WILDLAND — FIRES, FRIENDS, FORESTRY, FUEL, AND FOES David Greene
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art of the allure of the fire service is that, as the definition implies, we are often powerfully and mysteriously attracted or fascinated by things that we witness in this job. Many years ago, I responded to a grass fire on a very windy day and was driving the first-in engine. On arrival, I found a fire in a horse pasture. As I slowed to evaluate the best access, I couldn’t help but notice that the fire was moving faster than my engine. I then witnessed a pair of horses galloping parallel to the roadway with the fire moving faster than they were. The horses, fueled by their self-preservation, turned sharply and headed perpendicular to the roadway to the back of the pasture, narrowly escaping the rapidly moving fire. That was the first time I had ever witnessed a wildland fire moving faster than a horse can run. Although I was “powerfully and mysteriously fascinated,” I was also terrified, thinking that I needed far more than my single engine at this fire. Wildland fires are not a new type of incident to which we respond. However, they can be extremely challenging. Those of you that work in a predominantly urban environment may not be as concerned as those that have a significant wildland/urban interface or those from rural departments. Here’s the thing, though. It is the urban departments that are often called upon to assist when the “big one” hits. Even if you work on a four-person engine in an urban environment and your first-due area only has four blades of grass in it, you have to be prepared to deal with wildland fires that may occur far from your station. We must all be prepared, and that requires an understanding of wildland fires, our friends, forestry, fuel, and foes. First, let’s examine our friends. Our typical response to a wildland fire involves one engine. Upon arrival, if the fire is small enough, the engine will extinguish the fire and return to quarters. Sometimes, the fire will be inaccessible by hose lines, thick subsurface (“duff”) burning, or the fire is otherwise too big to extinguish. Enter our friends from the Forestry Service. Typically, our Forestry friends will bring a bulldozer towing a plow to cut lines around the wildland fire to confine it and keep it from spreading further. When this occurs, our role is simply to protect any fixed or mobile property (buildings and vehicles). However, when there are multiple homes
threatened simultaneously, we will need more than one engine. Likewise, when a single plowed line is insufficient to confine and contain a wildland fire, more than one dozer/plow may be needed. For these escalated incidents, it is important to recognize two facts. The state Forestry Service likely operates on a budget that is less than what most medium and large fire departments get annually. The second fact is that while we can call upon our neighboring fire department friends to assist us with additional engines and tenders, there are not a whole lot of agencies that maintain forestry dozers with plows and, more importantly, trained operators. The result of this is that we may have to wait more than we would like for the first dozer/plow to arrive and that operators may have to wait more than they would like for any additional dozers/plows to arrive. This is something we have to keep in mind when we arrive on the scene and think we need additional resources. Request your friends and forestry early, as it will likely take them a while to get to you. Next, let’s consider parts of wildland fire and the fuel. Of
course, where the fire started is the origin, the heel is the back, and where the fire is going is the head. The left and right flanks are to the left and right of the head, respectively. Fingers are narrow strips extending from the main fire. The “green” is any unburned area, and the “black” is any burned area. Although we often think of “the black” as being a safe area, it is an area of concern as burning snags, standing dead trees, and downed trees may pose a hazard to those operating in the terrain, particularly if it is steep. Spot fires occur when heat and embers in front of the fire’s head ignite fuels prior to the main body or head of the fire arriving. When spot fires occur, it suggests that the head of the fire will soon arrive and that the fire is moving quickly. When it comes to fuel, there are more or less four kinds, subsurface, surface, ladder, and aerial fuels. Subsurface fuels, when thick enough, can actually allow a fire to spread underneath a plowed dozer line. If you have access to a drone with a FLIR camera on it, or your “friend” does, it can help determine where the hot spots in subsurface fuels may be, as they may not be emanating
much smoke. Surface fuels are those that contribute to the most fire spread. They can range from short grass to thick bushes and trees. Very thick surface fuels often prevent access with hose lines and require a dozer/plow to penetrate them. Ladder fuels are taller bushes, shorter trees, or vines that allow the fire to spread from the surface fuels to the aerial fuels. Ladder fuels may be inaccessible by hose lines, and unless they can be knocked down by dozers, they will be difficult to extinguish. Finally, we have aerial fuels, which are often seen as the crowns of trees. When a fire originates in a surface fuel and spreads to aerial fuels by way of ladder fuels, there is really only one option, get out of the way. The fire that is crowning through the treetops is not affected by extinguishing or plowing the surface fuels below it. A lot of attention should be paid to any units reporting a crowning fire. Assigning resources to any homes in front of the head of a crowning fire should be a priority if the environment is safe enough to do so. When operating at a wildland fire, there are a couple of basic safety precautions aside from,
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