Question 1: Explain why it is important to identify an emergency situation quickly and correctly:
Because when you arrive at an accident scene you first need to look at the victim and establish what is wrong with the victim before you try and administer first aid on the victim. The reason for this is that if he has neck damage and you move the victim them he could sue you for breaking his neck so this is very important. You also need to see if there is any hazards for example on coming traffic or anything like that. The correct procedure is to follow you HHH,ABC which stands for hello, hazards and help.
Question 2: Explain why it is important that untrained personnel should not control first aid in an emergency situation:
Because of the reason that they could kill the person if the victim is not handled correctly. If you see that the person is going to be hit by a car then you need to ask for permission from a relative or the actual victim. Only if neither are conscious then you can take charge because of the rule life over limb.
Question 3: Explain why it is important to document emergency procedures accurately and quickly:
You need to follow certain procedures while you are doing first aid. The most important thing to do is to get a witness and as soon as you finished with the situation you need to write a report and get a report from the witness so that if any legal action takes place in the future then you have a report to look back onto. And it is important to write the report as soon as possible so that you can remember exactly what happened and all the details of the situation.
Question 4: Why should the first aid personnel be identified and follow the correct procedures?
The procedure for first aid is HHH>ABC. Hello means that you need to ask the person if you can help them and tell them that you do know your first aid. If the person acknowledges this then you can carry on. Hazards is before you do anything you need to make sure that your life is not in danger otherwise you can’t do anything. Help means that you should ask somebody to phone the ambulance to come and help as soon as possible especially if it is an emergency. Air is to make sure that the person is receiving air in to his lungs and there are no obstructions in his air pipes. Breath means that you should check that the person is breathing fine. Circulation is making sure that the person has a pulse. If this procedure is not followed step for step then the victim can take legal action on you for putting his life in danger and not having permission.
Question 5: List and describe the 3 main injuries that need to be treated before others:
Brain injury
Struggling to breath
Neck injury
Question 6: How would you recognize the following emergency situations?
Accidents
Cars pulled over on the side of the road with people standing around the cars.
Illness
See how the person is acting differently and usually pale
Fire
Smoke in the sky
Flood
Water every where
Chemical contamination
Person is throwing up and skin colouration has changed and bad fever.
Question 7: Assess the following injuries and provide an action plan:
Car accident
See if anybody is at the scene if not you should pull over and see if you can help starting at the worst injured person
Illness
Speak to the person and ask how they feeling and any symptoms you can get out of them.
Fire injury
Keep the person as calm as possible and administer your first aid training to the person as taught in the training. Put a oxygen mask over the victim and let him drink water.
Flood injury
If the person has drowned then you should administer cpr to try and get the water out the lungs.
Chemical contamination
Take the person to hospital and make them drink as much water as they can to try and get the lungs and stomach working properly.
Question 8: When will you require assistance from the following and what duties will they perform?
Ambulance
Car accident
Police officers
When somebody gets shot or any other accident
Colleague(s)
Help you bandage a person’s broken arm
Customers
To ask permission for something
Fire truck
In the case of a fire
Question 9: What visible signs can be used to assess a patients’ physical condition?
Look at the position of the arms or how the person is lying or positioned. Can look at the eyes of the patient and then look if the person is struggling to breath or not. And then look if you can see if any bones are broken on the body.
Question 10: Explain the following:
CPR
When a person is unconscious and isn’t breathing properly then you have to administer cpr to the victim. The correct procedure is to breathe through a one way valve and blow 30 breaths into the victim and then press three times down on the chest to properly revive the patient.
Treating burns
Supposed to get wet bandages and then bandage up your victim. Never use dry bandages because then the blood dries and the bandage needs to be cut off then. Then every 20 minutes you should wet the bandages.
Treating cuts
Clean the cuts with alcohol to sterilize the wound and then cover the cuts so they don’t get infected.
Treating fractures
Put the limb into a splint and bandage the splint to the limb to keep the limb straight.
Question 11: What vital information will you need to provide emergency personnel about the victim’s condition and situation?
