How Do We Contain Wildfires? The Fascinating (and Frightening) Facts

Like many other residents of Los Angeles, I woke up this morning to the smell of campfire in the air. The sun, normally bold and bright and unforgiving, was barely visible, like the beam of a small flashlight trying to make its way through the thick, smoky clouds. When I stepped outside to walk the dog, tiny white flakes of ash rained down on my sleeve. 

As I write this, the El Dorado Fire has burned more than 13,000 acres in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in Southern California and is 31% contained. Not too far away, the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest has spread over 26,000 acres and is only at 6% containment. Right now, 500,000 people are under evacuation orders in Oregon. 

When discussing the fires in a recent class, one of my students mentioned that the It orest Service doesn’t expect the Bobcat Fire to be contained for another 45 days (which means mid-October). Fourty-five days of firefighting is mindboggling to me, so I had to investigate. We’ve discussed the causes of wildfires on previous episodes. But once a wildfire happens, how do we contain it?

How do you contain a wildfire?

The main tool in a firefighter’s arsenal is a control line. Also called firebreaks, these are natural barriers that stop the fire from spreading. Sometimes these control lines occur naturally, thanks to a break in the vegetation like a river or a rock outcrop. In fact, part of the containment of the Bobcat Fire came from the fire running up against the previously burned site from a widespread fire the year before. 

Part of the containment of the Bobcat Fire came from the fire running up against the previously burned site from a widespread fire the year before.

Firefighters may also create control lines by digging ditches and using yet more fire and even explosives to break up existing brush. If the creeping fire hits a spot that has already been burned, the fire has no fuel to continue and thus has nowhere to go. In some cases, firefighters may lay down a flame retardant along the control line— that's known as a “wet line.” 

Firefighters usually report the percentage of containment, as in...

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