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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Wildfires tend to start by burning dead plant material that ends up collecting on the forest floor. If there is a bunch of built up fuel then if/when a wildfire starts it is going to use that fuel to burn large and hot.
To avoid this humans can periodically set off controlled burns to reduce the amount of collected fuel in the forest. These deliberate wildfires are smaller due to the lower amount of fuel and are easier to control.
Starting those controlled wildfires involves people going out into the forest and setting it on fire, and a drip torch helps do that by dripping flaming fuel onto the ground.
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