[pct-l] Alcohol and Esbit Stoves

[Anthony Biegen]

There seems to be two camps on the issue of Alcohol stoves and they can
never agree because they are looking at the same situation in two ways.

1. Letter of the law people - These are those folk who can see a little bit
of daylight in the way they look at the exact wording of the fire
restrictions. If the words are vague enough they can still use their
beloved can cans. If they feel that they can convince an officer that their
interpretation is correct and maybe a judge, they may be right. Do you want
to take the chance of a big fine and days in court to prove your point? Do
you want to carry the guilt of what could be catastrophic consequences?

2. Spirit of the law people - These folks point out that clearly the intent
of the law is to minimize the risk of fire. Anyone who claims that alcohol
stoves are safe or that they can be turned off after they tip over should
check past years' journals and YouTube videos of all the confessions of
hikers who set themselves or their gear on fire with alcohol stoves.
Everyone I know who has used an alcohol stove has a story to tell about a
close call.

What the spirit of the law people would ask of the letter of the law
people; could you please for the sake of safety not risk the trail, the
reputation of thru-hikers past and present, and potentially the lives of
others so that you can have the convenience that comes with a risk of your
alcohol stoves? Could you do that even though you still think that you are
reading the regulations correctly?

I write this as someone who lost my house and everything I owned when one
person decided it was okay to try and scare his neighbor by lighting a
small fire in a drought year. 5000 acres, 440 houses, 28 apartment
complexes, and 30 other structures were lost.My whole street burned up. One
person was killed.

I also saw two farmer workers who thought they could control their pipe
cutting tool in a dry period and caused the Zaca Fire. 5000 acres, 440
houses, 28 apartment complexes, and 30 other structures were lost.The fire
had cost $117 million to fight.

A couple of mountain bikers doing trail work thought that they could
control their gas powered brush cutters and cause the Jesusita Fire. 5,894
properties were under mandatory evacuation orders, affecting an estimated
14,735 people. In addition, more than 17,787 properties were under
evacuation warning, affecting an estimated 44,467 people.Fire fighting
costs $20 million.

Another fire, The Tea House fire occurred when some young people thought
they could have a camp fire when there was no water nearby to put it out.
That fire wound up destroying 210 homes.

You may say that none of these fires were caused by alcohol stoves and yet
just like the letter of the law people all these fire starters through they
could control what they were doing even though local regulations said what
they were doing was unsafe. They couldn't and I'm afraid that one of the
letter of the law people will make the same mistake. I live here in
California