Write a short paragraph that explains the central idea of the article. Use at least two details from the article to support your response.
Article: Fighting wildfires with fire in Alberta, Canada
A large wildfire has been burning in Alberta, Canada. It has quickly spread for hundreds of miles. Now, a fifth of the houses in the city of Fort McMurray are lost. Because of this, 88,000 people living there have been evacuated.
The flames seemed to slow down over the weekend. This might be a turning point, but can a wildfire this large be put out?
Setting Control Fires
Bruce Malamud is a professor in London, England, who studies dangerous natural events. He says that there are a few ways to stop a fire. In order to burn, fire needs heat, air, and dry plants. Firefighters can remove any one of these to stop wildfires from spreading. It is also possible to stop the fire from spreading in certain directions. Firefighters sometimes start fires intentionally. These are called control fires. Once plants are burned, wildfire can no longer
use them to spread. Planes called water bombers are sometimes used too. They drop water, or other fire suppressants, over burning land.
Danger Of Burning Ash
Fire can spread a large distance away from the fire-front. This happens when burning ash is carried by the wind. This will often start other fires elsewhere.
John Thomson studies the forests in Scotland. Thomson says that to fight the fire it is important to study the wind, dry plants, and the slope of the land. Wind cannot really be helped. This is why firefighters will pay close attention to the weather. If it blows the right way, the wind can push the fire back along its path. If not, the wind will help it spread.
Wildfire is able to spread by burning dry plants on the ground and trees. These plants are called fuel. Firefighters and forest guards deal with dry plants by bulldozing them out of the way.
Always Staying Downhill
Knowing the shape of the land can also help. "Fires burn much more aggressively going uphill than they do downhill," says Thomson. It is a bad idea to try to fight fire from uphill.
In Alberta, firefighters will try to stay on the downhill side of a slope.
When a fire is small and moving downhill, it could be attacked directly. In this case, firefighters beat the flames with special tools. They will move from behind the fire, where the land has already been burned. In this way, they can make sure that the fire will not go back in their direction.
In Alberta, an indirect attack may be better. Firefighters may have to get in front of the fire and set control lines. These control where the fire can spread. Control lines can be set by using something like a highway or river.
Water bombers can also help to set control lines. They are often used to wet the plants ahead of the fire, or along its sides. This slows it down as it spreads forward or gets bigger. As Thomson says, this is more useful than just dropping water on the fire.