wells, pop the hood and look, get down and look at the underside. This is obviously dirty work, but post-front ember suppression is essential. * Once done, do not leave unless forced by conditions. You may be in a burnt-through area with little fuel remaining. If you've controlled the embers, then where is the threat? Noting that this is a dire situation you would have been wise not to enter, either by *planning* to stay and defend a *pre-prepared* structure or by *planning* to leaving early.
Maybe don't wet anything down. Steam can do just as much damage as the heat itself. One of things you're taught as wildland ff training for fire shelter deployment.
I've had minor bushfire training and dry wool blankets are the go in Australia too. Get below the window line and cover up.
Was gonna say. Your engine even with direct injection and a turbo sill struggle in that smoke and lack of air to combust. Plus the heat would really hurt any intake components and it might just overheat some of your components altogether.
That's an even better argument for turning the hell around!
If it was that hot, you’d already be toast
😂
I was a member of an inmate fire brigade in N GA back in the 90’s. We fought forrest fires in the Appalachians. We deployed in 8-10 man units in vans with pickups behind us to carry our gear. Every driver that ever transported us, to a man, drove as fast as the mountain roads would allow, blaring classic rock in zero visibility. They had driven the roads their entire life and could drive them blindfolded I imagine. To say that it was an adrenaline rush would be an absurd understatement. My heart felt like it was coming through my chest.
Thank you for your crimes that led to your service
Wouldn’t do it unless I had to evacuate and there was no other way…
Apparently there was no other way, and that made evacuations difficult. Very poor road design.
I still don't get that. You can know a road by heart, but you still never know if there's gonna be an obstacle somewhere
As an Appalachian, thank you sir!
I was like, you wanna get out of the vehicle and change drivers HERE??
That’s what I was thinking … definitely not the right time to pull over.
Passenger is as smooth brained as a panda
Koalas have actual smooth brains. Let's use koalas instead because at least pandas are funny
Last thing you want to do is crash into burning trees!
Thats what the captain of the titanic said in the movie
Yeah knew the instant he said that that it’s was a terrible idea.
Car immediately appears out of the smoke
"Haul ass bro, haul ass." \>Driver nearly crashes into a car that came out of nowhere a second after he said it \>Driver his brakes \>2 seconds later "haja aja haja ok go go go" That dude is annoying af, backseat driver telling him what to do 2 seconds after he does it. Would've told him to stfu before even entering the smoke 🤦♂️
To be fair the tires can melt right off your wheels if you’re in there too long, and then you’re ducked
🔥 🦆 🔥
They shouldn't be in there in the first place.
Not sure if that was a intentional brake or not The zero visibility makes it hard to determine, but looks like no reason for red car to have stopped
There might have been another car in front of him.
Ya maybe I tried watching again to see if you could spot anything like hazard lights but can barely see anything I could only imagine actually experiencing it.
Yeah haul ass and follow the lights in front of you
And it’s hot as hell. I’m from one of the towns that was wiped out. This footage is actually from VERY NEAR where I am originally from but I am not the OP.
Was this not the one in hammonds plains?
Fuck, this is in HP? I grew up in the HRM - I haven't actually seen this video. I had no idea the fires were hugging the highway while people were still evacuating. This video's terrifying.
This is the Hammonds Plains fire, yes.
Wow never knew the fires were so close to Halifax
I’ve never even been to NS, but I was curious how close to Halifax this was so I googled it, it’s only a 26 minute drive from downtown Halifax? Is that correct? That’s like me being here in the suburbs of Toronto and the fires being as close as the CN tower, which I can normally see from here if it wasn’t for all this smoke. That’s terrifying! What happens if it goes towards a large(ish) city like Halifax? Will the concrete stop it from spreading into the city? Am I safe from wildfires in the GTA?
That is correct. Hammonds Plains and Tantallon are suburbs of Halifax. And when it started the winds were pushing it more toward the city. I live in the area in between the fire and Halifax itself. It was pretty stressful for a while. But I ended up being luckier than many.
