A California wildland firefighter shared the common practice of opening fire in the video on the Internet, but seeing her deliberately set the fire to land, confusing a large group of people on the Internet.
Meg Hayes shared on TikTok on June 23 that she used special tools to deliberately set fire in California woodlands. Since then, the post has been viewed more than 1.4 million.
In the clip, Hayes can be seen driving a car, shooting at trees with what looks like a paintball gun. This tool is actually called PyroShot and is used to create controlled fires, sometimes necessary to improve the land for various reasons.
PyroShots is a gun-like machine that can shoot balls containing high-grade potassium permanganate. However, before they were shot, they were injected with ethylene glycol, as shown in the video, which caused a chemical reaction. The reaction takes about 20-40 seconds to occur, during which time the ball is shot. Once it landed on the target area, the ball would ignite into a flame and burn for about two minutes.
This video caused confusion among the audience, who were puzzled about why the firefighters set the fire. “What is this for? I have never seen this before,” a TikTok user commented. Reddit The user also jokingly pointed out that according to the report of the National Volunteer Fire Protection Committee, 100 firefighters were convicted of arson every year.
Firefighters actually use fire to protect some wild areas, and certain ecosystems need fire to stay healthy. Fires that are sometimes referred to as controlled or regulated burning have a variety of reasons, including removing harmful species that threaten native species, promoting the growth of trees and plants, reinjecting nutrients into the soil, and minimizing the spread of pests and diseases.
A very useful reason for fire control is to prevent the spread of current or future wildfires. Wildland firefighters intend to initiate and control smaller fires along the path of wildfires to burn vegetation and remove any fuel that contributes to the spread of the fire.
In addition to using PyroShots, firefighters also throw the ball on the ground from the helicopter, or in some cases use a torch on the ground.
Controlled burns are closely integrated with the “burn plan”, which records the necessary conditions, including temperature, humidity, wind, and other factors. They will only continue if the conditions of the day match the specified conditions.
In recent news, California firefighters have been Report At the peak of the state’s wildfire season, they will resign for an hourly wage of $13.45. With wildfires burning in the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, and the California-Oregon border, there are fewer and fewer elite firefighters known as “savvy” teams.
Weekly newspaper Meg Hayes was contacted to comment on the video.
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