Getting Ready for Wildland Urban Interface Firefighting

摘要

STANDING AT THE EDGE OF A GRAVEL parking area about half the size of a football field watching a wall of 30-foot flames race through the brush and short timber, I felt confident that the work put in over the past 15 minutes or so would be enough to give at least those few homes a chance for survival. The "CR 3390" fire in 2008 eventually destroyed a dozen homes 30 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas. It should be no secret to firefighters across the country that losses from wildfire are increasing and more homes across the nation are being threatened by wildfire than ever before. That means that more firefighters than in the past are stepping into this complex, fast-moving fire environment, many of them for the first time in their careers.