Fire line is the front line

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Fire line is the front line

Ground crews do the dirty work taking care of hot spots and flare-ups
A cabin remains untouched thanks to the efforts of firefighters as trees surrounding the building are all burned.
Firefighters scale a hill to put out a hot spot along Road 41 in Weber Canyon Monday afternoon.
Chris Zoller discusses the fire as Lewis Arriola firefighters stand by at a house on Road 41.

Fire line is the front line

A cabin remains untouched thanks to the efforts of firefighters as trees surrounding the building are all burned.
Firefighters scale a hill to put out a hot spot along Road 41 in Weber Canyon Monday afternoon.
Chris Zoller discusses the fire as Lewis Arriola firefighters stand by at a house on Road 41.
What does ‘containment’ mean?

Good news came from the Weber Fire Monday night, as fire officials announced after three full days of firefighting, crews had achieved 10 percent containment of the fire.
“Containment” is a word used frequently in wildland firefights to describe the amount of control held over the blaze. But there are misconceptions about what containment means and when containment becomes control and control a dead-out fire.
“Containment means the perimeter of the fire is lined and will not escape that perimeter,” said Beth Hermanson. “It means we are as confident as we can be at that point in time the fire will not go outside the perimeter.”
Hermanson said it is important to understand containment does not mean the fire is no longer burning.
“The fire will still burn within containment lines,” she said. “Containment is significant because that means when we reach full containment we are making forward progress and we can really begin fighting the fire itself.”
Chris Zoller, the supervisor in the Weber Canyon division of the fire, said containment is all about creating a buffer of ground that has already been burned against the area where the fire is still active.
“We look at getting a chain — 66 feet — of burned area that is going into the fire zone,” Zoller said. “That gives us that protection along with lines that have been dug to contain the fire. When we have that we can begin to advance against the fire.”
Crews were out on the Weber Fire Monday digging containment lines by hand and with heavy equipment. Most lines were going in behind houses and structures near the blaze.
Hermanson said fire officials hope to increase containment of the Weber Fire throughout the week.

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