How do you fight forest/woods/brush/grass fires

[Dalmation90]

Well, here's a question that should have about as many answers as there are terrains in America...well, OK, the world...

What are your typical tools/tactics in fighting wildfires...what are you wildland conditions like?

I'll lead off with my own answer next!
Matt

[Dalmation90]

I live in the rolling hills of Southern New England (Connecticut). This is a mix of farm fields and clearings, hardwood forests, and small (generally) groves of pine trees.

Typical tactics are to send a crew of 6 to the head of the fire to stop the fastest spreading portion. Of the six, two have 5 gallon "Indian" backpack tanks. The first indian tank knocks down the fire, the two members with "Rakes" (Actually more a cutting tool for light brush than a rake) cut small brush and heavy debris out of the way, and two members with Brooms sweep a clean fire line. The second indian tank hits hot spots as needed.

At hotter/larger fires, 1.5" or 1.75" structural hose will be used to knock down, or if the fire is a ways in the woods, 1.5" unlined Forestry hose is used to bring water out to the fire. Pretty much all fires will be overhauled with hose...very unusual to just leave a "dry" fire line around the remains of the fire.

Now, our typical fire probably is 1/4 to 1/2 acre, with over 2 acres considered pretty big...but then again, several times a year we have fires over 100 acres in the region. The other thing people don't realize is we can and do have crown fires...they are unusual, having occured in my town twice in the last forty or fifty years...and they don't last long since the pine-tree groves aren't usually that big, you can safely run out of the danger area. Most of the fires are grass in the fields, or "duff" -- dead leaves and sticks in the woods...though in the dry summer months, the fires will burrow down into the tree roots, and a couple acre fire could take a couple days to dig up and drown out.

Which brings up another question...gear! Typically, brush fire gear is jeans, a tee shirt or sweat shirt, and work boots. Sometimes you'll wear turnouts, but it's definitely not a good idea unless it's a cool day...It comes down to we don't typically have fires in our area that you're likely to need more protection than typical work clothes. State Dept. of Enviromental Protection workers do have nomex over pants and coats like you see used out in the Western states that they do wear on the fireground.

Matt

[Firehose]

Dalmation90,
Our conditions here in North Louisiana are much like yours except for the pine forest. Ours are usually hundreds of acres in size. Here, fire crowning is very uncommon, a woods or forest fire is usually slow in progression. Our tactics are to position a pumper/tanker close to the fire front and extend 1 inch forestry hose to extinguish. Overhaul consist of grubbing out and rolling burning logs and stumps with a fire rake and axe. None of the departments here even own a pulansky!. In the event of a large, harder to contain fire, small dozers with turning plows cut firelanes around the fire and allow it to burn itself out. An average woods or forest fire is 1 to 2 acres.
Good Luck!

[This message has been edited by Firehose (edited April 22, 1999).]

[jsouza]

