i have a question regarding purposefully starting a fire... to stop a fire. does anyone know this term?

Question

i read once about someone caught in the open with a fire heading toward them (think grasslands and a large wild fire). they started a line of fire that would spread behind them so that as the fire ate the fuel, it wouild leave empty ground for the people to escape the oncoming wildfire. i know there is a term to describe this but i don't remember what it is. can someone please tell me what this term is?

Answer 1

Fire Use Module (Prescribed Fire Module): A team of skilled and mobile personnel dedicated primarily to prescribed fire management. These are national and interagency resources, available throughout the prescribed fire season, that can ignite, hold and monitor prescribed fires.

Fire Shelter: An aluminized tent offering protection by means of reflecting radiant heat and providing a volume of breathable air in a fire entrapment situation. Fire shelters should only be used in life-threatening situations, as a last resort.



Fire Shelter Deployment: The removing of a fire shelter from its case and using it as protection against fire.



Backburn: Precautionary fire set downwind of main fire for controlled fuel clearing by "backing" it into the main fire, similar to burnout, below, which occurs adjacent to control line.



Backfire: A fire set along the inner edge of a fireline to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire and/or change the direction or force of the fire’s convection column.



Berm: Soil heaped on the downhill side of a traversing fireline below a fire, to trap rolling firebrands.



Blackline: A condition where no combustible fuels remain between the fireline and the main fire





Bump up: To move to another location. Can refer to anything from moving to another location on a fireline, to an entire crew moving to another fire. "Bump back" means to return to your previous location. In the "bump" system of fireline construction, each firefighter works on a small piece of fireline with his or her tool, perhaps slowly walking as the line progresses, until a completed portion of line is encountered. Then the call to "bump up!" is heard, and everyone ahead of the caller skips ahead one or more positions, leaving the unfinished fireline for those coming up behind.



Burning index: relative measure of fire-control difficulty; doubling the index means twice the effort may be needed to control the fire (e.g., wind shift, heavier fuel load, etc).



Burn out: Setting fire inside a control line to consume fuel between the edge of the fire and the control line.



underburn -- A fire that consumes surface fuels but not trees or shrubs.

Answer 2

I don't know the term, but I know that it is a technique often used by smoke jumpers to slow fires down, or even provide them with shelter when a blaze gets beyond there control.



-TY

Answer 3

This is a "Firebreak"

An area is selected ahead of the main fire and a "Back fire" is started to eliminate fuel

Answer 4

I think it's called a 'backfire' and it creates a 'fire break'.

Answer 5

it's called a 'Backfire' or 'Backburn'

Answer 6

i thought it was back burning