I have had a couple of close calls with
fire and caves myself. Many years ago in Sótano
de Japones north of Cd. Valles (Mexico) we were
trudging along in a passage waist deep in
water. With each step bubbles arose from the
muck on the bottom. I became concerned that it
might be methane, and did not want the
concentration to build up to the point of
flammability, where our carbide lamps would set
it off at head level. So I took my lamp off and
held it in front of me, igniting each stream of
bubbles as they were released. That worked, but it looked pretty strange.
The other time fire played a role was in
Madagascar where they routinely burned the grass
lands. We were checking entrances and watching
the fires burning near by. We found a cave that
had some bones in it, which is what we were
looking for, but the fires were getting close, so
one person stayed on the surface as a
lookout. Sure enough, the fire came our way, and
at one point the lookout said it was time to
leave. We ascended and drove off just ahead of the advancing fire.
I can't think of anyone dying in a cave
because of burns, but injuries have occurred both
from exploding spent carbide containers, and from
exploding camp stoves or spilled fuel being ignited in underground camps.
Mark Minton
At 11:54 AM 6/11/2010, Geary Schindel wrote:
I know of two other issues with fire related to cavers.
There was a trip into Hidden River Cave Complex
in Kentucky in the mid 80s when some cavers I
think Phi Odel and Duke Hopper were the trip
leaders, when the ceiling of a crawlway caught
on fire and blue flames were burning for about
100 feet along the ceiling. They quickly
crawled out of the crawlway, some leaving their
packs behind, and managed to escape with only
minor injuries. The source of the flames turned
out to be a leaking propane distribution tank on the surface.
The second event dates back to when folks used
to use flames on their heads for light in
caves. I think Don Coons and Sherri Engler were
exploring a small pit in the Mammoth Cave area
when they accidently set some leaf litter on
fire on the surface before entering the
cave. It probably smoldered and then finally
caught on fire while they exploring the
cave. When they went to exit the cave, the tree
their cable ladder was rigged to was on fire
along with about an acre of woods around the
cave. They figure their carbide lamp probably
set the blaze. They managed to get to the
surface and put out the tree before their
webbing melted and exit the area to call for firefighting assistance.
I have also walked up to a cave in Kentucky that
was out gassing gasoline from a leaking
underground storage tank about a mile
away. However, the explosimeter said the
mixture was too rich to explode so we were
safe. It was a large enough area that it would
have made a very serious air/gas explosion had
it caught on fire. We didnt hang around long.
Geary
Please reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