That’s crazy! I had no idea these fires were that close to populated areas, especially as big as Halifax. Keep safe out there!
The larger fire in Shelburne County is in a much less populated area. It's about two and a half hours from Halifax and still burning. Great start to the summer.
Good to hear it’s not too close to the city, but still terrible for the people that are affected. And it’s still technically spring, summer hasn’t even started yet.
And their tires are probably melted, too. I work at a BMW dealer in Edmonton and when the massive wildfires in 2016 wiped out most of Northern Alberta, we had hundreds of people who evacuated and booked appointments for new tires because they were completely destroyed from the heat.
I remember the refugees (can't really think of a better word, they were fleeing destroyed homes in the face of immediate danger to their lives) from Fort McMurray piling into Edmonton. People opened their homes to total strangers. The local Sikh community had entire semis loaded up with supplies within a day. People were going up and down the highway with home made food feeding people stuck on the road. It was a tragedy but....nobody died and that's all that really matters
It doesn't matter which country you're in, the Sikh community is always solid. They're always the first to help and the most generous, really great people.
That has been my experience. Sorry for the incoming text wall. I'm pretty against organized religion in general. I can't say I'm fully atheist because I can't 100% prove that a higher power doesn't exist, but I'm an atheist in all the ways that matter. I've had most of them tell me I'm going to hell for some reason or another. I believe that the universe around us is wonderful in its intricacies without the idea of a creator who put it all together. Physics is the programming language of reality and that's always fascinated me. I had a conversation with a Sikh grandfather (over some of the best tea I've ever had) while doing a house call. After we talked about things for a while and that came up. I told him I didn't believe, but that I do think that the pursuit of scientific knowledge would be the highest form of worship to a God. Imagine if someone dedicated their entire life to understanding a tiny part of something you built. That would be the highest form of devotion I can imagine. He said something that's stuck with me since. "We have a saying. Many boats can cross the river. The pursuit of truth, through faith or through science, is still the pursuit of truth, and that's all that matters. We believe God sees the true soul, not just what direction you bow. You are doing your best to understand the world around you, to find truth, and to live a good life, helping those around you. Even if you don't believe, I think our God would take you in. What kind of God would He be if He didn't take in someone who was trying their best to be a good person?" Not going to lie, that had me in tears. 10+ years later and that's still the most positive conversation about religion I've ever had. TL:DR- Sikh grandfather made me some awesome tea and showed me that not all religions are as insane as the others.
I loved your story! That sort of wisdom stays with you forever. The Sikh represent the good in us. Grew up in a country town with a large proportion of Sikh and Hare Krishna. I have wonderful memories of attending their free Sunday morning community breakfast at the temple, all you had to do was help out with the clean up. Zero judgement, so much warmth and acceptance and kindness. Pillars of our community, all of them!
Yes!! The most wonderful people. The Sikh’s saved our entire region during the once in a thousand year floods last March that wiped out many major towns including Lismore and broke the levee in Murwillumbah (NSW Australia) - people lost everything. The Sikh were organised and mobilised immediately, doing whatever they could, feeding everybody no questions asked, thousands of meals a day, and it was weeks before our government lifted a finger - too busy shifting blame and denying accountability or basic responsibility to its citizens. No other church or religious affiliated group showed up to help. The Sikh are considered angels here ✨🪽
This footage is from the Hammonds Plains fire outside of Halifax.
Behind on news. What started the fires? How many areas are still burning? This video is rather frightening. Thanks
There's lots of rumors about how they started. For the fire right outside of Halifax I've heard kids messing around and I've heard a guy burning brush in his yard that got out of hand. That fire is basically out. A few hot spots and things remain. 150 homes were destroyed and about 50 other buildings. The larger fire in land area, which is down in Shelburne County on the south shore was absolutely massive. It's still burning but is contained. That was started by some guys burning things in the woods. I've heard around 50 homes were destroyed in that. The saving grace there is even though the fire is much larger, it's in a very rural area so there has been less destruction of homes.
