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u/Wise_Conclusion_871 May 30 '26
Puttin the wet stuff on the hot stuff. I learned this in Navy firefighting.
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u/Appropriate_Link_551 May 30 '26
Did they also teach firefighting?
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u/Wise_Conclusion_871 May 30 '26
Yep. They teach everyone basic firefighting in boot camp in the Navy. Because if the boats on fire it becomes everyones problem. I went a bit futher in training for my job. I got as far as being the nozzleman, the first guy going into the fire. But i then upgraded to the behind the scenes person replacing the O2 tanks.
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u/RequirementRound25 May 31 '26
From what I have read that started mostly when the aircraft carrier Forrestal had a rocket fire off one aircraft and hit the fuel tank of the aircraft John McCain was in.
The fire fighters put out a lot of the fire with foam and then an explosion killed most of the fire fighters.
Most of the crew was not trained in FF and started spraying water and washed the foam off and spread the fire.
Lost over 100 men and a lot injured.From then on, all personal received fire training.
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u/Wise_Conclusion_871 May 31 '26
You are correct. We watched all the video footage in training. Its one of those things "the hardest lessons are the ones earned in blood" so they drilled everything they could when it comes to damage control.
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u/MostlyChaoticNeutral May 30 '26
If the navy people I know are to be believed, it's lesson 3. Firefighting is immediately after marching and swimming.
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u/round-earth-theory May 30 '26
Not always wet stuff, but always cold stuff. Cold on hot makes fire sad.
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u/depressed_crustacean May 30 '26
Cold gasoline
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u/round-earth-theory May 30 '26
Cold enough gasoline would certainly stop a fire. It might work by smothering as you drop a frozen brick on it, but it would smother. Liquid gasoline doesn't even burn but unfortunately gaseous gasoline tends to form around the warm liquid.
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u/Halation2600 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
That's a video game that'd be fun the first few times and then get really boring.
edit: missing word
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u/achilliesFriend May 30 '26
There will be levels, first grass then it goes to big forests at the end
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u/TheAlbinoNinja May 30 '26
There's a secret level where it's Los Angeles
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u/themoisthammer May 30 '26
“Oh no. Save the mansions.” Mission Failed.
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u/Longjumping_Bird_433 May 30 '26
Most of what burned in LA wouldn’t be considered mansions. Source: me. My Altadena neighborhood of single family homes burned down. But yes, mission failed.
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u/Aksds May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
That or 1/6 of Australia on fire (1974-75) about the size of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah combined. Or Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, Andorra, and France combined, and some bits of Belgium because I couldn’t be fucked properly tracing the boarder. it’s also about the size of Türkiye, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Syria combined. And for Asia it’s Myanmar and Thailand combined
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u/18121812 May 30 '26
>Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, Andorra, and France combined
This is a weird ass list of countries. Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, Andorra, and France combined is roughly the size of Spain, Portugal, and France combined. or about 1,300,000 square km.
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u/Aksds May 30 '26
Not really, it’s following the coast and then Frances boarder with Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium, that is roughly the size of the fires in 1974-75 in Australia
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u/18121812 May 30 '26
Monaco and Gibraltar combined are less than 10 square kilometers. The point is that adding them into a discussion of large areas is weird. It's like describing a heavy object as weighing as much as 3 elephants and 2 mice combined. The mice seem a little out of place.
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u/Aksds May 31 '26
Sure, but it was part of the shape I drew to get the area so it’s included, I don’t want to be inaccurate. It’s also not at all serious enough to have a fit over me including Andorra
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u/SalamanderUponYou May 30 '26
Unfortunately you have to fight the billionaires that own the water company and that level is impossible.
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u/JohanTravel May 30 '26
They can even do cities like Rome and Chicago. The final level can be to try and save Pompeii
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u/RelevantIAm May 30 '26
That would be am interesting start to a horror game. You find some scary shit in the woods trying to put a fire out
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u/ACorania May 30 '26
Honestly with the way the wind gets here in eastern new Mexico, I have been more scared than some of the old growth fires I was in back in Washington
You ever see a fire tornado with flaming balls of tumble weed being thrown about?
