WI DNR fire - tools of the trade

Along with a type 7x (4x4 engine operated by the IAIC), the above is Wisconsin DNR's initial attack "heavy unit" The engine is a type 4 with 850 gallons of water and all the other necessary fire goodies. Many units in the high fire potential areas have CAFS systems. All the units have foam capability with air aspirated nozzles.   The dozer (in this case a '94 John Deere 450G) has water tanks on each side that hold a total of 120 gallons. This water is mainly for the operators protection via a shower system in the roof of the cab or with hose.

....oops!  Thank god this wasnt me!  Soft ground can be a problem for our heavy equipment.

The tractor plow is the perfect machine for fires in our landscape. With the water capability they have it is an excellent all purpose machine to construct line or mop up with.  The photo to the right was taken during a demonstration project, but it shows the commom tactic of furrowing and burning out the line.  The state also has some wide tracked pieces of equipment where there is a high percentage of marshy areas.

We  have about 200,000 acres or so of jack pine bud worm kill area that will look similar to this in a few years once the regeneration takes hold or it is planted. On top of that, we have all the slash and  debirs left over from the 2001 tornado that ripped through the area to deal with.

These last few photos are from before my time with the WI DNR, but they do show some of the extreme fire behaviour in the jack and red pine of northwestern WI.

Spotting activity from the 1980 Oak Lake fire. This fire burned around 11,000 acres in a little more than 6 hours. 150 buildings were lost, about 250 saved.

This is an early shot from the 1977 5 Mile fire. It burned 13,000 acres in one burning period.

Photo of a DNR "heavy unit" from 1962.

On to page 2! ...still a work in progress..

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What??  you are looking way down here again??