Nearly every year the city of Hot Springs, South Dakota asks the Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department to conduct a prescribed fire along the Fall River. The burning reduces the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. Before it was channelized and the Cold Brook Dam was constructed upstream, the city suffered frequent floods.
These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert, Saturday, March 30, 2013.
The photo above shows a section of the river just as the burning began. Below is the same area on hour or two after the fire passed through.
Even though there had been a light rain the night before and the relative humidity was in the mid-50s, the cattails burned very well.
I shot all of these photos at 1/500th second, and was pleased with the way it captured the flames, such as in the image above where a ball of fire can be seen about 20 feet above the main flame front. I used two cameras, both Canon T3i’s. The lenses were also Canon, 100-400mm and 17-85mm lens.
The flames impinged on the wood deck of the pedestrian bridge, but apparently there was no damage. More photos are below.
Last year one of the lighters accidentally ended up in the river, but then found that it made igniting some areas more convenient. This year several drip torch bearers frequently waded in the water, which is fed by hot springs mixed with water from the Cold Brook Reservoir, so it’s not unbearably cold even in the winter or early Spring.
One of the lighters, with the dripping boots above, said she would walk in the boots until they were dry. Some people say that’s a good way to break in new boots.
Below, you can see that the project turned into a spectator sport. If an information officer had been there with some displays and handouts it would have been a good opportunity to educate the public about prescribed fire.
Previous prescribed fires along the Fall River:
For ovious reasons to protect the value I would hope that the crew had installed a sprinkler system prior to ignition underneath and adjacent to either side of the wooden foot bridge.