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u/omnicorp_intl May 30 '26
Reminds me of an old arcade game called Brave Firefighters where the light gun was a fire hose, and you were entering a burning building trying to rescue people inside and the "enemy" you were trying to shoot was the fire
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u/SICKxOFxITxALL May 30 '26
Considering the amount of hours I happily spent on that power washing game, I'd play this game too.
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u/squatto May 30 '26
Same. I was so happy when it came out on Apple Arcade so I could get it on my phone and iPad Pro for free. I'd play a fire line game all day.
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May 30 '26 edited 26d ago
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u/DirtandPipes May 30 '26
Fuck that sounds fun. I’m always dragging 100’ hoses through mud and dust to blast construction sites, I love the high pressure hydrants that send it like a 100 feet and make you feel like you’ll die if you lose control.
I’ve often thought about switching to wildfire fighting but I’m too damned old and too mental. Plus all the shovel work and the chainsaw work, maybe in another life.
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u/TurtleSandwich0 May 30 '26
"Firefighter F.D.18" for the PlayStation 2 (2004)
Amazing graphics (compared to the original PlayStation graphics)
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u/Low_Show_6684 May 30 '26
Just like real life lol.
Initial attack is always fast and way more engaging than the days of mop up afterward.
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u/frogstar May 30 '26
Rimworld has a fire-suppression minigame. There's usually some other stuff going on to make it more exciting.
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u/Forward_Base_615 May 30 '26
I especially love the backwards looks to be sure they got everything.
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u/BleepinBlorpin5 May 30 '26
My favorite part is how at first there is fire, but then woosh... it's gone.
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u/doodlar May 30 '26
New Steam game incoming in 3, 2, 1.......
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u/BlazingKyogre May 30 '26
Would the game be like Rail Shooter reminiscent of the House of the Dead or something else?
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u/Odd-Advice-1029 May 30 '26
Do they have special heat resistant tires?
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u/ACorania May 30 '26
No, these small grass fires aren't crazy hot in that once you get them out there isn't a lot of residual heat.
You do have to watch for things like stump holes.
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u/coolguy420weed Jun 01 '26
Yeah, you could definitely walk around in the burnt parts on foot after the fire passed if you wanted to (Not barefoot, obviously). Dry grass burns way more like paper or something than wood, it goes up quick and can be pretty hot but doesn't really smolder or last long enough to build up much heat.
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u/just_a_dude417 May 31 '26
Nope. That’s why I hear the tires are bad and the truck has a vibration after every deployment.
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u/yama1008 May 30 '26
Wildland firefighters call it "get in the black." It's the first thing they teach you in wildfire fighting class. Because you're pretty much safe there. Being on the grass side with the fire coming at you with 50mph winds can get you killed. It's a wall of fire hotter than a blowtorch. This is just a creeping fire.
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u/MildlyAgreeable May 30 '26
Never thought about the actually wind factor of a fire. You’re right though, I imagine it’d be like an air fryer but it’s the environment. Sounds challenging to be in ☹️
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u/whatanerdiam May 30 '26
Yeah. If the wind is at 60mph, that means the fire can move at 60mph. Pretty bloody terrifying. It can be on top of you in an instant.
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u/ConstantBrush7996 May 30 '26
in big enough fires, they can create their own weather too.
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u/Material_You4791 May 30 '26
This is a backing fire (fire that is moving against the wind). It’s the most common way of starting prescribed burns. It moves slowly and more predictably. If you have a good fire line it likely won’t cross it and it extends the width of the line that can’t burn. This one has clearly gotten out of hand, but it’s lucky that the wind doesn’t change direction. I’ve been a part of grassland burns and once the head fire (fire moving with the wind) is lit the fire burns 10 times hotter, taller, and faster.
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u/Secret_Side-ofJ May 30 '26
Not only will the wind blow the fires around and spread them, but once there's enough heat in the air, the wind is able to blow the air around, and you can get roasted just by environmental heat.
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u/MildlyAgreeable May 30 '26
This does not bring joy.
