HOUSTON – As wildfire season ramps up throughout Texas, firefighters in Houston are looking to get ahead of the flames by burning a 50-acre park on purpose.
It’s called a controlled burn or a prescribed burn.
This is when firefighters intentionally set parts of grassy or wooded areas on fire to rid the area of fuels that would allow a wildfire to expand.
The Houston Fire Department Wildland team spent Thursday in the Clear Lake area at Sylvan Rodriguez Park.
Over the course of eight hours, they conducted systematic burns across 50 acres of grassy prairies.
“We did have a naturally occurring fire here last year,” said Justin Huddleston, the Wildland Fire Coordinator with the Houston Fire Department. “It was on the other side of this park. There was already a concern with the area of experiencing fires in the parks.”
Houston Firefighters invited KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding for an up close and personal look at how they light these controlled burns and help protect homes and buildings.
“We’re just going to do a strip plant fire. We’ll see how our fire behavior is,” Huddleston told his crew during a morning safety briefing under a pavilion. “Questions? Concerns? Holding? Good. All right.”
They fuel up their red cans, known as drip torches, with a mixture of diesel and gasoline. Firefighters use these by spreading the flaming fuel onto the grassy prairie and start a fire.
“Look at this like a big lighter, rather than walking through there with a lighter and just lighting that you’re able to lay down constant fire. It’s almost like a big kind of cup with a straw in it,” Huddleston said.
The result: roaring flames that tower over you.
In turn, the grassy fields turn into black, charred wastelands.
Or is it really?
“Prairies love fire,” said Kelli Ondracek, the Natural Resources Manager with Houston Parks and Recreation. “It only takes about a week for the green to start coming back. And in a month it will be very difficult to tell that we even had a fire out here.”
Benefits from the fires extend months or even years after the burn.
“The grasses grow stronger and taller. They support native wildlife,” she said.
All while seeking out invasive species.
Firefighters start the burning by creating buffers, or safe zones. These are places where the fire will stop if the wind drives that direction.
After that, it’s time to torch the prairie.
“I’d like for all of it to burn,” Huddleston said. “That way, if it’s all black on them, they don’t have to worry about it re-burning. So, if it’s black, it’s not gonna burn again. If we have that look across the entire unit, that’s what we would consider a textbook burn.”
The prescribed burn comes at a really good time.
A Fire Weather Watch has been issued for all of Harris and Fort Bend Counties, as well as parts of Galveston County.
