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Also referred to as air attack. The use of aircraft in support of ground resources to combat wildfires, often most effective in initial attack in light fuels. air drop The delivery of supplies or fire retardant from the air. Supplies can be dropped by parachute, while retardant is generally released in a single drop of one or more trails, the size of which is determined by the wind and the ...
A controlled burn or prescribed burn (Rx burn) is the practice of intentionally setting a fire to change the assemblage of vegetation and decaying material in a landscape. The purpose could be for forest management , ecological restoration , land clearing or wildfire fuel management.
A backfire is a more aggressive type of burning done to influence the behavior of the main fire. In forest and prairie management, the driptorch is the most common tool used to ignite prescribed burns, which are used to remove excess fuel buildup or to re-create natural cycles of fire in an ecosystem.
By the 1980s, in light of this new understanding, funding efforts began to support prescribed burning in order to prevent wildfire events. [3] In 2001, the United States implemented a National Fire Plan, increasing the budget for the reduction of hazardous fuels from $108 million in 2000 to $401 million. [4]
Wildfire burning in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, United States, in 2020. The Mangum Fire burned more than 70,000 acres (280 km 2 ) of forest . A wildfire , forest fire , or a bushfire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation .
Ruggedized infrared equipment used by some firefighters to detect hidden people, animals, heat sources (i.e., fire) and structural compromise. Tones A series of two or three musical notes, used as an auditory alert over a radio or radio-paging system to indicate that a particular fire company, district, or territory is dispatched to service on ...
Broadcast burning is commonly used to prepare clearcut sites for planting, e.g., in central British Columbia, [26] and in the temperate region of North America generally. [27] Prescribed burning is carried out primarily for slash hazard reduction and to improve site conditions for regeneration; all or some of the following benefits may accrue:
When backfires or "prescribed burns" are needed in remote areas, helitack helicopters can be used to start them, using a "helitorch", a driptorch suspended on a cable under the helicopter, or by dropping plastic sphere dispenser (PSD) ignition devices. [5]