How Fighting Wildfires Works

Animation by Josh Sherrington
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

Special thanks to Patreon supporters
Alec Watson, Andrew J Thom, Braam Snyman, Bryan Yip, Chris Allen, Chris Barker, Connor J Smith, Daddy Donald, Etienne Dechamps, Eyal Matsliah, Hank Green, Harry Hendel, James Hughes, James McIntosh, John & Becki, Johnston, Keith Bopp, Kelly J Knight, Ken Lee, KyQuan, Phong, manoj kasyap govindaraju, Plinio Correa, Qui Le, Robin Pulkkinen, Sheldon Zhao, Simen Nerleir, Tim Robinson

Select footage courtesy the AP Archive

#wildfire #explained #educational

[Wendoverproductions]

I hope you guys enjoy this video! It's obviously quite an enormous topic that people will spend years studying condensed down into a ten-minute video so this isn't the comprehensive guide to stopping wildfires but for those that know nothing about wildfire suppression techniques I hope this will be interesting and informative!

[archlinuxrussian]

As a Californian, I have enormous respect for those employees by CalFire, both the firefighters and those in the administration portion.

[RuffinItAB]

I'm an initial attack firefighter in Canada, and this video is great. The description of basic wildfire behavior and suppression tactics are pretty dang good. One thing about wildfire is that the tactics vary based on what your forests are made up of, as well as the resources your agency has available, so what calfire does is very different from how we might do things in the boreal forest, or what you might see in australia, etc.

[iliet]

Hard times for the people in Australia. Hope everything is going to get better and the fire stopped.

[FutureNow]

How to Stop a Wildfire: very carefully.

[vtvman]

I’m in Australia and currently we have a range of out of control bushfires(wildfires). I came across this video and it helped me understand the challenge we are facing. Fingers crossed the fires don’t get any worse here. Thanks for the video.

[katomiccomics]

Australians in January: hello

Californians in September: hello

[mastershooter]

Wow fighting fires is like a turn based strategy game

[joeclone]

I’m sending this to the Australian government

[christianbeeman]

Hello Wendover. After watching this I showed my father who is a fire fighter for Kern County in California, This is his response. In your video you stated that the fire would immediately be transferred to Calfire's management when it is dispatched. This statement is however wrong. First it would be dispatched from the California Office of Emergency Services to the local OES station or station that has an OES engine. The fire would be then assessed by the team then more fire teams will be dispatched as CalFire or as a federal assignment. Federal would be managed at the federal level. Calfire would be state managed. Thank you for the amazing content and I hope you also learn something as have I.

[darksnakenerdmaster]

I've heard that Australian equipment and personel are shipped up for the fire season and then shipped back for our fire season. It's really quite something to see those magnificent people work. Their bravery is comparable to that of a soldier.

[pavitrasingh]

Isn't this channel double as interesting

[floodster]

so ironic how this comes up in my recommended now

[menschderguckt]

Thank God, that you mentioned airplanes!

[WarblesOnALot]

G'day,

Yay Team !

Thanks for posting this.

I wasn't aware that the US still uses Parachute-Insertion to put Firefighters into burning Forests...(!).

I'm a Basic Firefighter with the NSW Rural Fire Service, my son is Captain of a 2-Tanker Brigade, as well as a foundation-member of the local RAFT (Remote Area Firefighting Team) ; here in Oz the RAFTs are Helicopter Winch-Inserted from as much as 300 ft up, to cut Hand-Lines (down to Mineral Earth) from which to light Back-Burns...

It's what they call "Dry Firefighting", and they take Chainsaws, Brushcutters, Rake-Hoes, and Drip-Torches with Backpack Leaf-Blowers ; and quite a bit of Fuel for all of the above.

If they need Water then that comes from "Heli-Tacks" or "Firebombers", ie anything from Jetrangers to Hueys with Buckets and Erikson-Sikorsky Sky-Cranes or Turbo-Thrushes & Dromedaries.

Which brings me to a point.

You claim that Phos-Check is "very expensive" at $3 per (US) Gallon..., compared to Water...

