Thoreau's Journal

"As i was fighting a the fire to-day, in the midst of the roaring and crackling,-for the fire seems to snort like a wild horse,-I heard from time to time the dying strain, the last sigh, the fine, clear, shrill scream of agony, as it were, of the trees breathing their last, probably the heated air or the steam escaping from some chink. At first i thought it was some bird, or a dying squirrel's note of anguish, or steam escaping from the tree. You sometimes here it on a small scale in the log on the hearth".("The Journal", Henry David Thoreau, pg 39)

After reading this quote, I will never look at forest fires or any type of fire involving vegetation the same again. Even though it is just talking about trees, this is one of the most horrible things that I have ever heard of. However, it does remind me of an incident when I was a boy. My uncle had a machete leaning up against the tree in his back yard. I hated to visit because it was dreadfully boring, so every once in a while id go outside grab the machete and pretend the tree was some sort of villain and start hacking away at it. Whenever the sap ran slowly down it would thrill me because it showed that I was beating the monster or villain or whatever my imagination dictated I was fighting at the time. Till one day my father saw me and asked, “Why are you doing that, you’re making the tree bleed”. It never once hit me that I was actually hurting the tree, that the sap was its blood. I almost started crying at the realization and I never did it again. What shocked me the most in this quote, is that he mentions that he thought it was a bird or squirrel screaming in pain. Whenever I saw a controlled fire at ranches I never once gave it thought that there might be animals dying painfully for this. As I said before, I will never look at forest fires or any type of fire involving vegetation the same again