My family’s home (and many others) is almost surrounded by bushfires in NSW. How do the brave fire fighters control huge flames and fire storms? Can they control them? Or do they just have to run their course till there is nothing left to burn? I’d just like to understand it a little better. And if there are any fireys (fire fighters in Australia) reading this… thank you for all you do. You are incredibly brave.
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It depends on the fire and how quickly it is moving. There are some offensive and defensive methods to fighting fires.
Offensively, they can attack the fire directly. They do this by spraying/dropping water and other things to put the fire out at its source.
Defensively, they can do a few things to try and prevent the fire from spreading. One way to do this is to cut fire lines. You basically clear a wide path that the fire is heading towards. If you cut down the trees, bushes, etc the fire can’t spread over this cleared area. Another way is controlled burns. If you set a small fire to burn up the combustible materials before the main force of the fire gets there, the fire won’t be able to continue in that path. Smaller fires are much easier to control than large ones.
Many sides of the fire they let burn on their own. The first objective is saving lives and property. So if they can focus their efforts on a small neighborhood in the fires path, they will devote more resources to that area than a place with nobody living there.
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