Fire and Zombies

[UNDEAD FRED]

Do you think that fire could be used as an effected weapon against zombies?

[IronJayBee]

I always thought if they dont burn fast enough you have to deal with flaming zombies, and no one wants to do that

[UNDEAD FRED]

Fire could be used as a more effective tool of escape, sort of what they did in NOTLD68. Beat them or burn them, they go up pretty easy.

[BenAli]

No .....................

[Slayer]

Provided your safehouse is not flammable, like made out of rock or stone, maybe cinderblocks, and provided your out of harms way like on the roof. Then yes, fire can be an effective weapon to kill zombies. And it's certainly the best way to dispose of them when killed.

[bandits1]

I think fire could be effective only if there's little chance of flaming zombies setting you or your belongings on fire. Brains do melt/burn/explode.

[Victor Clark]

Fire is not a good idea, and that is for several reasons.

1. Fire dosen't kill (at least not instantly): even if you set the head or any major organ on fire, it would just burn and settle, so either way it wouldn't kill them.
2. Zombies can't feel pain: so if you set a zombie on fire, all you'll have is a zombie coming after you on fire. And this is especially bad if the zombies are running (see Dawn of the Dead 04 and 28 Weeks Later).
3. Fire could spread the virus: this always puzzled me when I watched Night of the Living Dead. If you burn a zombie, wouldn't the smoke contain the virus as well? And if so, what do you think will happen when it turns to a form of acid rain? I certainly don't want to be in a storm like that any day!
4. Burning flesh could make you hungry: and this is especially bad if you're starving to death (see Andy's video in the Dawn of the Dead 04 special features).
5. Fire can destroy everything, except a zombie: so if you're running from a zombie that's on fire, hide in your safehouse, and the flaming zombie bangs on the door, guess what happens to the house? It burns down! This can take your shelter, your supplies, your weapons, and probably you.

And with those facts on the table, I can safely say that fire is bad for combat.

[bandits1]

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

Fire is not a good idea, and that is for several reasons.

1. Fire dosen't kill (at least not instantly): even if you set the head or any major organ on fire, it would just burn and settle, so either way it wouldn't kill them.

I figure if the head is on fire long enough and/or the fire is hot enough, the brain would burn or melt.

2. Zombies can't feel pain: so if you set a zombie on fire, all you'll have is a zombie coming after you on fire. And this is especially bad if the zombies are running (see Dawn of the Dead 04 and 28 Weeks Later).

They may not feel pain, but eventually the fire would render their bodies useless.

3. Fire could spread the virus: this always puzzled me when I watched Night of the Living Dead. If you burn a zombie, wouldn't the smoke contain the virus as well? And if so, what do you think will happen when it turns to a form of acid rain? I certainly don't want to be in a storm like that any day!

Wouldn't the heat of the fire kill any virus?

4. Burning flesh could make you hungry: and this is especially bad if you're starving to death (see Andy's video in the Dawn of the Dead 04 special features).

I don't think the smell of burning human would make me hungry enough to eat someone. Of course, this is assuming I'm not already infected.

5. Fire can destroy everything, except a zombie: so if you're running from a zombie that's on fire, hide in your safehouse, and the flaming zombie bangs on the door, guess what happens to the house? It burns down! This can take your shelter, your supplies, your weapons, and probably you.

Again, I wouldn't use fire anywhere near my safehouse...unless said safehouse was fire-proof.

And with those facts on the table, I can safely say that fire is bad for combat.

It's obviously not the best choice in most cases, but could be useful in certain scenarios.

[Dagnammit]

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

1. Fire dosen't kill (at least not instantly): even if you set the head or any major organ on fire, it would just burn and settle, so either way it wouldn't kill them.

Good point. It's not necessarily effective and quick in a close combat situation. However, if it's a matter of clearing up a crowd of zombies that are blocking your path or besieging your (non-flammable) fortress, the heat of a fire would, within a minute or two, cause the brain's water content to boil and thereby reduce a zombie's grey matter to boiled mush. Plus, as the Sheriff said - "They go up pretty easy" - possibly because of the build up of methane and other gases inside the digestive system that occurs after death.

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

2. Zombies can't feel pain: so if you set a zombie on fire, all you'll have is a zombie coming after you on fire. And this is especially bad if the zombies are running (see Dawn of the Dead 04 and 28 Weeks Later).