The majority of our brush fires are less than 2 acres, we'll have a few (less than 10) between 2 and 10 acres, and we're usually good for a 10+ or two at some point during the year. Being in southeastern Massachusetts, we've got everything from bullrushes (aka "elephant grass") by the coast, farm fields (both active and overgrown), light forest, and rather dense forest of hardwoods/maples/pines. Not too much for elevation, just lots of large rocks and glacial sinkhole-like pits. As for accessing these fires, it just plain depends. Some are next to our interstate highway, some are right off of a normal use road, others you get to hike in a mile or so. Most of our wooded areas have some type of roads or paths that cut through them, so getting there is only a matter of time, not of cutting down trees. Our extinguishment is also pretty dependant on where the fire is. If its close to a roadway, we can usually strech either a booster or 1.125" forestry line (I know its an oddball size...its a Mass. thing from what I understand). Anything bigger than that or off into the woods, some poor souls get to strap on pump cans and/or brooms and start hiking it in. Also, we don't leave anything dry on any fire less than 10 acres. While the fire is being knocked down with pump cans and brooms, the trucks are bring brought into the woods for soverhaul phase. Out of our 4 stations, 3 of them run only front line pumpers. The 4th station (Station 1, my station) has the 3 brush units for the town (and, of course, 2 front line pumps). The other 3 stations carry something like 400' or so of forestry line, as well as a 200' booster. My station is a little more specialized for brush work (truckwise). Our first out piece (Engine 6) is a 250gpm/500gal midi-pumper. Carries about 1500' to 2000' of forestry line (less hose towards the end of the year as we blow lines), and most of our hand and power tools. It can get pretty much where you want, within reason. Our second out piece (Forestry 5) is an ex US Army 4 wheel drive pickup truck, has a 250gpm pump and a 200 gallon tank. If E6 can't get there, F5 will. F5 has around 900' of forestry line, a smaller complement of hand tools, and a chainsaw. The only problem with this piece is that 200 gallons of water goes pretty fast. Our last piece out (Forestry 1) is also ex US Army, a 1968 Kaiser 10 wheel drive dump truck we just placed in service. It has a 1500 gallon tank and a 500gpm pump. It also has a full set of brush bars, sort of a brush breaker/tanker deal. It carries a small supply of hand tools, no power tools (yet, its still a new truck). If things really get out of hand, our county mutual aid plan and/or the State can bring in all sorts of apparatus, most are either pickup trucks or brush breakers, carrying no more than 700 gallons of water or so. We'll call in mutual aid for a brush fire about once a year or two. Gearwise, we aren't issued brush gear (we're looking into getting some), so we end up using structural gear at the start of the incident. Trust me, for those that haven't done it, it ain't fun. Once the fire is knocked down, everyone will start to strip off the gear, mostly working in bunker pants, helmet, and gloves. Still not fun, but its better than nothing. Hopefully, the link below will work, you can get an idea of what we're working with up here.

<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/KCB615/SFD_Co1.htm">Swansea, Ma Fire Company 1</A>


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[jsouza]

Wow...I rambled on that one big time...sorry.

[Ledbelly]

First the terrain of west Texas...generally flat. (Imagine that...) Fuels depend on the weather, wet years have lots of grass, dry ones not much; you can always count on mesquite, from knee-to-head high and sometimes in 'thickets' you can't get into, burns hot and fast; usually several types of cactus with one species that leaves an annoying stump that smoulders and complicates mop-up. The fuel load can vary greatly, but the fires are usually wind-driven and fast moving and may or may not cross, involve or surround oil locations, pipelines, tank batteries, etc. Fire size can vary with the weather also, wet Springs followed by dry Summers mean lots of work; we have had fires several miles wide ranging for 10-15 miles.
We always send the nearest engine from town with our Tanker. Engines can't pump-and-roll so they stay on road surfaces, maybe near any structures if any are around. Tanker carries 2500g and has 2 short 1 1/2" lines and 2 hose reels(1") that FF's operate (one or the other!)as driver pursues fire from the burned area. Best tactic is to cut off head and work back down the flanks; we knock it down and then come back for a final drenching later. Hand tools are shovels and brooms but are only used on small fires, ie <1 acre with low fuel load, especially since all we have to wear is structural gear. We do have our old Tanker (1500g)as a backup and in the summer and around July 4th get another 500g tanker with a 5hp pump from Street Dept. We have 2 small volunteer departments in the county whose equipment is almost exclusively geared for pump-and-roll grass fires; a large fire will usually have a county tanker(10,000g) or two respond also for refills. Our response almost always involves riding around on the Tanker...hot, dry, dusty, smoky and you're usually gone for the rest of the day or night.

[Dalmation90]

Hi Guys...
Yep, 1-1/8" Massachussets Forestry Hose is neat, I usually see it carried on 300+ reels charged...think giant booster reel!

Ledbelly...By West Texas...is that like around San Antonio? Just curious...San An is the one city I've visited in Texas and the terrain sounds similiar to yours...I was thinking the cactus must be a pain in the *ss!

[Ledbelly]

Dalmation 90: I guess those folks in Santone think they're in W Tx, but that's Central...they have trees and humidity! I'm about 300m further west...or northwest. Only trees 'round here is what got planted in town! And you ain't lived til you've kicked a cactus....(LOL)
Watch yer topknots....LW

[jpm]

hey matt
we have basically the same land here in the middle part of n.y. first truck out is a 6 wheel chevy with four wheel drive.two hundred gallons of water.two hundred feet of 3/4 hose.4 indian tanks hopefully thier is a couple of boots to carry them.assortment of brooms, council rakes, chain saws,back pack leaf blower,and a trash pump for sucking out of streams or whatever.
we had a real nasty one last march. some happy home owner decided to burn up his christmas tree and the fire spread up a mountain.after mutal aide from the whole county and help from the new york state prisoners we were able to control it.the thing that really saved us was the stone walls that they built back in the thirties.thanks america works program.

i am working on setting up some rusac bags, day bags any ideas would be great thanks

stay low stay safe

[Dalmation90]

Leaf Blowers!

