SLATER FIRE CONTAINMENT LINES (WHAT IT MEANS) 250 miles to contain the entire fire

 

Slater Fire Containment line: sometimes it seems like containment on a fire creeps up really slowly.—just a few percentage points each day. You may be wondering how all of this works! Here’s what’s going happening on the Slater and Devil Fires.

Right now there are about 1300 firefighters on the Slater and Devil Fires working every day to put in line, with support from heavy equipment like dozers. And it takes time—scouts determine the best place for the line (where is it an option, where will it be the most effective, and where will it be safe for firefighters to work). Scouts also look for existing roads or other less burnable features like rockslides, rivers, roads or old burn scars to use. Once this path is determined, crews begin the hard work of constructing line. Initial line may just a handline, where crews dig down to bare, mineral soil with hand tools, or it may be a more substantial line when heavy equipment is available to help out. In addition to line directly adjacent to the fire (direct line) or nearby (indirect line), crews also construct contingency lines. These are backup lines that are put in place just in case the fire jumps existing lines.

On the Slater Fire, when you account for all of the ups, downs and zigzags on the ground, the distance around the entire fire is 250 miles—that’s a lot of line! When you count the miles of containment line, containment lines that get built first by hand and then reinforced by dozers, and contingency lines—crews on these fires may end up constructing more than 500 miles of line. Once line is in place though, you may not immediately see a jump in the percent containment. Once lines hold for several days and crews have been able to start mopping up hot spots next to the line, and fire leadership is fairly confident that the line will hold, you’ll see a change in the fire perimeter from red to black and representing containment.

Just to give a little perspective Sacramento is 268 miles from Medford. Carson City, Nevada is 272 miles from Medford and it is exactly 250 miles flying from Truckee, CA to Medford, Oregon.