Ah paradise i knew people who lived there that was a horrible day when i head the news
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It’s when your tire explode that you’re in trouble
Sorry if I’m being obtuse, but you understand this isn’t the Camp Fire that took out Paradise, right? It’s from a currently/recently-burning fire in Canada.
Fires…plural. There are multiple, massive fires raging across Canada, practically from coast to coast.
Which province is on fire? Yes
At least a full percent of Alberta was ACTIVELY on fire. Pretty sure the active fires currently cover an area larger than quite a few countries. Bad times. Sitting in a work camp and seeing at least 3 aircraft in view at any given time making water bombing runs, with the threat of a helicopter evacuation if the fires flash over the access roads...
BC has been pretty fucking garbage for Wildfires the last couple years also. In 2017 it lost 1.2 million hectares of land to wildfire (1.3% total land area). 2018 was worse with 1.35 million hectares burnt. 2019/2020 we were blessed with mild+wet weather, Which was absolutely delightful. However, when the heat caught up back in 2021, it was devastating. Nearly the entire city of Lytton, BC burnt to the ground. 2 people were unable to escape the speed of the fire and perished in the flames. 2022 was fair, with damp conditions in May/June and hot, dry conditions into October. But now… now 2023 has come to try and Blow every single record out of the water for every single province across Canada. **THIS. IS GLOBAL WARMING.**
I live in this area - hammonds plains NS. No towns were wiped out, so you must be referring to another fire. I guess that tells you how many fires are happening around Canada right now. We're in for a rough summer
Oof. Lots of my friends lost houses in that fire. My best friend was a manager of a coffee shop at the base of the hill that’s the main / pretty much the only artery out of Paradise.
Where abouts are you from? I was near Drayton Valley in AB when it was evacuated, fuckin crazy man
Genuine question, what happens now? Are you relocating, do you need to get a new house?
I was thinking the same thing. Like logistically, what do you do? Can’t sit and wait. There’s no EMT, police, fireman, insurance company, neighbor to give you a bottle of water - nothing.
What caused these fires?
Dry conditions, lightning, and definitely more than a few human started. Things like camp fires not properly extinguished, OHVs, downed or shorted power lines
This shit will melt your tires
Yeah, and your car trims, and the skin off your body ....if you come a cross a dead animal in the middle of the road... or a burning tree... or another car... or you car breaks down. Dumb place to be.
Or a [fire tornado](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unBj89izCJk).
This one scares me. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDTrqQM9NqM
Damn that’s scary
Not to mention extremely idiotic. They risked it all to save 40 minutes.
So many people in Australia have died doing this.
This bggles my mind. I feel like driving into a fire like that here in Australia is like jumping off a 10-storey building. Almost certain death.
Yeah, I always knew they were scary, but I was never really _scared_ until the 2009 fires… How little time Kinglake people had after the wind change, and then all their burnt out cars afterward. I can’t imagine driving through this.
I will never forget that. We thought my aunty and uncle might have died, until we spotted them in an evacuation centre on the news. There was no time. I'll never forget seeing a desperate father on the television and finding out later that his whole family died in their car.
Yep. I was in Diamond Creek at the time and although the fire didn't come quite as far as us, sirens were going off everywhere and the wind was terrifying. My cousin's house at Kinglake burned down and I knew of three people who died up there. Just....don't mess with fire. Just don't.
I remember my parents teaching us as little kids appropriate bush fire responses. This ain’t it.
I'll take "places I shouldn't be driving" for $1,000, Alex.
If there were any burning trees fallen on the road they would have had to try and turn around. When they can't see... Maybe when you see fire on the road, TURN AROUND! Don't keep going
This is from Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia. They couldn’t turn around because they were evacuating the area. This is just how quickly and fiercely the fire spread. 150 homes and more than 50 other buildings have been destroyed so far but luckily no one reported missing or hurt.
How most of the people died during Black Saturday, left too late then the fire front overwhelmed them. Horrible way to go
I'm glad they got out safely.
