Like 4%… what determines that percentage?
In: Other
It’s a very rough metric of how much of the fire perimeter has a decent “control line” or “containment line”.
A control line is an area where a ground fire can’t spread through. Could be a road, or a bulldozer line, or a line dug with hand tools, or a strip of retardant layered down by aircraft, or a river/lake/ocean, or burnt land, etc etc.
Once fully surrounded, the fire would be at 100% containment. Crews also need to deepen/widen that containment, because fire can flare up and “jump the control line” with Spot Fires.
So generally an area will get a control line in to try and stop the spread, then crews work to deepen that containment to reduce the chance the fire breaking that containment. For example, a one lane wide road will stop a ground fire, but a tree that is burning can fall across the road and then the fire can continue to progress. Thats why crews fall trees that are on fire near the control line to prevent this happening.
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