Woman Charged With Starting Wildfire Says She Was Just Trying to Boil Some Bear Piss

A California lady charged with igniting the harmful Fawn Fire has a reasonably unusual rationalization for the blaze. This is all an enormous mistake, you see. She was simply making an attempt to purify bear piss-contaminated water by boiling it.

The unusual story comes from the charging paperwork towards Alexandra Souverneva, a Palo Alto lady accused of igniting the Fawn Fire. While the reason could also be considerably farcical, the impression of the fireplace has been extreme.

We’ll get to that in a second, however first we have to discuss Souverneva’s story. She was arrested final week for allegedly beginning the explosive hearth close to Redding, California. In the documents detailing the arrest and expenses, Cal Fire legislation enforcement chronicle monitoring her down after native employees reported seeing a girl strolling within the woods close to the quarry the place the fireplace began.

When Cal Fire discovered her, Souverneva was dehydrated. She claimed to be strolling to Canada, situated roughly 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) to the north. She additionally advised the officer she was thirsty and stumbled on a puddle of soiled water contaminated with bear urine. After making an attempt to filter it by way of a tea bag, a technique which may filter out any particles however doesn’t, so far as I do know, work for bear urine, she determined to go the boiling route by lighting a fireplace.

“She stated it was too wet for the fire to start,” the charging paperwork be aware. “She said she drank the water anyway and then continued walking uphill from the creek bed.”

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Now boiling urine can yield drinkable water. But doing so would require a setup that sounds a little more advanced than what Souverneva had on her person. The documents note she had a lighter, carbon dioxide cartridges, a “pink and white item containing a green leafy substance,” and “miscellaneous items” in a fanny pack and her pockets. Hardly the setup to filter bear piss from water on a 700-mile trek to Canada, though boiling water would at least kill most bacteria and other creepy crawlies that could make you sick.

Cal Fire has stated it’s attainable that Souverneva, who lists “shaman” as her present job on LinkedIn, is suspected of igniting other fires. The Fawn Fire, in the meantime, has burned by way of almost 9,000 acres on the outskirts of Redding. The metropolis was hit laborious by the Carr Fire in 2018, and whereas the Fawn Fire isn’t on the identical degree, it has wrought injury. More than 200 buildings have been destroyed or broken and 30,000 people have been affected by the fireplace.

It comes amidst a wildfire season from hell in what has been, frankly, a stretch of wildfire seasons from hell. Last year was California’s most destructive fire season, and this year could be on pace to surpass it. Arson played a bizarre role in last year’s wildfire season, with August’s Markley Fire allegedly set to cover up a murder. But arson remains a relatively minor player in causing fires. Instead, other human factors such as faulty electrical infrastructure and unintentional ignition play much large roles. When fires do ignite, decades of human mismanagement, as well as human-caused climate change, can cause blazes to explode.

So, certain a bear piss boil ban might cease one or two fires. But to actually cut back hearth threat within the West would require new methods of managing forests and lowering emissions.