1. Prescribed Fire ● A managed, intentional fire.

2. 8 main purposes: ● Removes fuel from the floor ● Gets sites ready for seeding and planting ● Improves wildlife habitats ● Removes undesirable trees and brush cluttering ● Controls forest diseases ● Improves quality of grass ● Improves appearance of forest ● Easier access to the forest

3. Three steps in a prescribed fire ● 1. Must be controlled very close ● 2. Fire cannot be too hot – Damage to crown and to cambium layer ● 3. Cannot get out of control

4. Great Chicago fire ● Most famous fire in America: Great Chicago fire of 1871. 300 people died

5. Peshtigo fire ● Same time as Chicago Fire ● Hot and Dry Summer / High winds ● Loggers were burning / got out of control ● 1,600 lives lost ● Miramichi Fire (1825) :160 Lives

6. Three requirements for a fire ● Fuel: Something to burn (forest litter) ● Oxygen: Wind ● Heat: (ignition temperature): Natural and human caused

7. Fire Triangle

8. 7 Sources of Fires ● 1. Incendiary: Arson or out of control planned burn. ● 2. Debris burning: burning trash, litter ● 3. Smokers ● 4. Campers: fires and lanterns ● 5. Railroads: sparks from old locamotives ● 6. Logging: not a threat anymore ● 7. Lightning: Main cause of natural fires.

9. Types of Forest Fires ● 1. Ground Fire: Spontaneous Combustion. (Humus or peat gets very hot) Smoldering fire that burns out root systems.

10. 2. Surface Fire: Burn near the ground. Brush, vines, grasses, dry litter on floor. Most common fire.

11. ● 3. Crown Fire: Most Violent and dangerous. Once the surface fire reaches the canopy. Spreads quickly due to wind.

12. Detecting a wildfire ● Look out tower: – One operator spots smoke ● Calls in to office ● Determines azimuth (direction) from the tower with an alidade (instrument) ● Second tower operator does the same. – Use triangulation to determine actual fire location – Plotting the lines connecting each tower with the smoke. Point of crossing is fire location.

13. Other ways to detect fire ● Telephone reports ● Fire watch planes

14. Anatomy of a typical fire ● Starts from a single point ● Spreads in the direction of the wind. ● Small fires will be down wind ● Leading edge of the fire is jagged.

15. Factors that affect the anatomy of a fire ● Slope ● Moisture ● Fuel ● Wind ● Open areas ● Roads ● Streams ● lakes