Jet Engines to control winds prevent fire damage of homes

I'm guessing you've never been on a fire line. When a fire goes into the crowns and starts running, particularly uphill, a couple jet engines amount to a fart in a windstorm.

I thought the point was to oxygenate the fire ...

I'd love to see how this gets deployed on say a 75% grade.

Not to mention the action-reaction problem. One of the airlines (don't remember which) fired up a jet engine in the repair shop not long ago without proper restraints. "Say, when did we get a door over there?"

"Do you think they are good enough ideas to do"

No. They are not. Don't quit your day job.

I believe it's a good idea. If you can set up a retardant or foam delivery system, you could direct the foam anywhere you wanted. Up a slope, down a hill, across a flat brushy area.You could use a helicopter engine similar to Jay Lenos motorcycle and have a small portable system for a housing coomunity. By the way, this portable distribution system tops out at around 200 mph so you can get to a fire area quite fast. You could make the foam delivery system separate, then join up the engine and the foam and you're set to play hero. Keep thinking about the impossible and have a great day.

I grew up in an area subject to severe bush fires.

Trees gradually hollowed out from repeated fires at their base until they were hollow.

During a fire, these hollow trees acted as chimneys sending sparks for miles. Secondary fires could erupt many miles away from this cause.

Another problem was radiated heat. This boiled oils out of the leaves (eucalyptus forest) which formed a vapor blanket ahead of the fire.

This blanket could erupt explosively up to 1/2 a mile ahead of the fire.

I have talked to fire fighters who have seen a fibro clad house explode from radiant heating of the fibro while the fire was still 100's of yards away.

All of this is occurring over a front 10's of miles long.

With these conditions, a very hot, dry day and a howling wind behind the fire, amplified by the massive convective effects of the heat of the blaze (temps up over 1200C in places) there is no stopping the fire.

The proposal is to divert this fire away from points of interest by means of jet engines blowing huge quantities of air to force the fire away.

The supply of extra air (exacerbated somewhat by the heat of the engine turbine exhaust) would go into this superheated air and simply increase the intensity of the flames. The radiant heat would be increased (look at the core fire in a blacksmith's forge for an idea of what it would do). The local wind generated would be unable to affect this and the house itself would probably catch fire from this cause alone.

The most effective way to fight these fires is still back burning ahead of the fire front to deprive the fire of fuel.

Houses need to clean up all fuel sources before the fire season, clean out gutters, then shut the house to prevent entrance of embers.

As found in the recent Victorian bush fires (and probably also in California) this is not always enough.

As a kid I remember feeling the heat of a fire in town - 10 miles or more away from the fire!

The scale and intensity of these fires is hard to comprehend, even if you have been through it.

I have been lucky enough to never be threatened directly by one of these monsters, but have been close enough to dozens of them to realize that if one gets loose, your chances are not good.