Construct Firelines

Firelanes should consist of unburnable material (dirt, road, water, green grass w/no thatch) wide enough to prevent the fire from escaping around the entire perimeter of the burn unit.  In woods, a 6-8 ft wide break, and in grass, 25’ of mowed area with 3 to 4 ft of bare dirt on the far side, is a minimum.  Click HERE to see an example of some fireline BMP's from Florida.  Firelines can be constructed by hand using chainsaws and leaf blowers, mowers, trimmers and handtools.  Often bulldozers are used by contractors (and can make excellent breaks), but pushed material should go to the outside of the desired burn unit, if at all possible.  If piles of pushed forest on the inside of a burn unit get engaged, they  can project hot embers outside the firelines, kill trees that they are pushed against, and will likelly burn for several days.  Unless they are caught very early, there is usually not enough water resources on a prescribed burn to simply put them out (several hundreds of gallons of water to extinguish completely).  If pushing material to the outside is not possible, scattering the debris, pushing it well into the burn unit, or not pushing large trees can help reduce their negative potential. Back to checklist