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The briefing
© Dave Dadurka / TNC
Full fire!
© Dave Dadurka / TNC
Wayne Tyndall lighting edge of pond
© Dave Dadurka / TNC
View across the pond
© Dave Dadurka / TNC |
10:30 a.m. – The briefing
We all gather near George’s big red truck, which is holding a tank with about 200 gallons of water on the back. Deborah B. tells us briefly about why we are burning today. George passes out maps of the burn unit and we walk the perimeter of the burn unit together. He gives out assignments. Wayne and Deborah L. will work as “igniters,” while Deborah B. and Caroline will be “holding”—wearing bladder bags and watching to make sure embers don’t jump the fire line. Wesley will be driving the Gator and making water deliveries.
As we walk around, George notes that we’ll be using the Delmarva Bay as another source of water. He points to a water pump near the edge of the pond. A hose from the pump runs along part of the outside perimeter of the burn unit. Attached to it are smaller hoses that can be used at regular intervals along the hose line.
11:30 a.m. – Light the fires
We’ve finished the tour of the 13-acre burn unit. The temperature today is 63 degrees Fahrenheit—unseasonably warm for February. Deborah L. makes a call to the local volunteer fire department to warn them that we will begin burning soon. She’s gone through a great deal of administrative work to get to this point, including writing a 10-page plan outlining how she expects the burn to happen.
George lights the test fire. If George doesn’t like the way the test fire behaves we could all be going home. Any significant change in temperature, wind or relative humidity, and the whole burn could be cancelled. But the fire looks good and George gives the go-ahead.
Smoke begins to waft back towards the crew, the woods begin to crackle and the ground begins to blacken. I’m standing about 20 feet from the one-foot-high flames but can already feel the heat. As Deborah L. lights the fire line, George walks ahead of her and squirts a water line on the road using the hose attached to his truck to keep the fire from spreading into the woods nearby.
12:00 p.m.
The team has burned a fire line of a couple hundred feet on one side of the burn unit. The fire spreads rapidly. The smoke is intense. All along Wesley operates the hose to create a wet line immediately outside the fire line. Wayne lights a thicket of greenbrier and the flames spread high and fast. The air smells oaky and the fire quickly turns the ground to white ash.
12:40 p.m.
George gives me a new assignment. He asks me to walk to the road and take some photos to see if the smoke is blowing that way. I’m happy to oblige because I feel a little out of place. Everyone else is working hard and I’m walking around snapping pictures. The Conservancy is concerned about how the fire and smoke affects the local communities, too. Smoke is hard to control, so before the burn Deborah L. sent out notification letters to all the neighboring landowners weeks before the burn. Fortunately, the wind speed today is about 1 mph and gusts maybe to 5-7 mph tops. The area around Dorchester Pond has a small, dispersed population. The smoke is heading almost straight up and doesn’t even come close to the road.
For more about prescribed burns:
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