Sometimes, the best way to stop fires is to start them. Since the 1970s, fire managers have used so-called prescribed fires to burn up dry, flammable fuel before it accumulates into something that could start a much more dangerous conflagration.
Determining when and how to set a prescribed fire is a complicated science. “A lot of the grassland areas have lots of acreage that’s got to be burned by a certain deadline. You can’t just do it any old day,” says smoke jumper Brandyn Harvey, who worked for several years on a “hotshot” crew that set prescribed fires throughout the western United States .
A quick way to spread intentional fires is with a power torch that’s mounted on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). “When you have to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time, the power torch is definitely the way to go,” Harvey says. “Otherwise you have to walk around with a little hand torch.”
Read more at…
