How firefighters deal and control forest fires? Do they try to put out the fires?

Question

How firefighters deal and control forest fires? Do they try to put out the fires?

Answer 1

Different steps are taken according to the size of the fire, and the kind of habitat. In grass lands and in the cases of ground fire the counter fire method is used where a strip is burned to clear all inflammable things so that the fire do not spread.

In case where the fire is at the canopy level and the wind is hard there is hardly anything we can do still we try to contain the fire.

In case of underground fire you know it only after it finished burning a large area

Answer 2

Yes, they do but due to the size of a forrest fire, they often need a complicated plan of action.  They use things like fire breaks, and attacking the fire where the conditions are most favourable (ie when the fire is heading up wind or down hill).

Answer 3

usaly they just try to contain it and letting it burn out.

Answer 4

They typically do not actually try to "put" the fire out, as a raging wildfire is extremely large. Usually they remove as much fuel as they can in front of the fire and try to direct it away from populated places.

Once they get a perimeter around the fire, they simply keep it from spreading, what is inside the "burn area" is allowed to burn out. They then mop up hot spots, and all is said and done.

Answer 5

Where possible most forest fires would be put out completely asap. One does not want to leave it an opportunity to get burning underground or escape while your back is turned, when w wind comes up.

Letting it burn out the fuel that is inside the control perimeter exposed one to those risks. (If the ground is water soaked the risk may be low.)

Down in the soil there is often a layer of nitrate that can sustain a fire for months if it ever gets down there. It can get very messy.

Very large fires can be almost impossible to stop, and one mostly tries to slow them down until weather allows them to be controlled.  

With a small fire (my only experience) one knocks the fire down from the tree tops, cutting a perimeter clear of trees, trenching to keep it from escaping. One has to keep watching for risk of breakout. The strategy is typically to remove from the perimeter any wood not on fire so as to keep the heat of the blaze low. Where possible the pump is put down in the stream to supply water to douse the  flames, soak the charcoal. and the whole root zone. Where the fire is eating down toward teh roots it is critical to either soak it or dig it out... can't leave it burning underground. I am not sure that would  be done in the middle of a large fire. The only cases I have fought the stump was burning within 20 metres from the edge of the perimeter.  

The main tools were chainsaw, shovel, pump and hose, and pole-axe. We spent 5 days making sure the last embers were cold.