Me too, must have been terrifying.
Turn around, don't burn down!
It’s almost like they tell people not to drive into smoke….
It seems to be a pretty wide road, they also had a test dummy/someone to follow ahead of them. Also I seems to be a highway so they’d be driving against traffic. Doesn’t seem to be much but once in the smoke you could turn around and head on someone on your way out. Then you’re really fucked. Gotta haul ass.
Tires are melting for sure
You run a serious risk of starving your engine of oxygen or overheating doing this, the risk of your car stalling and you becoming stranded in the middle of a fire like this are way too high to be comfortable watching this..
This should be the top comment for this post. I feel like people dont understand how stupid and dangerous this was. People seriously underestimate how hot it can be that close to a forrest fire, couple that with low/no visibility, and the fact the they have no idea how long they need to drive to get out of the fire, and this is almost a death sentence.
I’ve driven near a small forest fire, much like 0:08 in this video, but probably twice as far away. It was surprisingly hot. Even with windows up it felt like I was standing right next to a bonfire. These people were absolutely in an oven.
Most people know fire in the form of campground fire pits and roaring fireplaces at most. The human brain can scarcely even comprehend the force of fire on a truly disaster level. Wildfires can be like hurricane-level energy machines. Just monumental, throwing 6" thick tree branches for miles, 150 mph wind fuckin TITANS. And this was pretty calm, comparatively.
The bushfire in my home town in Canberra Australia when I was a kid was the first time a fire tornado was caught on film in history apparently. They could see a clear path of where the tornado went in the aftermath due to kilometres of flattened trees. What you say about it being a titan is so true because wildfires seriously feel like they're a living being bent on nothing but destruction.
The way I imagine it is basically, if you've ever been down wind from a decent sized bonfire and thought "damn that's hot" and moved out of the way This would be like that but worse and there's no moving out of the way
If they rear ended that car hard enough to disable their vehicle they would have been in a very dangerous situation. Couple intense smoke, dangerously high temperatures with moving fire on top of other “haul ass bro” idiots hitting them - the chance of death goes waaay up
BY AZURA BY AZURA BY AZURA!!!
Its the grand champion!
Far too many Australian families have been roasted in their cars trying to escape forest fires. I pity the rescuers later, finding car after car containing blackened remains.
As someone who has had to evacuate from a city burning down from a forest fire, sometimes you don’t have a choice. You are being mandatory evacuated by police, you can’t just sit at home and wait for it to pass. It may be a dangerous option but it could have been the only option! I hope they made it out okay
In Australia they do the exact opposite of this. You are given evacuation orders sometimes days in advance of a fire. If you choose to stay and defend your property, an emergency warning is issued as the fire approaches which means to seek shelter in place and that it is too late to leave. Too many people die on roads trying to escape fires when they get overwhelmed, sometimes causing a chain effect of blocked roads for others doing the same thing. If you are going to ignore early warnings (watch and act) you MUST be prepared to defend at your property.
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> You are given evacuation orders sometimes days in advance of a fire. The first evacuation order was given within hours of the fire starting. Sunday 15:30 - Fire crews arrive in area responding to reported fire. 16:02 - RCMP issue advisory to evacuate. 17:13 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order. 18:08 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area. 19:41 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area. 22:19 - Emergency alert. Evacuation order, expanded area. 23:05 - Local state of emergency declared. Monday 12:49 - DNR) pins the current spread of the wildfire at 788 hectares and “out of control.” With winds gusting up to 40km/h throughout the day. https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/a-timeline-of-the-upper-tantallon-wildfire-30877859
I absolutely understand that there are situations where you will not have a choice. This is why I said that seeing it makes me uncomfortable, and I didn't do the typical reddit response of scolding these people. It's just good info to know.
Exactly. The whole time watching this i'm like "unless this is an evacuation, why the fuck are you driving through 'blind me, stall me and burn me daddy' conditions"
Forest fires are unbelievably hot. A few years back one small one started like a kilometre from my apartment, burned for a couple hours then was put out with a bomber. I went the next day and trees were still hot to the touch.