I saw pictures in Firehouse about 12+ years ago of them being used in China...and it always intriqued me.

Now, in the last month I've heard reference to them being used in Pennsylvania and New York...I assume they're used to make a fire break like brooms...is this right? What tactics are used? I've always had a feeling the strong output from them would be disruptive enough to knock out most of the fire...but I've never had the balls to show up at a brush fire with mine http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif
Matt

[Tim Schaffner]

Here in s. central PA. we use leaf blowers alot. 4-5 man crew Sawyer/swamper, weed wacker, ( if in laural or thick under brush) blower, then 1-2 rakes. We can make a control line very quickly using this setup. Tactics = An anchor point is chosen and then control line is made towards header of fire. Once we have a good control line made then we set BACK FIRES to burn out the fuel between header and line. We don't norrmally use water in a direct attack mode, just for mop up. Questions E-mail @ Irons36@aol.com

[BURNSEMS]

Howdy from Deep East Texas, Our Fires usualy are 5 - 20 ac prior to Arrival we have dense underbrush with Pine Tree canopy and Very Little acess, First we contact our Local Forest Service Office for a Strike Team and the Next up Mutual Aid Community, we Currently Have 1 Brush Truck W/ 250 gallons and its main pourpose is Stop The Head Fire if Possible and Safe to Do so IF it is Not safe then The Officer on The Truck establishes a Pattern of Travel and we attempt to cut The Fire off at a Road or Man made barrier, Our Next Truck is a 1600 gal Tanker Combi Brush Truck it is very Effective when pre wetting the Path of the Fire or barriers. We believe in establishing a Water and Rehab sector as soon as practical
We have a 1600 gal Porta Tank that is setup off of our second Tanker and a Tanker shuttel Maintains the Water, As most Depts in The 1990s we become short handed Real Quick MUTUAL AID is our key word and with a established I.C things run well most of the time.

[iwood51]

Long Island, NY. Most departments here use converted army trucks either deuce and a half or five ton six wheel drive trucks equipped with anywhere from 500 to 1000 gallon tanks and roll cages. The number of these trucks in service significantly increased after the 'wildfires' of 1995 where we had every department on Long Island (both Nassau and Suffolk counties) and even some mutual aid from FDNY. If you would like to see a picture of one, go to my company's home page, click on apparatus, and check out unit 5-22-12. We have since revamped the back of this truck and will post a new picture as soon as possible.
BTW the home page is http://home.pb.net/~rfd_co1/

[721]

Mountains of western NC. Hardwood forests, with sections heavy with pine. Urban Interface is a major challange, as unless it is state or national forest, some one is building a home way up the mountain, deep in the woods, and all to often the road in resembles a goat trail. Narrow, steep, and full of switchbacks.

Apparatus is useful for a quick knock down, but if conditions are extreem or the fire has a good start, apparatus is used mainly for structure protection.

Crews are normally a 5 man, 1 sawer (with chaps, sawer helment w/faceshield, and trained as a sawer), 1 with polaski, and 3 with fire rakes. I have not seen an indian tank used for fire supression in years, though is common for overhaul duties.

Fire departments provide handline crews, and structural protection. State forest service provides handline crews, dozers with trenching plows, spotter aircraft, helicopter and fixed wing water/foam/retardent drop resources.

The geography can be brutal, very steep, largerock outcroppings, laural thickets that slow down a rabbit. Deep revenes create a chimney effect where a slow moving fire can race at tremendous speeds. Can easily cover a couple hundred yards in only a few seconds.

Gear, at minimum, nomex over pants and shirt/coat. Helmet, leather gloves, 8" leather boots (all leather, no nylon side panels) water, and a fire shelter. If you don't have them, you don't go in the woods. Structural gear is just too heavy and cumbersum for this type of geography.

If a department is calling for mutual aid on a major fire, it is understood by those responding that they are expected to be on the fire line for up to 12 hour shifts. We take the gear, drinking water, and tools we need to last that long. Host departments have always done a super job at getting food distributed to all on the line, but you can't always count on it.