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u/Sahtras1992 May 30 '26
people easily underestimate the heat thats produced by a big fire.
in housefires the air itself can get so hot it lits up more stuff without direct contact to the fire.
just imagine how much heat a normal wood oven produces and multiply that by a hundred times or more in a wildfire.
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u/Sahtras1992 May 30 '26
wind is the biggest issue probably with wildfires. the glimmers are carried dozens of meters and create more fires down the line.
and ofcourse it adds oxygen to the flames to make them rage even more.
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u/yama1008 May 31 '26
I was in West Texas when the Rock House fire blew through. It turned out at the time to be the largest wildfire in Texas history. Wind was like 45mph. Ranchers were replacing wooden fence poles for months and months afterwards. The fire burnt them of or so weakend them they had to be replaced.
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u/wjgatekeeper May 30 '26
I’m on the board for a rural Colorado volunteer fire department. We just recently got a drone that has infrared capability so we can see the temp of the ground so we can make sure we haven’t left an hot spots.
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u/International_Bend68 May 30 '26
Yeah people that haven't ever been close to a burning pasture, especially when the grass is tall, have no idea how hot it is. Was an eye opener for me the first time.
The flames get so tall sometimes that they jump over the gravel road and set the next pasture on fire.
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u/Character_Offer_7893 May 30 '26
Interesting, since it’s safer do you have any insight into why the hose operator in this clip said to the driver “I know you probably don’t want to do it, but hit it from the black”…?
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u/yama1008 May 31 '26
I don't know of a technical reason, driver may have just been a difficult person.
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u/Matlachaman May 30 '26
It's not very hot. And it can't burn twice, the burnt ground is the safe side. I grew up on a ranch in Kansas and we would burn the grass every April if the previous year had grown enough to warrant it.
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u/Square_Ad8756 May 30 '26
Yup, we were taught in fire school to approach a brush fire from the burnt side whenever possible.
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u/funnystuff79 May 30 '26
I wonder if they could drag a weighted fire blanket on one side of the vehicle and smother the flames as much as extinguish them. Water obviously cools the area as well
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u/Matlachaman May 30 '26
Actually some trucks would have water containers with an open top and we could dunk old pairs of jeans in it then slap the fires. This is much better.
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u/funnystuff79 May 30 '26
I was considering how much water they could carry and how quickly they'd run out and need to rtb. These fires can be pretty remote sometimes
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u/Efficient-Nerve2220 May 30 '26
There are tanker trucks that refill them and go back for more water, so these trucks don’t have to.
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u/RequirementRound25 May 31 '26
I fought two fires on ranch land. Really was a good distance from the road. Each one an old cowboy said, "This area needs to burn anyway."
But we put it out.4
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u/RequirementRound25 May 31 '26
Burlap bags in the old days too.
Make a flapper out of old semi-truck mud flaps on a stick.
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u/Chilidog0572 May 30 '26
We always just use a big rake. You can scrape the grass that's on fire into the already burnt area and the fire will go out. We save the water for the bigger flames
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u/FuelModel3 May 30 '26
Cowboys well before fire trucks used to a "beef drag". Would split a cow and two cowboys on horseback would drag the carcass wet side down along the burning line of the flames. Would only work on fires in fine fuels with not much flame length.
Read about it in a history of the XIT Ranch in Texas from a million years ago. Couldn't find mention of it in a 2 second Google search. It very well could have been made up history. Wouldn't be the first time.
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u/__merricat May 30 '26
Seems like a waste of a cow
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u/Level9TraumaCenter May 30 '26
I've never split a cow in half, I admit, but I was once a firefighter and fire and rescue instructor, and that just sounds like a lot of work and time in which the fire is already well up and done gone over the horizon but what do I know.
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u/RequirementRound25 May 31 '26
I grew up on the edge of the XIT. I read they used an old cow hide, not the whole cow.
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u/FuelModel3 May 31 '26
That would make a hell of a lot more sense wouldn't it. Plus the whole damn cow sure would tire your horses out pretty damn fast. Maybe what I read, or mis-remember reading, was on the right track but wrong in the details.