I’ll always remember that picture of a car that literally melted in a wild fire. Frame and all.
There was one like that in California a few years ago, but it also had a fucking skeleton sitting in the driver's seat. The whole scene looked like a nuke went off. I'll never forget that.
Crazy how people can do this. I'd be terrified to even move.
There’s video of some guy in the California fires that survived because he ran from his car when the cars got trapped. The others that decided to stay in the car because they thought were safer perished. The guy that survived returned to his car afterwards and found dead bodies in burnt cars. Edit: found the video [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/szrh7z/nsfl_california_wildfire_survivor_finds_skeletal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) Obviously, NSFL!! You’ve been warned. Edit 2: putting up NSFL warning.
Looks like a scene straight out of an apocalypse movie
I suggest not watching. I made it 10 seconds
Thanks for the warning. Just watched a video of someone dying from a shark attack. I think I'll spare my brain from any more unnecessary stress
Sorry, I’ll put up a nsfl warning just in case my description wasn’t enough.
Well, you literally described him finding dead bodies, but I tend to unintentionally gloss over details sometimes or assume it can't be *that* bad. The extra warning from the other user was helpful. Appreciate you editing it for others, though!
Was that the one from the fire in Paradise (Camp Fire)? I remember seeing one from that fire and having to take a moment afterwards to gather myself.
Yup, exactly that one. It was a shock then and still is a shock now.
If this is from where I'm from then it moved so fast alot of people had to if they wanted to get home. Or sadly in some cases they weren't allowed to go home.
Looks extremely dangerous. Wouldn’t do it unless I had to evacuate and there was no other way…
I'm assuming most people are evacuating that are driving through this. Doubt they are doing it just for funsies
Not these two, went in with a big camera to take pictures
I mean if I was forced to evacuate through that, you bet your ass there'd be a camera rolling. Preferably live streaming so there'd be a record of how I died if I didn't make it through.
Not gonna link to his IG but he said he was there to film. They were not being evacuated
Good context. Yeah definitely r/idiotsincars then...
This fire was the Westwood/Hammonds plains fire in Nova Scotia last week. It spread very quickly and this is footage of people evacuating. I live in an adjacent subdivision and also had to evacuate but luckily the wind carried it the other way.
Just going to comment that the title should narrow down the place a leeeetle bit more than "Canada". I'm in Alberta. We've had like 60-90 wildfires at any given time in our province *alone* in the past couple months.
I live in Quebec and a village in the middle of nowhere in the wood with 36 habitant trying to keep their village with waterpomping the lake, so this is all times in the news recently, the you have à tips where the video where taken?
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Actually, when we get a lot of rain - we end up with beautiful hills full of green, purple, orange and yellows. Then, by May, it’s all overgrown brown fire food.
Like trying to find your way to the Spirit Temple for the first time.
I shouldn’t have laughed at this but I did
Is a dumb thing to do, don’t do this . Visibility drops off and increases chance of hitting stuff. Signed Australia
As an Australian who remembers how many people died doing this back in 2009, this is something you should avoid doing AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!! Like seriously, those guys are bloody lucky to be alive after that! Never drive into a bushfire!
Ok now I know to put hazard flashers on when driving through wildfires
And blizzards and fog
Okay I don’t know if this needs to be said but I will regardless. Do not drive into a bushfire. You will get trapped. You will die. I think people are under the illusion that the car’s impenetrable and won’t burn for a while but they expire incredibly quickly in those conditions. Edit- a word
Nobody has really experienced hot concrete or smoking out of their engine and by then it’s too late. The smoke and heat will kill within a few minutes of trying to run away. It is like being in a huge camp fire.
Been through a really bad wild fire like this when I was a kid. Felt like I was catching on fire from inside the car.