Crown fires are not too common, but do happen on 10 to 20% of "fire season" fires, usually in the early spring. Watched 50 - 60 foot flame lengths moving toward our location only last month.

The goal of having all departments trained and equiped alike, makes operations involving 20 to 30 different agencies operate very smoothly. If IC does not have to tell a crew how to do a task, but only tell them what task, and where, things go much smoother. Team work when everyone is on the same page works, and works very well, and more important keeps everyone safe.

[Tim Schaffner]

HOT NEW TOOL!!!!!! Echo mfg. makes a brush cutter, like a hedge trimmer , only on a weed wacker type frame. Works Great!! much safer than a wacker. cuts a much bigger path and can handle thicker material.
ITS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[R.Marley]

Leaf blowers! Thats a new one for me. Up here in Northern Cal., we get a very heavy dispatch for any wildland fire during the fire season (this includes any vehicle or structure fires that MIGHT threaten vegetation). Initial dispatch for a typical high treat fire will get between 6 and 10 wildland (ICS type 3) engines, two 18 person hand crews, two fixed wing air tankers, 1 or 2 helicopters (each ship will have a 6-8 person hand crew, water drop capability and foam injection), 1 OV-10 command air craft with a pilot and Batt. Chief or Capt. as Tac air officer, 2 Dozers and transports, 1 dozer tender, 1-2 Batt. Chiefs on the ground for command, 1 Batt. or Capt. from training, 1 Batt. or Capt from prevention, 1 or more water tenders, the nearest Volunteer Company/Department, Etc... If the fire is showing any type of a "header" or extream behavior, the first in units will normally call for additional resources (on one fire in Southern Cal. a few years ago, the first in BC requested 50 engine Strike Teams,IE: 250 engine companies and the dispatcher did not miss a beat).
Everyone is in full wildland clothing wearing IA (initial attack)packs, progressive hose packs or both. Tactics are based on fuels, weather and the terrain and include any of the direct or indirect techniques. The engines will either pump and roll or start progressive hose lays; the air tankers will work the head and hot flank; the hand crews will support the hose lays or the other way around based on the fire; the helos will support the ground crews and work the spot fires; the dozers with work direct or indirect and establish final lines; etc... If all goes well (on most fires it does) the fire will be limited to between 1 and a couple hundred acres (the key is normally aircraft). If things go bad, we end up with between 1000 and 5000 people on the fire, lots of national press, incident command teams, and multi-million dollars bills.
Considering the fuel build up in the last 40 years the USFS, BLM, CDF and the local departments do a great job.

[friday]

As an addendum to Ledbelly's info, sometimes it's necessary to use a maintainer to gain access for firefighting as the mesquite thickets can be a very effective barrier. They consist mainly of thorns with a few small leaves as an afterthought.

[Dalmation90]

Maintainer?
I'm guessing it's something like a tractor with a flail-mower to cut through the brush?

I did see mesquite when I was out in San Antonio...and remember thinking it must be a pain in the *ss to fight a fire in!

Matt

[lfs]

Leaf blowers -

My experience is in south central Missouri--the Ozarks. Terrain is steep hills and gullies. Often there is a long hike into the woods. Fireload is mostly oak forest, ground will be littered with everything that fell or grew up since the last burn.

Two special and insane problems:
[1]Many Ozark land owners seem to feel it is their bounden duty to burn their land every spring. [Some claim it keeps the ticks down. Others claim it improves the deer hunting.]

[2]MO law says the landowner can prevent the Fire Department from entering private property! Even when someone else's property is threatened! Sometimes they meet us at the gate with shotguns. We have to watch it burn.

Now, to the leaf blowers--they work great! Usually the fire is in the ground litter. One FF with a blower and two with broom rakes typically initiate an indirect attack up each flank working their way toward the head. They build a line a little in advance of the fire. The blower clears most litter away, the rakes clean up the stuff the blower leaves and start small backfires. By the time the main fire arrives, there is no more fuel. The team advances this line toward the head until the fire is pinched off. Additional ground crew with rakes patrol the line to keep backfires from jumping and creating new problems. This gets tricky when the wind starts switching around.

