Losing A Shelter

There was a loss here on New Year's Eve when a shelter burned to the ground the in the Harrison-Crawford State Forest. Though I don't know the exact cause I do have a theory as to what happened.

There was a hiker staying at the shelter when the fire occurred. (No it was not me by I had considered hiking the entire Adventure Trail that particular weekend by changed my mind because of rough weather moving in.)

When i went up to see what was left (very little as you can see in the picture) I found some burnt fibers that I'm sure either came from a sleeping bag or a heavy coat. My theory is the hiker had one of those propane heaters with him and got his coat or sleeping bag up against the heater and it ignited. Of course we'll never know for sure. On thing that is for sure is that it was a very hot fire as you'll see in the next picture.

In the dirt I found several pieces of metal that had become molten by the fire. At first I thought it was aluminum but it was to heavy when I picked it up. I believe it to be a piece of cast iron, possibly from a small skillet or something of that sort. After finding it I did some research to find the melting point of iron and found it to be 1,500 degrees F. That means that the fire was indeed a very hot one.

The shelter is going to be rebuilt from what I've been told but it will definitely be lost for a while. What makes this shelter so popular is that it overlooks the Ohio River and into Kentucky. Hopefully it will be rebuilt soon....and hopefully nobody will do something stupid to burn it down again.