At presstime, the Palisades Fire is reported to be 72% contained.
But what does that mean in fire parlance? There is no smoke, no obvious flame.
Containment in a fire refers to the percentage of a fire’s perimeter that has been surrounded by a control line, creating a barrier so the fire can’t spread further.
That can be a natural obstacle such as a river or creek. More often, it’s a line dug by firefighters removing vegetation with shovels, axes, bulldozers, chainsaws and more. We saw today in the Hughes Fire firefighters setting backfires to clear brush and create a barrier line.
Amanda Munsey, Palisades Incident Public Information Officer, told Valley News Group that the lines in red on the containment map above don’t mean there’s still a fire burning there. “It means the area hasn’t been wind-tested to make sure there are no hot spots. We want to make sure we have all the heat out. In some areas we can’t say it’s completely contained; the red lines are still addressing those areas,” she explained.
Munsey said that just because the line is red doesn’t mean firefighters haven’t put in significant work on the area already. When creating a line break they have to tear out the vegetation down to the soil.
Obviously weather conditions can affect the effectiveness of containment; the ongoing Santa Ana winds can scoop up embers and reignite a fire.
A contained fire is not necessarily completely out; it can still be burning within the perimeter. Cal Fire’s Ricardo Coronado said that the Palisades Fire’s 72% containment means that is how much of the fire they believe will not go beyond their defensive barriers, and how much firefighters believe they can stop the fire from expanding beyond that point.
It can actually take months for a fire to reach 100% containment, depending on the weather, the size of the blaze and the area’s topography.
When a fire is labeled controlled, it means that firefighters have established a containment line around the fire, extinguished any spot fires, and cooled down all hot spots within the perimeter, effectively stopping the fire’s spread and ensuring it won’t significantly expand beyond the control lines; essentially, the fire is considered under control and not actively spreading further.
