Fighting fire with fire

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Alex Echols
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Through a thick haze of smoke, a symphony of flames dances against the trees. Firefighters push through the woods, guiding the fire with the precision and control of a painter filling a canvas. Mixing the use of science and skill they burn the brush and debris from the forest floor without harming the trees.

The 325th Civil Engineer Squadron Natural Resources Office contracted these firefighters to help them perform controlled burns across Tyndall.

A controlled, or prescribed, burn is the act of purposefully burning the fuels, nuisance plant life that fuels wildfires, of a parcel of land while preserving the trees.

"Prescribed fires basically remove the ground fuels under the canopy in the forest as a part of habitat restoration, so when wildfires actually do come through they are less intense," said Amber Smith, Umpqua National Forest Service firefighter. "It kind of restores the forest back into its natural state."

Without these fuels, wildfires have no way to grow and spread.

The Air Force Wildland Fire Center has tasked the Natural Resources Office with performing controlled burns on 10,000 of Tyndall's 22,000 acres of forest area this year.

This task would be impossible with the limited staff the office has and local burn crews are conducting their own controlled burns. Natural Resources reached out to firefighters from some of the colder states for some help since this is their down season.

This year's controlled burns began in November and will end in February. Two different burn crews are facilitating the burns in forty day details, switching during the Christmas break.

Richard Turner, 325th CES Natural Resources forestry technician and wildland fire program manager, personally selected the firefighters to bring in for this season's burns. He has been involved with this program for five years and knows the safety of the burn crew and the community is the most important thing during a burn.

Year-round, Natural Resources prepare for these burns. We maintain fire lines, strategic sections of land cleared from growth to limit the spread of fire, prepare the areas around buildings and watch the weather patterns, to ensure safety during a burn, said Turner.

"If you don't do the prep work you could possibly, in worst case scenario burn a building down," said Turner. "You can ask any firefighter what is the first thing you do when you get to a fire: you size it up, and you see what how big the fire is and what's in its path. That's why we do the prep work."

Fire retardant suit, gloves and hard hat are required at all times and each member of the team is responsible for wearing their personal protective equipment and ensuring their teammates do the same.

"Everybody is responsible for safety, and we are all responsible for watching out for each other," said Nathan Towers, Boise Hot Shots firefighter. "Safety is paramount when you're dealing with fire, and a lot of what controls the fire is weather."

Weather is essential to determining what the fire will do throughout the burn. Changes in weather can tell you when the fire will take a significant change and put the crew in danger.

"Weather is the key," said Maija Corliss, Mckenzie River Forest Service firefighter. "It's a combination of temperature, wind and humidity. It all works together in one amazing system."

Weather also controls the ability to burn. If the ground is too wet after a rain, the fuels will not burn efficiently and if it is too dry or hot, the fuels could burn too hot and scorch the trees or the ground prohibiting future growth.

The crew will not burn unless safety is guaranteed and the weather is ideal, but when they do, their combined years of training and expert techniques go to work.

"It's a good way for us, in a controlled safe environment, to study fire behavior, which helps us a lot when we are on a wild fire," said Corliss.

A burn on Tyndall can last upwards of 14 hours and can take a dozen people to orchestrate depending on the size of the unit.

When completed, the controlled burn leaves a deceiving gray, bleak land and with a lingering smell of ash in the air. Underneath the soot lies dormant seed ready to spring to life and reclaim what the heavy brush and vines took from them, and within a few weeks the green will return to the forest floor.

"I like doing prescribed burns because I get to see a change in the forest over a matter of years," said Corliss. "So I can go back to units that I've burned in the past and see how healthy they are. It's pretty amazing to see the difference."