An escape fire is a term used to describe the backfire or backburn set by firefighters to escape a primary wildfire burning inescapably towards them, such as the one set by Fireboss Wag Dodge at Mann Gulch to save him and his crew in 1959. Like any backfire, it works by depriving an approaching primary fire of fuel so that when the primary fire reaches where the backfire started the primary fire cannot continue; there is nothing there to burn.
Backfires can be used in areas covered with flash fuels, like in grass-covered gulches and mountain meadows, and becomes an escape fire if the backfire-burned area provides a life-saving refuge for firefighters or others - like at Mann Gulch. Backfires and backburns can also be used against primary fires burning in tree, brush and grass-covered areas as a firefighting tool, but should only be executed by a qualified and authorized wildfire Fire Boss.
Approximately 40-percent of all wildfire deaths are caused by fire entrapements, or what are sometimes called burnovers.
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