When the bigger fire gets away from us, sometimes the State will have a fire dozer available. It can cut a fireline even faster than a blower crew. We follow behind and dress the line, backfiring when it is complete enough. The State also sends a spotter plane if they are available. On a busy day, we may not get any State help, then it is just mutual aid. For ground crews in this country a leaf blower, some rakes, and backfiring is the fastest way to control the fire.

Water? It may be a mile or more of rugged terrain to the nearest available water. There aren't enough FF's available to pack in an effective water supply by indian tank and the fire seems always beyond the end of the hose. Get rid of the fuel and the fire goes out.

Clothing? Structural turnouts are too hot and heavy, though the helmets are better than nothing. Some have wlidland nomex clothing, but most are in blue jeans. We need better protective clothing.


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Larry

[G Koons]

In eastern PA ( Poconos ) we use a 4 x 4 brush truck with a 300 gal water tank and a portable pump ( pressure 200 psi not volume ) We have pump and roll capability. There are ground sweep nozzels mounted under the front bumper, great for field fires. We have 1 in. booster hose and 300 ft of rubber garden hose. 1 man with garden hose can do a quick attack until the booster line is pulled.We have an adapter to connect garden hose to booster.Saves times adding hose when long lays are needed. For spring brush fire season we keep class A foam in the tank.No special equipment just dump a quart in the tank. Keeps the wind from drying out the water as quickly. For a brush fire assignment the brush truck and a tanker are first out. The tanker (1800 gals single axle ) can supply the brush truck as well as attack the fire. The tanker has booster hose and 1.5 preconnects. 1.5 hose gets the job done. During the spring brush fire season the State assists with helicopters and bomber planes.

[Jonnyreb19]

We here in Southern Alabama Have many brush fires, that cover, farms, woods and marsh. Our station is now equipted with a 4 wheel drive 1 ton Ford pickup truck with a skid unit on the back that holds 500 gallons of water, This allows us to Gain access to almost every Brush fire we have come across the only exception was a resent marsh fire out on a river. For that we have a fellow station that has a boat equipted with a pumper.

[mfgentili]

Not much forest fire activity here, pretty much a concrete jungle, but the companies that do have have wildlands in their area use mostly fire brooms, Indian pump cans, and 1 1/8" forestry hose which is stored on booster hose reels (uncharged). This hose replaced the hard booster hose formally carried on engines but that controversial subject is discussed in another thread.
Here's a true story. One of our engine companies was dispatched to a woods fire near the airport. The fire was a pretty good distance into the wooded area so they grabbed their fire brooms and headed off to do battle. After a while a radio message was received stating that the crew was totally lost in the woods. A group of boy scouts eventually found these firefighters and escorted them back to civilization. Of course they never lived that down. The moral is know your terrain and don't go wandering about aimlessly. It's very easy to get turned around in the woods and all the trees look the same.

mfg

[firefighter60]

This is an intrest thread topic. I'm located in western Pennsylvania. Our main equipment on brush fires is a brush truck, carries 275 gallons of water a couple of indian tanks and hand tools. One of the best things we did was a few years ago instead of replacing indian tanks when the seals went bad or the tanks crack ( as fiberglass tanks will ) we bought an Echo chemical sprayer. Instead of putting chemicals in it we fill it with water. puts out about 10 times the fire that the old indian tanks do, and doesn't weigh anymore.

The big disadvantage is if it stalls. If you are ahead of the rest of your team and no-one can get to you real quick you have to take it off of your back to restart it.

Our primary response on brush fires is brush truck first out followed by the tanker (water tender for our west coast brothers), if manpower and size of fire calls for it we send out an engine also that is older and not used for structural fires as much. During the cooler parts of the year we use structural gear. once the weather warms up we wear blue jeans, flannel shirts or sweat shirts (for the long sleeves mainly) helmets, and work boots. Still makes for hot work but the guys don't start droping like flies from the heat.

[friday]

A maintainer is otherwise known as a motor grader-a long wheel base piece of heavy equipment with a movable blade in the middle. whoever grades your roads probably has one.

[Dalmation90]

Got ya on the grader...actually, when our Town's grader died 10 years ago, we didn't buy a new one...just contract out...we only have maybe 1.5 miles of Town dirt roads and a 1 mile of private dirt roads left. Of course, when the residents on those roads complain they want them paved, the 1st Selectmen looks out his office door, points the church across the street, and tells them they have a better chance in there than his office http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif
Now long driveways are another matter all together!

