why we can’t ‘just’ split big forests into multiple blocks so when a block burns it doesn’t spread through the whole forest.

Question

Well the title is the question.
With ‘split’ I mean create some space between blocks where fire has nothing to travel to the next block to spread.

I imagine that actions like dropping water with helicopters would also be unnecessary since we could ‘give up’ a burning block and then the fire would be over.

Or am I too naive about it?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

Because that is an IMMENSE amount of work. Ever cleared dense trees? It’s very difficult and expensive work. You don’t do it unless you need to. In tall, established forests an effective fire break has to be quite wide, 30 ft or more. Cutting a single miles long 30 ft wide swath through a forest would be the work of years, and it might not even be effective if the wind is wrong when the fire happens. It’s just not economically feasible.