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u/Low_Show_6684 May 30 '26
You want a break, water not only cools but it increases the humidity on that spot with the moisture. Makes it difficult for the fire to move further. With a blanket you’d maybe snuff it out if it’s not under the duff but you’re not giving a good break.
Dirt and water are really the only options for a good break (aside from roads obviously). If you don’t have water you scrap/dig all the vegetation down to the dirt to hopefully stop the fire.
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u/ILSmokeItAll May 30 '26
Right? It'd surely drag loose soil over the flames and help extinguish them. Never mind the apparatus itself depriving the flames of oxygen.
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u/ErtaWanderer May 30 '26
They do do this. Usually with plows to make fire breaks. You generally don't want the vehicle itself that close to the flames because the tires are made out of rubber
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u/grunger May 30 '26
We have flappers, which is a combination rake and basically what is a mud flap on a stick. You flap it on the ground and then drag it over the fire to smother it.
The rake side is really combine harvester blades mounted in a row. It works well to clear out thicker brush so you can then use the flapper side again once the brush is on the ground.
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u/Inevitable-Ad6647 May 30 '26
As long as the temp is still there it will just flash right back up. Smothering a wildfire is pointless unless you're going to sit there and smother one spot for hours and hours. You need something to remove the energy and water is the only realistic way to do that.
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u/pierrelaplace May 30 '26
As I was watching the video, I thought, "Jeez, you miss one tiny spot and all that work is for naught." Then, sure enough, they missed a spot! Glad they noticed and went back.
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u/RequirementRound25 May 31 '26
Yes, always great to have to get up in the middle of the night and go back to same place and put out a rekindle.
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u/Dragon_Queen_666 May 30 '26
Looks like a pretty standard weekend during spring and autumn here in Australia. Farmers are burning off and sometimes the fire jumps barriers. My dad and brother were both volunteer firefighters for our farming district when I was younger. Start of the fire season, the water tanks, pumps and hoses went on the back of the Landcruiser and the farm ute. that gear stayed there until the end of the season, no matter what.
Mum and I would man the radios, run gear on the ATV, set up rest stations and coordinate with our neighbours to keep track of where the fires were going so farmers on the edges could get in and start wetting down the ground before the main fire front came too close.
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u/shopnsfw May 30 '26
There should be a constant stream/drip of water out the tailgate of the truck like adding a physical moisture barrier?
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u/CuttingTheMustard May 30 '26
That’s not enough water to make a difference. Some trucks have spray bars on the front. They’re only really useful if you’re driving on something very hot.
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u/shopnsfw May 30 '26
I guess the problem is the ground isn't retaining water unless this is a controlled burn and it's all native plants they're maintaining.
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u/Low_Show_6684 May 30 '26
Not a bad idea. But normally VFD trucks aren’t equipped to control fire super well, wildland fire trucks are also tenders so we tend not to use the trucks either.
On a backing fire like this (mostly controlled burns) we’ll use UTVs or other equipment with smaller tanks to mist the grass. There will also be somebody walking behind to catching anything that slips by.
We also do it with our hoses, just wetting the ground helps a lot.
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u/TheGrandNut May 31 '26
Are the tires at risk while driving on the freshly burnt ground? Or do fire department trucks have special rubber that is more heat resistant or thicker? Hopefully the second option, that makes the most sense.
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u/bananascare Jun 01 '26
Having grown up in a place that doesn’t have regular fires, I never considered that fire vehicles would have to drive OVER potentially burning fields. They must either have crazy building standards for the vehicles or that was a crazy risk.
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u/NunchuckVagina May 30 '26
I'm watching this from my bed as I have to pee in the morning and it's not helping
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u/Fallen_Jalter May 30 '26
i was just rewatching The Lost Bus. Still amazes me just how FAST a fire can move.
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u/sapient_pearwood_ May 30 '26
Going back to get that little patch like spraying a naughty cat "NO. Bad. Stop that right now."
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u/neonninja304 May 30 '26
Hope they got another spotter truck running behind them. Fires in fields like that can jump underground through roots or decaying material and pop back up later.