That isn't actually right..., y'see, because trucking Water to the Airstrip costs $21 per ton ($130 for 6, 000 Litres, I bought a load of Water only last week..., we have a Drought here at the moment), and while the Heli-tack will indeed save $21 per Ton (500 Litres to 1, 200 L. per Bucket, depending on the Machine...) by bucketing from Rivers - the RFS reimburses Property-Owners for whatever Water is taken from Dams, or the Water is replaced afterwards using Tanker Trucks.

I've worked at the Airbase filling Firebombers with both Water out of Buoywall Tanks holding the loads brought in on a relay of Council Trucks, as well as mixing a 10, 000 Gallon (Imperial) Buoywall of Phos-Check and pumping it into the 'Planes.

Phos-Check consists of Phosphate (Fertiliser) powrered & dyed Red..., it's not any more expensive to make than the "Super-Phosphate" Pellets which Graziers have air-dropped onto their Pastures, to make the Grass grow better ("Aerial Top-Dressing" as they call it...).

The NSW Rural Fire Service is an all-volunteer outfit, so there's no labour-cost in unloading the Bags & mixing the Powder into the Water, or pumping it - though I imagine that Cal-Fire in the US has to pay Wages (?).

However, to drop a $21 Ton of Water onto a Fire costs the RFS $350 from fixed-wing Firebombers, & $550 from a Heli-tack...; because Water is heavy and Flying Machines are much more expensive to operate than the local Council's Water-Truck.

My guess is that the "$3 per (US) Gallon of Phos-Check" is the cost of putting it onto the Ground, including the Jumbo-Jet Firebomber and the people mixing & handling the Water & Retardant on the ground at the Airbase.

The Aircraft are chartered by the Hour, and there may be a Contract Clause varying the rate when using Retardant vs Water, because Phos-Check is heavier than pure Water - and carrying it will burn more Fuel...(?) !

One of the ways in which I've trained myself to feel good about tiny amounts of Rain, during this Drought, is to work out what it would cost to "replace the Rain with Technology" on the 100 Acres upon which I pay the Rates....; a Quarter of a Millimetre is 1/100th of an Inch, which we used to call a "Point", and 1 Point of Rain onto 1 Acre of Land (ie 66 ft by 660 ft..., which is to say a Spear-throw by a Bow-Shot !) is 224 Imperial Gallons of Water - at 10 Pounds to the Imp. Gal. that's 2, 240 Pounds, which is exactly one Ton.

So 1 Point of Rain onto the Land that I'm responsible for equates to being $2, 100 worth of Water, delivered at a saving of somewhere between $35, 000 & $55, 000, for the Airdrop, depending on whether the Fantasy involved3 Fixed or Rotary-Wing delivery-systems ; and it's three & a half to five & a half million dollars to put a $210, 000 Inch of Water onto the Land...

I dunno what Fertiliser costs, because I run an Endangered Species Sanctuary & I don't use the stuff (Kangaroos & Wallabies deposit their dung here, for free !) ; but Graziers use it by the Truckload, so it can't be particularly expensive.

Such is Life,

Have a good one...

[brucewayneisdeadpool]

Living in Greece where forest fires are a pretty common thing each summer (although they do not compare to the massive fires in America), I immediately knew from the start that the fire you were describing was imaginary. This year 98 people died from a forest fire on the northern part of Athens. The truth fellas is that if the wind is strong and the fire has something to fuel it, any attempts to slow down are in vain.
If nature herself does not decide to assist you (rain, the wind stopping, natural water like lakes to contain the fire on one side) you quickly realize you are just a small spec fighting against a giant.

[thatpersonwithamlpiconwhos]

This kinda makes me want a wildfire stopping video game, in the style of a RTS. The frantic nature of stopping wildfires and the strategy used would make a fun gameplay experience.

[sidewalkstoryz]

There are Fire Tower Lookouts that help spot fires in many regions. Recently spoke with a couple of fire tower lookouts who explained how land, air, and towers work together to mitigate and manage large wild fires. They also said that forest fires are a natural phenomenon and not necessarily a 'bad thing' all the time...only when vital resources are at risk or the fire is at a massive scale. Great job highlighting the hard work of wild land firefighters in this video!

[SarisTX]

California Firefighters have been waiting for this video

[yuriyashurin]

Can you do video about how power supply works, and how they regulate high and low demand issues....