August 29th, 2015: Foiled Forest Fire

[mrputter]

...and this... works??


I mean, obviously it does (to some extent) otherwise they wouldn't be committing the resources and going to the hassle of doing it. But it surprises me!

The cabin is still made of wood underneath, and the tinfoil isn't going to be a particularly great thermal insulator, so clearly the wood inside will still heat up past its ignition point, the same as if it weren't wrapped in tinfoil.

So... is it the fact that it's a gas barrier, so the wood doesn't have enough oxygen to ignite? I'm rather curious about the science behind this!