Sometimes, not so much.
Apparently, someone didn’t want to just chip the ice off of his porch.
Using a bush burner might be easier in the short run, but it is hard on the structure.
That being said, when I was growing up in the great white north, I used to fantasize about using a flame thrower to melt the snow in our drive way and then squeegee it off before it froze again.
DaddyBear’s Den 