[DD]

Leaf blowers are great and they really confuse people when you get them out. When a
fire is close to the road attack it hard with a deck gun and go back to the station.

[T.D / 1122]

DD..

Yea deck guns are great, but considering the gpms flowing unless you're responding a super tanker the water would be better used as laying a wet line and doing backfire ops.! (If it's a sizeable fire with room to do it!)

[SCFF2304]

Our methods here in my neck of SC are pretty simple, we use either booster line or 1 1/2 / 1 3/4 hand lines on the fire we can reach with the pumper, we use 4x4 1 ton brush trucks with anywhere from 150 - 300 gallon tanks and small pumps to gain access in open woods/fields/backyards etc, and call for the SC Forestry Commission to bring in a crawler tractor with fire plow to cut fire breaks. We don't generally use hand tools for fire breaks, unless the fire is in an area that the tractor can't access, and even rarely use the indian packs, even though we do carry them on our trucks. In the past I have even used the deck gun for a quick knockdown on a fire that was getting close to houses, but most of the woods fires in the area I'm in are less than 1 acre in size. Now in the southern part of the midlands, in the area we call the SandHills, the fires tend to get large, and burn a lot faster, but they mainly use the same tactics.

[Aussie Fire]

I would like you all to look at some of the fires we have to content with in Australia,you can see a picture of a pine plantation fire and see what you think at
home.primus.com.au/paulh33
its on the front page of my web site so you wont have to go looking

[Tx_FireFighter_417]

HEy here in East Texas by the Davy Crockett national Forrest we do a front attack with a pumper and Redline with nozzles on lowest gpm possible. dont take alot of water to knock a fire down. if it is in the woods we use "flappers", 18 inch wide piece of rubber sort of like a truck mudflap, and knock it down. Then we use backpacks to knock down hot spots till the forestry service gets there. They cut a Fireline 24 inch double cut plow arround the entire fire. Duiring the winter months it is dry.. I have only seen a sustained Crownout about 3 min total..Dont want tosee another either. Gets dry here in winter. Unless we are in a burn ban we knock the ground fire out and tree fires down. then the forrestry service does a cutback and if it is large enough a back burn. Rookies dont put these back burns out..(Experience Talking) LOL... any way. we just let the fire burn out. Trees and roots are almost inpossible to put out in any short ammount of time. some fires burn for days and some for weeks.. most is about 1/2 to 3/4 acre dia. so they arent too large but the big ones we might visit twice. Leaf Blowers? The wind here is stronger than a blower.. I never heard of that but might be a idea.. We also use a standard large Broom. you can buy Fire Brooms but the Wal-Mart is cheaper cause they get worn quick.. you sweep the grass or leavs or rake them inward forming a fireline and wet down to the line.
you can almost watch it run out of fuel. and it burns out. Be carefull with Dozers in trees they push them over like no bodys business, we use helmets and bunker pants in trees cause of the dozers.

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Eric S Adams

[cbp3]

I guess I have to enter my two cents here.
In northern NJ, we attack fires pretty much the same as our brothers in Pa., but in central and southern NJ, where we deal with more than a million acres of pitch pine, (the "Pine Barrens"), and an extreme interface problem, our front-line attack pumpers are typically F-350 Fords or Dodges, 4x4, heavily brush armored, with 250-300 gallon tanks, and 150 gpm pumps. These units are used for direct attack, with a driver and a crew compartment for a firefighter located behind the cab, and in front of the tank. The firefighter generally operates a 1" working line with a 1/4 to 5/8" straight tip nozzle to knock down the fire. When this doesn't produce the water, we keep an inch and a half, "oh *hit" line for escape purposes. If you need that line to knock down the fire, you're using too much water!
These trucks do carry several hundred feet of both toy hose, and 1-1/2", as well as 250-300' of 1" booster line.
Here, we often lose the fires anyway during our fire season, commonly resulting in fires of over 1000 ac.(Last spring's largest was 11,285 ac.) For these, there's no choice but to go indirect on the head, the flanks may be attacked either direct or indirect depending on the situation.
We also use 10 wheel military chassis', JD-350 or 450 tractor/plow units, aerial attack, and have built quite a fleet of specialized equipment for problem fires.
The state has recently completed filming an up-to-date training video on wildland engine operations, thanks to a grant from the federal gov't. If any of you are interested, let us know.
Sorry I get so long-winded, but if you knew me, I guess you wouldn't be surprised. Stay safe!

