Photo Gallery

The NPS Wildland Fire program is diverse and detailed. Photos reveal its stories and successes.

Planned Fire

For decades it has been known that fire isn't always harmful. Using fire to fight fire is a scientifically proven useful method, employed by fire managers. Planned fire can be burning excess fuel in piles or on predetermined plots with controllable conditions, or during a wildland fire operation to reduce the intensity of a flaming front.

Pile burning during the colder and wetter seasons enables firefighters to control the fire spread and intensity. (NPS Photo, Alaska Region, Alaska; 2005)

Driptorches are an effective tool for lighting prescribed burns. (NPS Photo, Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland; 2008)

Proper personal protective equipment PPE) must always be worn. (NPS Photo, Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland; 2008)

Grass fires can quickly increase in intensity.(NPS Photo by Bill Spinrad, Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland; 2009)

Grasses respond well to prescribed fire.(NPS Photo, Badlands National Park, South Dakota; 2003)

Firefighters must work fast when dragging a driptorch.(NPS Photo, Badlands National Park, South Dakota; 2003)

After the fire is lit, firefighters monitor the perimeter searching for spot fires.(NPS Photo, Badlands National Park, South Dakota; 2003)

Prescribed fires are started in strips to maximize fuel consumption and prevent the fire from getting too intense.(NPS Photo, Badlands National Park, South Dakota; 2003)

Some burns are conducted without a fuel break; instead firefighters follow close behind, monitoring the perimeter and extinguishing flames with tools and water.(NPS Photo by Brandon Oberhardt, Badlands National Park, South Dakota; 2005)

Sometimes firefighters monitor from afar to avoid the smoke.(NPS Photo, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, Virginia; 2004)

Light wind is a key ingredient for a successful prescribed burn.(NPS Photo by Mike Johnson, Homestead National Monument of America, Nebraska; 2007)

Carrying a hand tool is also a necessary part of a firefighter's gear for prescribed burning.(NPS Photo, Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas; 2009)

Firefighters often use a road or bulldozer line to contain a back burn. (NPS Photo, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida; 2007)

Fire managers use prescribed burning to research the effectiveness of removing invasive plants, like buffelgrass in Arizona. (NPS Photo, near Saguaro National Park, Arizona; 2008)

Burns are always started at the bottom of slope, as the fire will move uphill.(NPS Photo, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Washington)

Prescribed burning is used to protect valuable cultural resources from being destroyed by unplanned fire. (NPS Photo by Derek Toms, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, New Mexico; 2007)

Fires' rate of spread can be determined by many factors, one being the time of day. This information is used to write a burn prescription.(NPS Photo, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota; 2004)

Gas mixture is slowly released from a burning wick at the end of the driptorch to ignite grasses and shrubs on the ground. (NPS Photo, Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota; 2008)

When the right elements align for prescribed burning, the operation can last many hours.(NPS Photo by Mike Johnson, Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota; 2009)

Burning a dense and overgrown tree understory reintroduces fire to the ecosystem, mimicking nature's process before humans began suppressing wildfires a century ago.(NPS Photo, Yosemite National Park, California; 1999)

Snow contains burning piles from spreading to surrounding ground fuel.(NPS Photo, Yosemite National Park, California; 2003)