burnout n.— «Fortunately it didn’t quite come to that, thanks to quick thinking from fire crews, who initiated burnouts. It may look out of hand, but these fires were set by firefighters intentionally. The idea…if you set a fire...
bump and run n.— «When faced with a wildfire, structural firefighters employ a technique called “bump and run,” which they practiced Monday night in Sunriver. A fire truck backs into the driveway of a home and firefighters...
brownout n.— «The San Francisco Fire Department, with the OK of Mayor Gavin Newsom, has been taking certain engines and trucks out of service on a rotating basis since last summer. The “brownouts,” as they’re called, save...
heli-stepping n.— «Just dropping off the crew can be risky. The pilot might have to hold the Super Huey on one of its two landing skids against the side of mountain. Other times, the pilot hovers just above the top of the brush and the...
snag n.— «A bolt of lighting had struck a 70-foot-tall snag—a standing dead tree—in the Tin Cup Creek drainage of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness early that morning, and was burning in what looked like knee-high brush.» —“For Firefighters...
bonk n.— «A simple anecdote was told about how one of the city’s firefighters was concerned that the “NC bonk”—a feature designed to alert him when the radio was out of signal range—had not activated recently and thus was...