The Firebreaker your ultimate solution to conquer fires

What this fire fighting equipment is doing for you

This is an innovative line of equipment for burning firebreaks:

• Safely
• Effectively
• Efficiently
• Economically

Burning firebreaks with this fire fighting equipment:

• Decreases the risk associated with burning firebreaks.
• Speeds up the burning process.
• Requires less labor.
• Requires fewer backup resources.
• Affords total control over the burning process, which can be aborted at any time.
• Does not promote soil erosion, as does ploughing.
• Allows you to make a firebreak of any width.
• Does not create a seedbed for opportunistic weeds or exotic species, as does ploughing.

• Preventing the spread of wildfires.
• Containing controlled burns.

When to use Firebreaker

Firebreaker is a heavy-duty, vehicle-drawn apparatus for use when:

• The area where the firebreak is required is navigable by vehicle.
• The distances involved are large.

Firebreaker is ideal for burning firebreaks:

• On crop farms, cattle farms, and game farms.
• In parks and reserves.
• Between plantations.
• Near hazardous sites.
• In wildland-urban interfaces.

Some specialized applications for Firebreaker:

• Creating firebreaks around plantations where grading is contraindicated due to root sensitivity e.g. protea farms.
• Improving or maintaining firebreaks created by other methods in forest or dense bush, by the safe, controlled burning of surface or fine fuels.
• Creating or maintaining airfield-perimeter firebreaks.

How Firebreaker works

Firebreaker has two components:

• The Basic Burner is the primary component that ignites the fuel.
• The Afterburner is an optional component that further improves safety and operational speed by increasing the enclosed burning area.

The Basic Burner consists of:

• A burning system—a burning chamber with 2 liquid petroleum gas (LPG) burners, mounted on skids.
• A water system—adjustable spray heads on the sides of the burning chamber

Positions of key components of the Basic Burner

How does it work?

• Vegetation is ignited by the gas burners mounted in front of the burning chamber.
• Flames are kept inside the burning chamber by a positive upward draught.
• Water from the adjustable spray heads wets the ground on either side of the burning chamber, preventing the sideways spread of flames.
• Burning occurs safely within the confines of the chamber.
• Drawn behind a low-gear vehicle, the Basic Burner burns a 1,35-m wide strip.
• By successively burning parallel strips, and then doing a controlled burn between these strips, you can make a firebreak of any width.

The Afterburner consists of:

• A burning chamber (without gas burners) mounted on skids.
• A water system—adjustable spray heads on the sides of the burning chamber.
• The optional Afterburner is hitched behind the Basic Burner to extend the enclosed burning area.
• It improves safety, thereby increasing operating speed.
• The Afterburner is recommended when the grass is very long, or operational speed is important.

Firebreaker Support Equipment
 

Firebreaker is pulled by a low-gear vehicle such as:

• A tractor
• A 4x4 pickup truck
• A Mercedes Unimog

The following auxiliary equipment is required:

• A gas cylinder with fittings for liquid withdrawal.
• An independent water supply (water sprayer) with water tank, pump, and high-pressure handgun.

The auxiliary equipment cannot be carried on the Firebreaker. It can be carried on:

• The towing vehicle (a tractor may require a platform such as a modified three-point hitch).
• A trailer directly behind the towing vehicle.