What's with preventing forest fires,when contolled burns are left burning unsupervised?

Question

If I have a campfire in the woods I always make sure I put it out completely. I see thses controlled burns they do with the underbrush in the national forest around my house that still has flames and smoke all around and noone is supervising. You always hear things like dont throw cigarettes out your car window cause it might start a forest fire, but yet the parks service can leave fires burning and it's all good, whats the deal?

Answer 1

Well they normally are supervised. They generally make a fire line and observe the perimeter, more or less ignoring the center. These lines are often very long and would take a lot of man hours to watch 24/7. So they often break it up into shifts, and leave completely at night, sometimes observe from the air. Often times the forest service does timber harvests and prep the burn site prior to the burning so there is less of a risk of it getting out of control. If it does get out of control, there are people that know about it, and are ready to deploy.

The fact is, campfires and cigs. can be quite safe, in certain areas, at particular times of the year, and of course with a responsible tender (like yourself). But how complicated would it be for Smokey the bear to say that?

Answer 2

the controlled burn are being monitored, just because you don't see someone doesn't mean it is not being monitored.