[pct-l] those bleeping stoves and their various fuels

[Georgi Heitman]

L-Rod...
Thank you...as so often happens, you not only grasp the nature of the problem, but know the right words to say to help explain same, and give some suggestions.  I'm amazed at the curfuffle my post raised, and at the same time very pleased...it seems to have set a bunch of people to thinking.  Hopefully this thought process will carry into the woods. 
 As A Bat, I loved that you'd already been concerned enough to do some testing.  Try throwing some dried grass clippings into your fire pit and then spill some burning alcohol and watch what the grass clippings do, and how hard it is to tell if there's any fire spreading.  It would make sense for other hikers to experiment a bit, not only with fuels but also factoring in, if possible, wind...produced  by a fan perhaps on your cement driveway.  Eric, thank you for bringing that up.  Frankly, I hadn't really thought about how the very lightweight soda can stove would behave in a strong wind.  Good point.
 Radar and Eckert, you're right when you say that it's not necessarily the denatured alcohol that I  worry about, but the consequences of an accident while using any form of fuel.  This already very dry year could be the one Dennie and I have been worried about since we moved here in 1993.  Our worst nightmare come true.  More on that in a moment....
And finally, Mark the Slogger...alcohol should be a sensitive subject, tho as mentioned above, all fuels should be handled with extra care this year, but especially alcohol, because of the nature of that particular beastie, be it denatured or not.
Dennis is a retired firefighter, a 26 year veteran from the Oakland F.D (East Bay in the San Francisco Bay area).  The Department's most feared fires, other than illegal fireworks manufacturing blazes and paint stores were chemical fires, especially pharmaceutical company fires.  We have, over the years, had quite a number of such companies in the East Bay, and cities give mutual aid so Dennie's seen his share.  The nature of alcohol is to burn invisibly, especially during daylight hours, making it very difficult to know where the fire they're fighting is...or for that matter, to know if alcohol is even involved.  Foam is used extensively for chemical fires, if liquid alcohol has been released from containers, it can run under foam and then as Donna mentioned, a spark can set it off, too often behind the firefighters.  And too often, they don't know til their turnouts get hot.  Bad business, that, as you might imagine.  This one aspect of this one type of fuel is what scares me so much that I felt compelled to write what I wrote. 
Now, back to our worst nightmare...we've not had a fire through our immediate area since Mt. Lassen erupted in 1914.  The largest of these eruptions blew his side out (This Mt. is named for Peter Lassen, and is therefore, male) and released a melted snow, mud and ash flow that rolled out that side and down the mountain, following the path of least resistance, which happened to be Hat Creek, and starting fires all along the way.  Basically, some of the area around us (within a mile or so as the crow flies) in a pick-up stick sort of hodge-podge just waiting for the right moment.  It will be a horrendous. firestorm...the kind that produces it's own winds and weather. To that end, we have installed fire hydrant-like stand pipes all over our yard and three pumping systems all feeding from our little creek.  Will it be enough?  We don't know, we don't want to find out.  When we lived in Oakland, we feared a warm easterly wind above all other things.  I mentioned that very subject one morning on a dry October day  as we headed out to breakfast after Dennie got back home from working a 24 hour shift, saying, "I wonder if this is the wind we've been dreading."  About three hours later, we knew it was, as Dennis raced back to duty and spent the next 48 hours fighting the behemoth Oakland Hills fire that destroyed over 3000 homes and took 27 lives, including those of a very good friend of mine and of a co-worker of Dennie's.  We'd not like to see a repeat, thank you.
So, regardless of what you plan to cook on or what you use to cook it with, please do some practice runs at home under an assortment of weather conditions, real or concocted.  Decide that watching a bit of cowboy T.V. isn't necessarily needed for a good night's sleep and especially, know what an alcohol fire burns like when it gets away from you-  before you head out on the trail.  And, please spread the word about extra caution this season, no matter what part of the trail you're on.  
 I really didn't expect the response my post has received...but, I thank you all for weighing in on this most important issue.
Georgi
Trail Angel in Old Station.