[GK3]

I put myself through Stanford as a BLM fire fighter (Bureau of Land Management, not the new acronym) working summers.  I have seen eucalyptus go up like torches--thirty seconds from the deep piles of bark tinder at the base to the crown.  I have seen them explode like bombs as the oils inside vaporize and light.  I have seen forests of them alight, creating thermals with mushroom clouds spewing burning embers thousands of feet away. 

I have also been on conifer fires and rangeland fires, and nothing compares to a eucalyptus fire.

Portugal, like California, embraced eucalyptus but paid a severe price.

https://www.politico.eu/article/portugal...er-forest/

Australia has had horrendous eucalyptus fires during recent drought years after making the same mistakes that we have--too much fire suppression for too long, creating gargantuan tinder boxes.  Eucalyptus, like lodgepole pine, are adapted to fire to stay in balance.  Regular burning is natural.  Gargantuan trees are not.  Eucalyptus groves belong in areas where regular burning is possible.  They do not belong anywhere near residential homes or universities.

https://www.livescience.com/40583-austra...fires.html

Great info. I'm actually on a zoom call with client in Australia and complained about the eucalyptus trees they sent us. Apparently, the aborigines would burn the trees back regularly to keep them in check. That practice ended when the colonization started. . . . .

Interesting, I worked for the Forest Service Fire Crews during Summers at Stanford.  Never dealt with Eucalyptus fires, but saw plenty of wind driven crown fires exploding up steep slopes as the wind blew superheated air ahead of the fire and acres ignite all at once.  Not something you want to be in front of, to say nothing of So Cal brush fires burning through brush that hadn't burned for years.  That stuff was really ugly.  Suffice it to say sometimes the work was very hard and dangerous and the rest of the time it was a bunch of college guys cleaning up campgrounds and doing whatever the district thought of to pass the time until the next fire.

[GK3]

I put myself through Stanford as a BLM fire fighter (Bureau of Land Management, not the new acronym) working summers.  I have seen eucalyptus go up like torches--thirty seconds from the deep piles of bark tinder at the base to the crown.  I have seen them explode like bombs as the oils inside vaporize and light.  I have seen forests of them alight, creating thermals with mushroom clouds spewing burning embers thousands of feet away. 

I have also been on conifer fires and rangeland fires, and nothing compares to a eucalyptus fire.

Portugal, like California, embraced eucalyptus but paid a severe price.

https://www.politico.eu/article/portugal...er-forest/

Australia has had horrendous eucalyptus fires during recent drought years after making the same mistakes that we have--too much fire suppression for too long, creating gargantuan tinder boxes.  Eucalyptus, like lodgepole pine, are adapted to fire to stay in balance.  Regular burning is natural.  Gargantuan trees are not.  Eucalyptus groves belong in areas where regular burning is possible.  They do not belong anywhere near residential homes or universities.

https://www.livescience.com/40583-austra...fires.html

Great info. I'm actually on a zoom call with client in Australia and complained about the eucalyptus trees they sent us. Apparently, the aborigines would burn the trees back regularly to keep them in check. That practice ended when the colonization started. . . . .

Interesting, I worked for the Forest Service Fire Crews during Summers at Stanford.  Never dealt with Eucalyptus fires, but saw plenty of wind driven crown fires exploding up steep slopes as the wind blew superheated air ahead of the fire and acres ignite all at once.  Not something you want to be in front of, to say nothing of So Cal brush fires burning through brush that hadn't burned for years.  That stuff was really ugly.  Suffice it to say sometimes the work was very hard and dangerous and the rest of the time it was a bunch of college guys cleaning up campgrounds and doing whatever the district thought of to pass the time until the next fire.