Another good point - if you're fighting in close quarters you're likely to end up on fire yourself. On the other hand, as we've seen in Night and Dawn, the zombies are scared of fire close-up, and will withdraw from it, and as we saw in Land, they are distracted by the sight of distant fire (or fireworks, at least). This could prove very useful.

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

3. Fire could spread the virus: this always puzzled me when I watched Night of the Living Dead. If you burn a zombie, wouldn't the smoke contain the virus as well? And if so, what do you think will happen when it turns to a form of acid rain? I certainly don't want to be in a storm like that any day

Nope, fire destroys infection. Historically and even in modern times, fire has successfully been used to dispose of bodies infected by the Black Death, Ebola and other nasties. It's even said that the Great Fire of London stopped the Plague in it's tracks in that city, sucking the virus out of the air like a sponge and incinerating the weak and diseased in it's path.

Plus, who ever said we're dealing with a virus? Nothing like that was even hinted at in Romero's films.

The outbreak in Return of the Living Dead was caused by an inorganic toxin that was not denatured by exposure to high temperature. This fell in the rain and infected the buried dead causing them to rise as fast, strong, (almost) invincible zombies. If this is the case, don't worry about fire, you're probably dead already.

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

4. Burning flesh could make you hungry: and this is especially bad if you're starving to death (see Andy's video in the Dawn of the Dead 04 special features).

Hehe! I can't argue with that!

Originally Posted by Victor Clark

5. Fire can destroy everything, except a zombie: so if you're running from a zombie that's on fire, hide in your safehouse, and the flaming zombie bangs on the door, guess what happens to the house? It burns down! This can take your shelter, your supplies, your weapons, and probably you.

I accept that this is a problem in areas where houses are mostly made of wood, but pretty much very single building in the city where I live is made of brick or stone, and even doors and window fittings are made from uPVC, so these houses are impossible to burn down from the outside. Like anything else, it depends on your situation.

I think fire has its place in the arsenal of zombie fighting tools - mainly as a last resort for repelling/destroying a small group but also as a tactical tool for executing well though out culls of larger hordes.

[blaje]

Well in the book eden they use flame throwers from ontop of the walls(where theres no real risk of getting hurt)

I think flame throwers are a good choice when you bunkered in, like in eden they have a small section of new york with big concrete walls-if your on the run, its probably the worst idea ever.

[DarthJoe8]

Fire wouldn't be my first choice. Maybe a slash and burn retreat/escape use but not to openly attack them with it. I would think its to risky.

[Slash Maraud]

Fire could work if you were able to use it relatively safely. Saw a way to do it on late night TV, really bad 1950s horror flick, 'The Day of the Triffids' huge walking plants killing people. The plants or in this case, Zeds are pressed up against a solid fence, maybe electric, several deep. You spray them with a flammable substance, gas, diesel whatever, toss in a road flare or turn on the fence and have a undead cook off. Problems with that option are that there is no pain felt by a burning Zed as mentioned previously, the smell, the potential for a flaming zed to somehow get in, and the potential for all those zeds to set fire to something else like your safehouse, escape vehicle(s) or fuel and ammo storage making the option of a zed cook out one to be considered very carefully or used only as a total last resort.

Some of the zeds might have a head pop due to internal heat build up inside when whats left of the brain boils, but that will be few as most, by the time they get to your fortified safehouse, will have had most of their internal fluids run out and be, hopefully, pretty dried out and light up easy. If they don't light up easy, their clothing should, especially the ones who have uprooted themselves from a cemetary.

[Shadowalker191]

Guess nobody has ever smelled what human flesh burning smells like. Its sick, and makes your stomic wrech. Its not like smelling chicken on the grill.

[bandits1]

Originally Posted by Shadowalker191

Guess nobody has ever smelled what human flesh burning smells like. Its sick, and makes your stomic wrech. Its not like smelling chicken on the grill.

That's what I'm saying. How in the world could that smell make any non-infected/non-cannibalistic human hungry?

And after about a minute of being on fire, I don't think these zombies will able to walk around and cause mayhem any more. I'm thinking the muscles, tendons, and cartilage burn, shrivel, and become useless. Let's say you were somehow able to revive a person whose body had been burned beyond recongnition in a house fire -- do you think that person would be able to stand up and walk away?

[jim96sc2]

Could it, yes. But it wouldn't be feasable. You'd have to have a fire capable of destroying a whole body before exiting. Sorry, but thats a lot of fuel, wood, and space. Too much to be any sort of effecient. Better to use fire for destroying the bodies.