Serious fires in my state

**Platypus** · February 11th, 2009, 04:49 AM

Yeah that's true. In forest, just not possible. Given enough head start, they can try it in grassland, but even then, the speed at which bulldozers can cut a wide enough break means a slight change in the direction of the fire can easily bypass the break. It's not safe to utilise slow-moving equipment like dozers and graders in the path of a moving fire.

But at the moment the calm conditions mean this particular fire is reasonably contained, and authorities are able to do back-burning to try to remove fuel and help the fire burn itself out.

**NooNoo** · February 11th, 2009, 05:03 AM

I'm surprised that the authorities don't maintain firebreaks around the towns... ugly, but easy to create.

**slgrieb** · February 11th, 2009, 06:48 PM

From what Platypus says about wind conditions, I expect firebreaks are impractical for the same reason we don't do them here. Our average daily wind speed is about 12 mph, and 30+ is common. 50 or so isn't that unusual, and our windiest months are also our driest months. That would mean breaks hundreds of yards deep, and daily maintenance to remove trash and debris. And to be really effective, we'd have to protect every wooden electrical pole that might burn and fall over thousands of square miles. So, we rely on early detection and fast response to little fires. But they still get away sometimes.