Written by Billy Coffey
I participated in a prescribed burn with the Virginia DCR the other day. They let us do most of the initial igniting of the fire (firing). It had rained the night before, so we had to work hard to ensure the units burned. We burnt the edges of the burn units to ensure the fire didn’t spread beyond the unit. After burning the 3 edges on higher elevation, we burnt the one on lower elevation hoping it would spread to the other edges we burnt. It did not.
My squad boss sent me to the interior of the fire to burn the unit as we intended. I was directed to walk directly across the field (that was already on fire) dragging the flame behind me and to not stop walking until I exited the burn unit.
I walked through the interior of the fire, spewing a flaming diesel/gas mix behind me. I could hear the intervals between the crackling of the fire diminishing; the intensity of the fire was picking up. It got hotter and hotter behind me. I kept moving and the fire kept behind me.
I exited the fire on the opposite edge where I entered, and my squad boss was there waiting for me! The fire had really picked up at that point, and we were happy with the burn. We ended up getting most of the units burnt, leaving some patches of unburnt areas. This is what they were hoping for! Leaving patches of burnt and non-burnt areas in a grass field help create habitat diversity allowing pollinators of different kinds to thrive. We had a great day and learned a lot about working to get a fire to spread!!!
