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Effective Ways to Fight a Wildfire:
Effective Ways to Fight a Wildfire:
Fighting Fire with Fire
While most peoples' first instinct when faced with a fire is to douse it with water, it is actually very effective to use fire against itself. Fire needs fuel to continue burning, so if you rob it of its fuel it can't keep burning. The second fire, when burned against the original fire, will take away oxygen and burn up the shrubbery, or plants that the fire is using to continue burning.
Fighting Fire on Foot
Fire fighters use certain tools to clear brush. They clear the fuel with these tools so that the fire no longer has anything to keep it burning. Taking away the brush creates a barrier known as the fire line which is a break in fuel.
Tools and Uses
- Axes - cuts down brush and vegetation
- Pulaski - drags brush away from the fire
- Hoes & Shovels - used to remove vegetation
Fire Fighting in Air
Helicopters drop water (300-800 gallons)on the fire hoping to either cool it or take away its oxygen.. They also drop fire retardants to stop the continuation and spread of the fire. They also use it to slow down the fire so that the firefighters can get there in time.
Airplanes also carry water and fire retardants to fight wildfires.
Fighting Fire with Explosives
Professor Graham Doig says that using explosives to stop fires is not as crazy as it sounds. "It's a lot like blowing out a candle, except you get a much larger blast of air," says the Professor. The blast of the explosives knocks the flames off of the fuel source, causing it to go out. "The sudden change in pressure across the shock wave, and then the impulse of the airflow behind it pushed the flame straight off the fuel source," Doig also said. "As soon as the flame doesn't have access to fuel anymore, it stops burning."
Video:
Demian G. ('21) & Aubrey D. ('21)
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