Proly dumb wildfire fighting question for any wildfire firemen out there???

paulkish

old fart
I'm running an air hose out to the shed to put in a shelf and me being me it lead to an idea question.

Instead of using water and shovels at the edge of the fire line: ....

Couldn't you use a high pressure air hose from a large compressor/tank on a big truck to blow the fire and embers back onto itself?
I figure if you blow the edge of the fire back onto itself with the air pressure you would remove both embers and new potential fuel for the fire.
The fire would then go out for lack of being able to burn again on the same already burned path.

Yeah proly dumb??????????

Wouldn't it be great if it would work and you could simply blow out the edge of a wildfire like candles on a birthday cake?
I can envision an air truck with big off road tires and a remote arm out keeping fire fighters away from the actual fire, rolling along the fire line blowing it out.

Maybe even tree/brush cutting equipment out in the front of the truck both cutting brush throwing it towards the fire and falling trees into the fire.
Make your own road/potential new fire brake while blowing out the fire.
You could have two trucks one leading and cutting a path, while the other widens and again removes more potential fuel maybe this time in the opposite direction or same which ever is learned to do it best and not fuel the now dying fire and again blows out anything missed by the first truck.
 
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I'm running an air hose out to the shed to put in a shelf and me being me it lead to an idea question.

Instead of using water and shovels at the edge of the fire line: ....

Couldn't you use a high pressure air hose from a large compressor/tank on a big truck to blow the fire and embers back onto itself?
I figure if you blow the edge of the fire back onto itself with the air pressure you would remove both embers and new potential fuel for the fire.
The fire would then go out for lack of being able to burn again on the same already burned path.

Yeah proly dumb??????????

Wouldn't it be great if it would work and you could simply blow out the edge of a wildfire like candles on a birthday cake?
I can envision an air truck with big off road tires and a remote arm out keeping fire fighters away from the actual fire, rolling along the fire line blowing it out.

Maybe even tree/brush cutting equipment out in the front of the truck both cutting brush throwing it towards the fire and falling trees into the fire.
Hmmmm,

Sounds like youd be creating a "Forced Induction" fire. Typically that causes the opposite of putting it out.
 
Good idea . The scope of the fire though might require a turbine for the needed air volume .

Turbine used for air compressor. Good idea I was thinking of something conventional.

edit: heck maybe just mount a jet engine on the back and blow fire and the next fuel to feed the fire back on itself??????????
Maybe even a line of them similar but bigger/huge as is done clearing rain off a napcar track???????
 
Good point . Sadly when thousands of acres are on fire the back fires and cutting the stuff in front are tried and true .
A big problem is when you're in a housing or rural area where homes may have 5-10 acres or maybe less . But semi populate you can't burn it back or burn a fire break .
 
Oil fires have been put out with jet engines attached to a tank spraying a fine water mist. It worked really well but the setup was somewhat time consuming.
 
A pressure washer works fairly good on grass fires, as long as you have someone following along mopping up any flare ups and hot spots. Stretches your limited volume of water.

The biggest problem with the air deal is it does not remove the heat source, and leaves burning embers, so can restart as long as there is some fuel.
Big fires start consuming lots of air and can create their own tornadoes in extreme cases.
 
You could use a giant bellows with a giant horse shoe held with giant tongs to absorb the heat on the other side. I've seen this done on a smaller scale in many western movies.
 
Blowing compressed air would appear to me to be adding fuel to the fire.
Just the opposite is the current tactic - eliminate the oxygen part of the fuel by suffocating it with water and chemical.
If there were a way to create a vacuum, I would think would be a better approach than projecting compressed air...reminds me of the old Mel Brooks movie Space Balls. Mega-Maid with a giant vacuum cleaner. LOL
 
Blowing compressed air would appear to me to be adding fuel to the fire.
Just the opposite is the current tactic - eliminate the oxygen part of the fuel by suffocating it with water and chemical.
If there were a way to create a vacuum, I would think would be a better approach than projecting compressed air...reminds me of the old Mel Brooks movie Space Balls. Mega-Maid with a giant vacuum cleaner. LOL
I think this is typically done with dynamite for oil fires. It might work for other fires:
 
Many years ago, as a teenager, I had the privilege of being able to watch Red Adair and crew blow out an oil well fire with high explosives. It was spectacular, and was pretty realistically reprised in the John Wayne movie "Hellfighters". It is a system that works great when you have fire from a small, if very concentrated and spectacular, source of liquid or gaseous fuel as erupts from the casing pipe of an oil or gas well. I do not see how you would apply it to a forest or brush fire, whose acres of coverage and fuel source both contribute to a fire that is a completely different animal. Too bad, because it does work spectacularly on oil and gas well fires.
 
Too many hot embers, using air would create a storm cloud of hot embers that will just set more fires.
As a younger man I fought to forest fires and was part of KVG for years, wind is the worse enemy, so trying to blow out a forest fire is a bad idea.
We cut fire lines to try and contain it, not really trying to put it out
 
On our natural cover fires aka grass fires here in Missouri, we use backpack leaf blowers. They work great and can get in thick timber better than dragging a hose in and around trees and brush.
 
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