Field fire

Wow!

it was three fields away and across a small stream, and I was right at the very top of the third field and it was clearly audible then; crackling as the dry corn stubble burned. I managed to get just across the stream to take the pic, but it was still two fields away on the other side of the stream.

They dont seem to do this much these days do they? Can be quite dangerous. As you say 'what must a forest fire be like'? Frightening.

This was - oh, last millennium! I don't think they'd be allowed these days, smoke pollution, and so on. I presume they have to notify the local Fire Brigade, just in case, but that's guessing.

And they must have to check wind direction and strength, can't see them being allowed to do this on a windy day; as you can see in the pic, the smoke is mostly going straight up.

I would imagine that theere'd be a firebreak at the other end of the field, to stop it where it's supposed to stop(maybe a smaller controleld burn there, to stop the main fire for lack of fuel), but I didn't get close enough to find out, this was quite near enough.

I didn't tweak this picture at all - I could have, but that might have lessened the darkness of the smoke, and this is how it actually was.

In an actual forest fire, I'd imagine that the smoke would get you before the fire reached you - most deaths in household fires are from smoke inhalation rather than burns. Not that that'd be much of a consolation.