I think it may be plastic as well .

Sad thing about the critters :(

If those images bring you down, click on the Scenery link- http://www.txfb.org/scenery.asp , It has some real nice Chamber of Commerce type pics. I like the piggies and the baby goats!

I lived through some wildfires in southern California and remember watching a wall of fire sweeping up one end of a canyon only to reach the end and come down the other side. Breathtaking! :mg:

Im with you there mr B... plastic would simply cease to exist under the kind of temps produced by such a fire. Also, plastic would not support its own weight when extruded in the manner of the material in the photograph...Its been a little while since I joined (apologies Brianna for the strop over the Afghanis) but just to say (to Undertoad?) good work! Always enjoy IOTD

I hadn't thought about it, but looking back at the image again, I think the sign is clearly plastic. The sign post has two cross members to support the sign. This would be consistent with posting a plastic sign, which would need more support to keep from flexing in the wind. Think of every aluminum stop sign you've ever seen. There are always two holes on a ceter post holding the thing up. Cross braces are rarely used for a metal sign this size.

Now look down at the ground behind the fence. There is an unbroken glass bottle. Everyone knows that glass breaks in a hot fire. It didn't break.

Now look over to the bushes here and there. They are charred, yes, but not incinerated. If the fire was hot enough to melt aluminum, those bushes would not be there any longer.

I think this fire was hot, but not super hot. It was hot enough to melt the plastic sign, but not hot enough to ignite it. I've seen pictures on the net of a Saturn that was parked close to a building that burned down. The body panels are all melted and droppy, just like this sign. Of course I couldn't find a picture now to show you, but I did find this melted vinyl siding picture.

Hmmm you could be onto summt Glatt...I would argue your points...many small ali signs have cross members to aid installation whereas many plastic signs are a cheap alternative, often fixed through the face and not supported with ali thus increasing the costs to a level that you might as well have ali in the first place...Glass will become extremely fragile under extreme heat but not break unless a force is applied. A bottle can sit in a fire an not break. It will melt if the fir is hot enough. It wont break unless corked/capped and expanding air breaks it or it is hit in some manner...and finally...the heat of a fire can be localised, scorching some plantlife, wiping out others but hey! Im no expert. The real clue here for anyone who cares would be the text still on the sign...that cetainly couldnt withstand the heat needed to melt ali, whether it was lead paint, vinyl graphics or anything else...so...plastic it is.

Sometimes the friday IotD is disturbing. This is one of those times. I love animals. I hate to see this sort of thing.

Psst..Bri? This was Thursday's IoTD...disturbing none the less, but the Friday Critter Pictures are generally...happier.

My experience with camping and drinking is that a bottle, when placed in the hot coals of a fire, will very slowly melt over the course of the evening. It breaks only when its drunken owner tries to clumsily retrieve it - or when it is actually removed from the coals and immediately placed on a cold rock. Therefore, the sign is obviously aluminum. ;)

I suspect plastic too. Aluminium, when it melts, tends to oxidize really quickly unless you either put it in an innert atmosphere, or you have enough bulk that the dross on the top keeps the 02 from the bulk of the Al. In other words, it would turn to a white brittle powder pretty quickly

Heck - not hard to demonstrate what happens - drink a can of your favorite beverage that comes in an Al can - go to your BBQ, and build a fire around the empty can - look at what happens

Jinx - I have melted a few bottles as well , you have to make the fire right , in a good glass melting fire an AL can will simply go AWAY QUICKLY , but a bottle MUSt be heated evenly or it will crack ,
Once camping a friend and I cracked open a 1/5 of GoldSchloger and lit the fire at the same time , when the bottle was empty the fire was RIGHT ( so were we ;) ) , we melted that THICK bottle into a pool of moltent glass , but when my friend fell in the river , ,,
well the wifes put us both to bed , the next morning there was this blob of glass with a few gold felcks in it ,

OK, yer all wrong... the sign *was* fiberglass

so EMOFWB!
;)

the sign *was* fiberglass


No WAY !!! Fglas would have burned and fallen apart , not melted and streched in the wind .
Please site your sources . ( yeppers , I'm call'n you out!!! )

DAMIFINO. When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was plastic, but the website said metal. They were there, so I accepted it was metal and deduced it would have to aluminum if it were indeed metal.

The fire could have been considerably hotter along the fence line because of increased vegetation that naturally grows there.

Thin aluminum like a can will indeed turn white but I've melted thicker pieces with a torch and it just sat there and did nothing until it suddenly became liquid, no warning, with a paper thin "skin" over it. The "skin" was not thick enough to keep it from flowing.

Also an aluminum can is a different alloy than a sign would be made from and aluminum age hardens just hanging around.

I agree the lettering surviving is odd but that could be due to the rapid heating or the coloring being absorbed by the "skin".

Besides, as we all know, Texans never lie. :rolleyes:

The Canberra fire on 18 January 2003 did more than that: in Kambah, where it was "only" a grass fire, it melted steel Colorbond fence panels. Houses were reduced to a thin layer of ash on a concrete slab: even the ovens, bathtubs, fridges etc had melted and flowed away.

I vote for Plastic or Fiberglass as there appears to be light coming THROUGH the material at the upper right bolt and also along the long strand. Can't be reflected light as the angle of the adjacent pieces is wrong for the angle of the sun. Light would not go through metal this thick. Goes through very thin gold sheets I hear though.