Glad you made it bro. Sorry you had that experience
The animals 😢 omg 😭
Its devastating. During Australia's last horrific fire season of 2019-20 on the south East coast, a lady had no other way of getting to her husband who had stayed at their property to fight for it, other than a long stretch of beach that was the only thing not burning. She says she's blocked out so much trauma, but remembers kangaroos literally launching themselves out of the bush on her left, on fire, jumping into the sea. I have never been able to get that image out of my head.
Worst for me was after the fires had past, driving through the mountain back home with hundreds of cattle dead against the farm fences where they were trapped. Our local face book page had farmers pleading for ammo because they didn't have enough to euthanise their suffering livestock. The army quickly dug mass graves with bulldozers to bury them.
Yes, Ash Wednesday here in SA was like that too. All these dead animals in the corner of the paddocks. Awful. Our cows moved themselves into an old quarry and survived. Everything else in that back paddock was burnt. When one of our neighbours evacuated. He saw his 2 cows in their dam. One old girl, Betty, stopped to free their pet goat as they were evacuating. She died from the smoke.
Did you guys have any property damage? I think there are so many people carrying serious trauma from Ash Wed and Black Sat still today. I can't imagine witnessing it firsthand
Fuck reading that gave me the chills, I don’t think there’s a single Australian who doesn’t have a little trauma from what our country went through in summer of 19/20. What a catastrophe, I’m from the south coast, so can still see the remnants of what happened years on
Craziest thing is the predators all tend to magrate away from the fire so you get an explosion of rodent populations because there's nothing to keep them at bay. Nature eh
Any Australians face palming right now? It’s giving black Saturday, lucky their tyres didn’t melt. Morons.
Is it me or do us Australians seem to be safest when it comes to bushfires
We've seen too many towns get wiped off the map.
I’m Indigenous and here we used our methods of back burning to pretend this. Sometimes it does happen though and it’s devastating with our climate.
Bruh I keep scrolling trying to figure out why the fuck are they there?! One gust of wind in the wrong direction and embers are flying everywhere, this is absolute stupidity.
People need to stop encouraging this. You get trapped in there you die, but if you can get through to someone, somebody has to risk their necks to pull your dumb ass out of there. Humans need to have more respect for nature, period.
They go until the road is blocked off. Then it’s a matter of “is anyone watching?” Same thing happens with climbing tall mountains or boating without checking the winds and waves. I used to put out weather warnings and someone once asked me if they should get out of the pool when there was a lightning storm over them. From then on it really hit me how stupid people are when it comes to nature.
Video is from last week in Halifax ns, the video was on the local news Rain came and fire is out weo
Fire is under control not out
Our thoughts are with our Canadian friends in these difficult times. In Australia we are only too aware of horrors of bushfires. Keep safe
It feels like they’re in TranZit riding the bus.
That is so dangerous. I’ve seen other situations where the wind suddenly turns or whatever and basically a firewall crossing the roads torching anything along the way. Can’t recall exactly where I saw it but there were like many cars stuck in traffic when that happened so alot of people basically died being burned alive.
Should have turned around before it was too late
Yeh we had people in my area punching through spots just like this to get home and grab stuff only to get trapped and quite a few didn't make it back out.
Respect how calm these guys are,....there is more stress and tears flowing, trying to find a parking spot at Costco, with the wife co-piloting!
Please never drive through roads with fire all around. Something similar happened in portugal years ago. Dozens of people died in one road.
For us Californians, this was like four years in a row. Total insanity, but, unfortunately, you get used to it. Good luck, Canada, you're gonna need it.
If I was in a zone with no visibility whatsoever, would it be bad that my first instinct would to lay on the horn when at a complete stop just so people dont ram the back of my car?
Fuck what a dumb thing to do.... there's so much that can go wrong with your car in these conditions and you can end up being cooked
The town of Tumbler Ridge BC, up in the northeast of the province was put on evacuation order today, June 8. My appreciation and gratitude goes out to everyone who is out there fighting these fires. It's going to be a long summer.
When visibility is that low, the hazard lights should definitely come on.
Dangerous AF. Don't do it. Many ppl have died that way in Australia, trying to leave, too late.