feed on
米カリフォルニア州で１週間以上前から続く山火事はヨセミテ国立公園内へと延焼が拡大を続けています。わたしが何度も何度も訪れた原風景のひとつが自然の猛威にさらされています。悲しい！
見出しのfeed onは高校時代に「〈動物が〉〔…を〕えさとする」「〜を常食とする」と覚え、また英英辞典にも"if an animal feeds on a particular food, it usually eats that food"（LDOCE）とあります。でも見出しからも明らかなように主語は動物だけとは限らないようです。一種の擬人法でしょうが、山火事を間の当たりにした人にはあの火は「生きている」ものにほかありません。蛇足ですが、山火事をmountain fireとはいいませんのでご注意を。（UG）
Spreading California wildfire around Yosemite feeds on dry vegetation
Yosemite National Park, California (CNN) -- Bone-dry grass and brush Saturday fed flames as more than 2,600 crew members struggled to corral a still-growing wildfire in California's Sierra foothills.
"This fire is very dynamic," said Tina Rose, spokeswoman for the multiagency incident command. "The access to the fire has been hampering us. It is so difficult to get into those canyons."
Firefighters were buoyed by the fact that winds appeared to have died down a bit and the massive Rim Fire's rate of growth has slowed. The fire had doubled in size from Thursday to Friday, and the total loss stood at nearly 130,000 acres early Saturday evening, much of it in Stanislaus National Forest.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/24/us/california-yosemite-wildfire
