You always see wildlife firefighters with drip torches. I understand they are used to control/suppress fires, but how does that work? Why does it work as a fire suppressant?
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Think if it this way.
If you have a cigarette lighter and you light it and hold it to a tree trunk, the lighter will run out before anything happens to the tree.
Now take that same lighter and hold it to all the dried leaves and foliage on the ground. You will start quite a bit fire very soon.
So these back burns aim to remove that dried material in a controlled fashion so that it isn’t a set on fire by the main fire. In forest fires, there are a lot of burning embers carried by the wind that travel in front of the main fire front. Of they land on a tree, nothing will happen. If they land in dried material, then can start other fires that join up to the main fire front. So removing this material is key to stopping a fire front progression.
It is also commonly used as a fire maintenance and mitigation tactic, where controlled burns reduce that amount of available material to start a fire.
It is not a new thing, indigenous peoples in Australia have used this technique for thousands of years.
The following article explains the benefits, and also has a video.
https://www.watarrkafoundation.org.au/blog/aboriginal-fire-management-what-is-cool-burning
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