Fire!

The AP is running an article entitled, "350,000 Homes Evacuated in Calif. Fires." The article states, "The blazes bedeviled firefighters as fires roared from mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated. Two people have been killed." It reports, "Since they began Sunday, the fires have burned at least 373,000 acres, or 583 square miles — an area larger than New York City. Fully a quarter of the California coast was ablaze. Flames climbed halfway toward the Nevada line, chewing through chunks of seven counties and devastating numerous communities."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Ask your students what they would save from the classroom, if they could only save three things. Encourage them to explain why they would save these three things. Inform students that they won't have to save any person from the fire because everybody will be able to save themselves.
  
• Consider challenging the class to develop one list that all students can agree upon. Would this be a hard activity? Why/why not? Ask students why everybody might not choose to save the same three things.
  
• Ask students to think of four rules that they should remember if they ever see a fire. Do students know what 911 is? Is it more important to save a person or a thing from a fire? Why?
  
• Consider asking students to write four rules that begin with the letters "F.I.R.E."
  
• Ask students how they think that firefighters could try to put a fire out if they could not actually get close to the fire on the ground. Can students create a tool that would make it easier to fight fires? What would the tool look like? Why would the tool look like this?
  
• Students might draw pictures of their fire fighting machines.
  
• Ask students if they think it would be easier for fire fighters to put out fires when it's wet outside (because of rain) or dry outside. Encourage them to explain their answers. Do students think it would be easier to fight fires when it is warm outside or cold? Why?
  
• Consider asking students to monitor the weather in your community for a week or longer. Would it be easy or hard to put out fires in your community this time of year? Why?
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Unrelenting; Tamping; Tentacles; and, Pulsed.
  
• Ask your students to imagine that they were fire fighters fighting a huge fire that spread for miles. What four strategies would they seek to implement in order to extinguish the fire? Why would they use these strategies? What information would they like to know in order to more fully answer this question? Why would this information help them answer these questions.
  
• Students might develop their plans in groups of two or three.
  
• Ask your students to consider a conversation that might take place between a married couple in determining whether or not they should evacuate from their home. Imagine that one member of the couple wanted to leave and the other wanted to stay. Why would somebody want to stay with their home in the time of a crisis? Why would somebody want to leave their home in the time of a crisis? If students were involved in such a disaster would they want to stay with their homes or leave? Why?
  
• Students might develop these conversations in groups of two.
  
• Ask students to reflect: There used to be a time when people would have said that a huge fire was a punishment from God. Indeed, there are people today who believe this idea. Why might people accept this idea? Does the idea have merit for your students? Why/why not?
  
• Consider asking students to write persuasive essays in which they either support or oppose the idea that a huge fire could be a punishment from God.