Updated: 3:21 p.m. June 5
First discovered: 18 days ago, 12:26 p.m. May 18
Initial location: Los Angeles County, Calif.
Fire type: Wildfire, Type 4
Fire name: Burro
Burro Fire initially started 12:26 p.m. May 18 in in Los Angeles County, 10 Miles N From Azusa.
After being active for 18 days, it has burned 0.1 acres of federal land managed by the United States Forest Service. A fire crew of ten has been working on site and, by Friday afternoon, they managed to contain 95% of the fire. The cause remains undetermined. Currently, the expenses for combating this fire stand at $100,000.
NIFC Fire Complexity Analysis
This wildfire is considered to be a Type 4 incident. What it means:
• Command staff and general staff functions are not activated.
• Resources are local and vary from a single module to several resources.
• The incident is usually limited to one operational period in the control phase.
• No written incident action plan (IAP) is required. However, a documented operational briefing will be completed for all incoming resources.
Fire containment
Understanding what 95% containment means
The percentage indicates how much of the fire perimeter has been surrounded by a control line. In this case, it means that 95% of the wildfire is halted from spreading, while 5% is still uncontrolled.
Containment is part of a larger plan for managing a wildfire. It is normally expressed as a percentage and it refers to how much of the fire perimeter has been surrounded/enclosed by a control line that firefighters create. The containment percentage indicates a certain level of control, but it doesn’t always correlate to safety level. Also, it’s important to note that containment doesn’t mean a fire is out.
How is containment measured?
The incident’s central command constantly receives progress reports from firefighters on the ground. As the fireline is constructed, inspected or reinforced, mappers record those details to adjust the containment percentage. The percentage tells the public how much of the fire perimeter is believed to not go beyond the control lines.
Source: National Interagency Fire Center