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Narrator: In Missouri the winters are wet from rain and snow
and summer produces lush green vegetation,
but spring and fall can be dry.
When the humidity drops and winds rise, conditions favor wildfires.
The first to respond is usually the local fire department,
often comprised of volunteers from the surrounding community.
When they need back up,
the Missouri Department of Conservation lends a hand.
On a big job, department personnel are supported by
an emergency response team from AmeriCorp.
Bruce: We just want to keep this snag from catching fire
so that if we have additional calls to go to this afternoon we’re not going to have to worry
about the wind switching and blowing sparks over the fire line.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a really bad day where we’re going to have thirty mile and hour winds.
And all lot of times we’re just running from fire to fire trying to protect structures and save people’s property,
so it’s really important that we make these fires as easy to mop-up as possible.
Narrator: Rather than try to drown them in water, crews starve the fires by eliminating their fuel supply.
Second generation firefighter Steve LaVal explains.
Steve: We use a control line that can be either a dozed line or like in this case, a road
that we’ve blown out with blowers to get the leaves off of it.
And then we light a back fire along the edge of it.
The back fire will have low flame heights
whereas the head fire that’s going to come up this hill with the wind will probably have
flame heights of twenty to thirty feet as it comes up through that grass.
So by putting in this control line, it backs off into the wind where it’s not so hot
and by the time the head fire comes up against it, it will have burned out all of the fuel between us and it
and therefore it doesn’t have anything to burn and so goes out on its own.
As you can see, this fire here is not too bad,
but when the one comes up the hill there, it’s going to be extremely hot.
Narrator: Only fifteen percent of all wildfires are arson related,
but the number of acres burned can be considerable.
Over twelve thousand acres of Missouri were blackened by arson in 2005 alone.
Operation Forest Arson was created to put arsonists out of business.
The program provides a reliable method for citizens to call a toll-free number to report an arson violation.
The Forest Arson Hotline differs from calling 911 because the caller remains anonymous.
If the call leads to an arrest and conviction, the caller is eligible to collect a reward.
Steve: The type of information we get is very important.
If you see somebody start a fire,
getting a vehicle description, a description of the person, and a license tag number is very critical.
If you know the name of the person, that’s also a plus.
Most people have digital cameras now and camera phones.
When you see this happen, then click a picture of it.
It may not be a good resolution picture,
but it will be something that ties that vehicle to the fire that’s just being lit.
We need to know about the fires.
There’s no such thing as a nuisance phone call when it comes to fire.