How do you control bushfires?

When one is prepping deep into the forest, fire becomes an indispensable friend. However as the cliche goes, fire is a good slave but a bad master. There is always the risk of the fire going out of control in the bush and one needs to keep it at manageable levels especially during the hot season. It can prove catastrophic to both flora and fauna as well as posing a clear and present danger since the firefront moves at an incredible speed. Anyone experienced with bushfires?

 

An individual has literally no hope at all of personally controlling a bushfire. In that situation you need to evacuate, and take what you can. Taking into mind the fact that the bushfire will spread. You don't want to re-settle, only to find you need to move again within a week or two.

 

Back home we had wild fires start up, and it's usually from someone that throws their cigarettes out of a moving car window. If caught in time before it gets out of control, my towns people would actually use a bulldozer and attempt to contain the fire by plowing all vegetation around the said area. I has worked several time as I've watched it from afar. The only down side to that is, if there is if it's windy, the flames will catch to anything in it's proximity. We try to contain it from the get go, but once it catches on it's almost impossible to stop. Best to just move further away and try your luck at containment again.

 

We have our share of bushfires or forest fires here. In fact, one mountain called Mount Banahaw that is sacred to some religious groups suffered a forest fire last year. The suspicion is that some hikers left a burning bonfire that spread by the dry grass.

Authorities have been issuing guidelines on how to avoid forest or bushfires. First is to be careful of the fire that you would create. Even cigarette butts should not be thrown wantonly for it can also cause a fire when the surroundings are all brown and dry. When you make a camp, be sure to pitch tent in a clearing, that means no dry grass and far from areas with combustible materials. If you need to pull dried grass around your camp then do it for your own safety. When a bushfire starts, there is no way you can stop it unless you have an unlimited supply of water.

 

If you start a bushfire you are in the best place to survive it! as it will be small and relatively cool at its origin!
Small clearings can save you as they represent weak spots in a fire front! use one to dash through the weak spot to get behind the fire!
Cover yourself against radient heat and move quickly, he who hesitates fries!