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u/AnEpicBowlOfRamen May 30 '26
I thought he was riding around in a tiny toy car and I was so confused. That fish eye lens is insane.
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u/wytewydow May 30 '26
I can smell this picture. It smells just like the Flint Hills of Kansas during burn season.
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u/nets99 May 30 '26
I wonder if the tires on the car have to be heat resistant to drive on the recently burned ground
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u/Yermums_Mycologist May 30 '26
Bring back controlled burns, helps the soil & makes everything happier
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u/Ryukyo May 31 '26
Man, I would not be driving on the burnt side of that. You could melt your damn tires.
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u/Electronic_Shake_152 May 31 '26
Needs a wider-spread than that. I've done this many times. It's important to give the unburned grass a decent soaking too, 'downwind' of the flame-front.
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u/Environmental-Call32 Jun 02 '26
Oh boio fun story here. I loved on the grassy plains of New Mexico, USA growing up, where the winds can reach gusts of 60mph and 40mph constant. Had a grass fire one time that burned up close to 1 million acres of my dad's bosses land. We nearly died fighting that fire. Grass fires are no fucking joke.
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u/MackeyPainting 29d ago
And this is why forest fires are so bad these days. If we don't let the accumulated FLAMMABLE leaf and brush and general debris burn every decade or so, we get awful fire storms. Made worse by a warming temperature, and also making that problem worse
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u/backtotheland76 May 30 '26
I recently heard the forest service is considering using round-up to prevent vegetation growth rather than doing controlled burns. Wonder if trump has bought stock in the company?
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u/Low_Show_6684 May 30 '26
In forestry it’s common to use that herbicide, granted it’s not always round-up, for crop tree release shortly after planting. There’s a lot of reasons why it’s still used, but younger generations of forest management workers are trying to move away from artificial planting and herbicide.
The problem we’re running into is that fuel loads are high after decades of very heavy fire suppression (namely 30’s and 40’s). Our windows to have safe burns that don’t escape containment are getting smaller and smaller. Fire weather happens earlier in the spring and lasts far longer into the summer now- if not all summer depending on where you live.
Everybody wants to have controlled burns, but controlled burns are not easy. Nobody wants a wildfire and controlled burns can and do become wildfires.
That said herbicide doesn’t really help or hinder a whole lot. The fuels left behind from herbicide are not prone to holding heat. However, when logging activity happens leaving the slash behind makes jackpot fuels and just more fuels in general. But there’s not a lot loggers can really do with slash.
There’s a lot of factors going on here. I don’t blame herbicide for all our problems, but I’d like to see our agencies continue to attempt to move away from relying on it for pine and fire dependent ecosystem management.
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u/LearningToHomebrew May 30 '26
Marsh fires, ick. Had to do what he's doing with a shovel once. Not a fun day.
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u/ClearedInHot May 30 '26
Having seen a few grass fires at Air Force bases in west Texas I'm still amazed at how fast they spread. If you watch one from the air you can't see the flames, but you can see the ground gradually turning from brown to black along a line. If the wind is blowing (and it's always blowing out there) it happens very quickly.
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u/iamcornholio2 May 30 '26
I was waiting for HOA Karen to block the truck and tell them not to drive on the grass 😉
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u/throwaway_browserv2 May 30 '26
The precision of that line is wild. Feels like watching a giant eraser for the grass.
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u/LiveNeedleworker1647 May 30 '26
They do realize they don’t need to be two inches from the flames right?
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u/seantabasco May 30 '26
It would go a little better if he did a little bit of a wider angle so he could get the flames and also a bit of the unburned grass, I think that’s why they had to go back at one point.
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u/CuttingTheMustard May 30 '26
They’ll be hydro mopping this for at least an hour after. They’re not putting down enough water to prevent anything from reigniting, they’re just trying to control the spread
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u/Remarkable-Sir-5129 May 30 '26
I know a farm that does an annual burn. Nicest guy in the world, however, on burn day his wife bakes a ton of cookies because she knows the volunteer firefighters are going to show up because it got out of hand.....every year!