“Light it up!” Learning the lingo on the fire line

Prescribed burn, caught on an Eyes on the Wild trail camera 

Many of you have come across photos like the one above, showing an active fire at Cedar Creek. Don't panic! Cedar Creek is home to one of the world's longest continuously-running experiments about how fire can be used as a restoration and land management tool. We've been studying fire here since the 1960s. You can read more about the research project and methodology on our website. We know that our Eyes on the Wild volunteers often like to have the inside scoop though, so we recruited Susan Barrott, a Cedar Creek staff member with more than a decade of burning experience, to bring us into the world of prescribed burning in a little bit more vivid of a fashion....

by Susan Barrott, information specialist at Cedar Creek and long-time member of our prescribed burning crew.

Cedar Creek manages the prairies and rare oak savannas by setting controlled fires called prescribed burns. On an April day in 2002 I joined the burn crew at Cedar Creek for the first time and learned a whole new language! “Bump up your Gator. Strip that out and give me some more black.” Come along on a typical burn day and learn the lingo on the fire line.

Pre-burn safety meeting with everyone on the burn crew in Nomex and PPE.

The first step is to get dressed in “PPE”, personal protective equipment; Nomex pants and shirt, worn because the fibers are heat and flame-resistant, leather boots and gloves, goggles, radio and a hard hat. Then gather out near the burn location and have a “pre-burn safety meeting” going over the plan for the burn in detail. These meeting always end with, “Any questions, comments or concerns?” It’s your chance to clarify any part of the plan you aren’t sure about or mention a concern that wasn’t covered during the meeting. At Cedar Creek, the “Fire Boss” is the only one in a white hat, the “Squad Bosses” are in red hats and the crew wears yellow hats. The Fire Boss is in charge of the entire burn and all of the squads. The squad bosses are in charge of their squads and work together with the Fire Boss to conduct the burn. 

Heading out to the ignition point on the Gators.

Next we climb into trucks or “Gators”, utility vehicles with water tanks and head out to the burn location. The Fire Boss notifies the DNR, County Sheriff and the local fire department by “calling it in”, letting them know that we’ll be conducting a prescribed burn. This activates a permit for the specific burn we’ll be doing that day which has previously been approved by the DNR. No permits are approved on a “Red flag warning” day when weather conditions are ideal for fire combustion and rapid spread.

At the ignition point.

At the “ignition point” where the burn will begin, final details get worked out. The fire boss measures wind speed with a handheld anemometer. Squad bosses review their crews to make sure everyone is in position, ready to go with radios on. We start engines on the trucks that run the pump tanks and check the hoses. The call “light it up!” is given and “drip torches” filled with gasoline and oil are used to ignite the burn!

Stripping out the black with a drip torch. 

Each burn begins with a “backfire”, set along the upwind side of the intended burn area and used to create a containment edge where the “fuel”, dried grasses and plants, are consumed by fire. This area is called “the black”. If the squad boss wants more black, “stripping out” is called for, which means adding another line of fire close to the black. A truck leads with the squad boss and the “drip torchers” who are lighting the edge, followed by crew on a Gator who make sure the edge of the black is out. If the squad boss wants the Gator to move closer to the truck, a call goes out on the radio to “bump up”.

The two squads work in opposite directions from the ignition point lighting backfires. This creates a contained edge surrounding the burn area until the squads reach the side where wind will carry the fire in a “headfire”, pushing it rapidly and consuming all the unburned fuel within the black. At this point they begin “sealing it off” by having both squads move towards each other lighting headfires until they meet. Success! 

Sealing it off, squads in the background and foreground are lighting headfires as they converge.

Laying down a wet line.

Flapper (no music required).

During the burn, water from is used to contain the edges. When it’s done in advance of the fire it’s called “wet lining”. Crew members also use “flappers”, a fire resistant mat on the end of a long handle, to cover and smother out small flames with the instruction “never flap your flapper, it will just fan the flames.” 

Mopping up with a “Pulaski, combination chopping and trenching tool, which combines a single-bitted axe-blade with a narrow adze-like trenching blade. 

In the savanna, where there are woody fuels that can burn for days, crew must stay to put out anything within the black that is too close to the edge. This is called “mopping up”. Cedar Creek has been practicing prescribed burning since the 1960s, making it one of the longest ongoing scientific fire experiments in the world. Learning the lingo by being a part of the burn crew has been a highlight of my work at Cedar Creek. Soon the snow will melt and the call to “light it up!” will go out again!