Jim: this is the first year I have seen alcohol stoves w/o valves allowed during fire bans.
Yes, interesting isn't it? To my knowledge, alcohol stoves aren't the main problem in terms of fire safety. If you look at what causes wild fires, wood fires, vehicles, power lines, welding, cutting, etc. are far more likely to cause a wild fire. Still, alcohol can clearly start a fire.
On the other hand, over priming a white gas stove can start fires too. Knock over an upright canister stove on a cold morning, and you'll likely be treated to quite a fire show.
Presumably, someone at the NPS level took a look at the data and decided that alcohol stoves did not pose a significantly greater threat than white gas or canister gas stoves.
ESBIT of course is allowed by the NPS; it is safer than white gas, canister gas, or alcohol. Bewilderingly, the US Forest Service doesn't seem to know that ESBIT exists and while Forest Service regs don't expressly prohibit it, neither are they such that they clearly allow it. Go figure.
Do you think there might be a similar adjustment for enclosed wood stoves like the TWD, and would you be interested in pursuing that?
Interesting. With the NPS, I think their regs are already fairly reasonable -- no wood fires year-round above 10,000' (9600' in Yosemite), with seasonal fire bans as needed at lower elevations. I'm not seeing that as unreasonable.
The USFS is what would seem to need improvement. For starters:
1) Hexamine (e.g. ESBIT) stoves should be allowed immediately, year round, subject to the same constraints as white gas or canister gas in terms of use (without the requirement for a valve).
2) Liquid alcohol (e.g. HEET, denatured alcohol, etc.) should be either explicitly allowed or explicitly prohibited, either seasonally or year round as appropriate for a given forest.
3) Gelled alcohol (e.g. Sterno) should be either explicitly allowed or explicitly prohibited, either seasonally or year round as appropriate for a given forest.
4) "Jellied petroleum" should be stricken from
any mention in the context of stoves.
But you raise an interesting question. What of contained wood stoves that possess not only sides but a raised floor. I've not given it serious thought thinking that it would fall on deaf ears, but perhaps it's worth pursuing.
HJ