[craig7404]

We fight forest and grass fires much like Tx--firefighter's dept. does as we are located about 200 miles north of him with much of the same terrain. On grass or pasture fires all of our fire trucks except the tanker are equipped with pump and roll capablities. We have 2 grass/brush trucks setup up for these type fires, our mini attack pumper which can also pump and roll, and our pumper with its backup 18 hp motor and pump. We will try to knock the fire down on a flank at least 25 yards wide so we can get our trucks inside the burned area then go to the head and with one truck on each side start putting the fire out. Being inside the burned area you can see the ground better then in tall grass. On forest fires we auto call the Texas forestry service which sends the plow that has been talked about, and we generally will position our trucks on roads and driveways around the fire and when the wind is not high, will do a back burn to help us to stop it, while we protect the houses in the area. On most forest fires it is a hurry up and then wait fire on the fire to come to us.

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Good Luck And Be Safe
Captain
Craig Lambert
Harmony Consolidated
Volunteer Fire Department

[Lieutenant Gonzo]

We have a former military HUMVEE that we use for a brush truck, unit designation Car 7. It has a poly tank made by FireOne, a Darley pump and carries 250 gallons of water. The hose is 1.125" forestry, and we carry 1.5" hose for larger brush fires. The State's Department of Environmental Management also has brush rigs that are detailed on a mutual aid basis to all the communities in our fire district (Fire District 14).
We don't get too many brush fires, what used to be our brush fire areaa now have new housing developments with homes selling in the $400,000 to $500,000 range.

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Take care and be safe...Lt. Gonzo

[AJM108]

Hi everyone,
My Dept. has two five ton military surplus trucks that have a 800 gallon poly tank with two lines that we work the fire with and a booster line. The truck is set-up to go through anything the way we fight the fires is we will pair up at least two trucks and drive through the woods till we get to the fire and then we just follow the perimeter of the fire knocking it down as we go then we will hit the inside the burn area to get the hot spots most of the Depts. in the area have either five ton or two and a half ton "stump jumpers" and we usually use the booster line for mop up only.


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AJM108
Firefighter\Emt
Ridge Fire Dept.

[LHS]

This past summer our 4 county area had over 100 fires burning at one time. We imported 5000 firefighters, hundreds of fire trucks, and one of the largest air armadas ever assembled. We had fire burning an area the size of Delaware. $50 millionlater it was out. Now another $50 million isneeded to bring things back to normal. One fire had over 660 miles of cat line around it. Fires are addressed with direct attack with engines, ir ops with choppersand tankers, defensive and offensive backfires and burnouts, hundreds of 10, 20 and 40 man hand crews, and in some cases dozer lines.

[ScottN7ZTI]

Here in Creswell, OR our first out truck is a 1500 gallon pumper, at the same time, thier will also be a 250 gallon 4-wheel drive truck, and then another 1500 gallon pumper, followed up by a 2600 gallon tanker.

The first and second truck are used in a "pump and roll" operation, with a person in the hose bed with a line, and a person in the grass cage on the front bumper with a line, this has worked great for all of our grass, brush fires we have around here, if it is back in the trees, we will then call in the forest serivce, and they will pretty much take care of it, and we supply them with water.

[RVFDCapt]

It is very interesting to see all the different types of "wildland" fires other depts. face. Our average fire is easily 2+ acres. We have a Dodge 4x4 Crewcab with small portable pump, garden hose, and 250gal tank that is first truck out on any brush fire. Our terrain is very hilly with alot of hollows that fires go down into and up out of. We have been able to equip most of our firemen with Nomex jumpsuits and goggles. Most men use their fire helmet. We use fire rakes and leafblowers. We will fight fire directly or indirectly with firelines. The leafblowers are a gift from God! They make a great initial fireline that just needs touch up by a second man with a rake. The fuel we normally have to deal with is just normal forest floor fuels (dead leaves and downed trees/branches). We do call in local state local forestry division in fire is large in nature to use dozer to cut longer/larger fire lines to contain fire. Good topic Dalmation90!! Be safe guys!!