What you have done and the procedure that you followed and then all essentials like he isn’t breathing anything that can help the paramedics.
Question 12: What do you need to document when an injury or emergency occurs?
You need to show that you are a certified first aider and you certificate.
Question 13: Develop your own first aid Program to train staff members: Include the following:
Amount of people attending
10-15 people per class
Location
Sondela, louri class
Start and end time
7:30 in the morning 16:30 in the afternoon
Duration of course
2 days
Activities that will be performed
Theory class and the practical and then the final test and assessment
Trainee personnel
Qualified paramedic to give the class
Cost of course
R600 pp
Contact details
Matthew Roach
0767331812
mtthwprch@gmail.com
i) Company name
Sondela Nature Reserve
non dangerous damage causing animals
Explain what the following means regarding animals and their behavior:
⦁ Comfort: The animal is still relaxed & comfortable. This means that he would most likely carry on with what he was doing
All animals have their comfort zones. This means that if you enter that zone the animal will start showing signs of uncomfort. If you respect the animals comfort zone then the animal will not attack you and depending on the animal or wild or domestic depends on what the comfort zone would be.
⦁ Alert: The animal(s) will most likely stop with what he was doing and analyze the situation
This means when you enter the comfort zone of the animal then the animal will stop doing whatever it is that they doing and pay attention to you. If trying to observe an animal then it is important to not let the animal be alert to you else they won’t act within the normal constraints of the animals normal behaviour.
⦁ Warning: The animal will feel uncomfortable and might be feeling threatened. Will start showing warning signs
This is usually animals with young, injured or feeding. Animals will usually mock charge the person when feeling at risk but wont per sue with the charge. The animal will usually make sure that you get the message by snorting or putting back its ears but you can tell by looking at the body language of the animal that its time to back off. For example when approaching an elephant on foot, the elephant will flap its head from side to side and open its ears looking bigger then you know to stop.
⦁ Critical: This is where the animal will decide whether to fight or flee
When you push an animal to far out of its comfort zone either 2 things are going to happen. Fight- this means that when you push the animal to far out of its comfort zone the animal is likely to turn on you and charge. These animals is more your bigger animals such as your elephant, leopard, lion, rhino, hippo. The animal will first show signs of discomfort and is likely to mock charge giving a warning for you to back off or will give a full on charge and attack the victim. Flight- this is usually your smaller animals or a few shy animals such as you cattle, wildebeest, giraffe or warthog. When you enter the uncomfort zone then the animal is likely to turn and run. This is not always the case to most the time is likely to happen rather then turning to fight.
List the 9 steps that you need to follow to help you establish - or improve - a data collection system in your organization:
Area- the area in which the animal prefers to be in and the habitat which you should usually fine the animal in.
Food – what type of food does that specific animal eat and where would you find that specific food in that area.
Climate- what type of weather does the animal prefer for example most birds don’t fly when its cold and you struggle to find snakes in winter and on unpleasant cold windy days most animals stay deeper in the bush to keep warmer.
How- how are you going to find the animal. For example if it isn’t a dangerous animal then you can find the animal on foot and if you don’t want to cause stress to the animal then you don’t use a helicopter to find the animal because of the noise. So you need to look at what animal and how expensive or dangerous the animal.
When- when is the animal most active during the day, night, early morning or late afternoon. You need to think how is the animals activities during the day whether you going to find it or not.
What- you need to decide what animal you looking for before you start doing anything. What is the purpose for looking for this animal and what you going to do to get the animal.
Where- where is the animal most active and where the most sightings of the animal are.
Why- why do you want to catch the animal and why is this animal useful to the organization.
Who – who is going to be involved in the animal capture and who knows their work.
You need to take all these things into consideration before you go ahead to do the task at hand, you need to do a careful planning and consideration before you go ahead with the task.
Question1a: List 4 Damage causing animals in your area and add a picture of each:
Warthog
Kudu
Red billed quellia
Giraffe
Question 1b: On a map, allocate where you could find these damage causing animals:
Question 2: For each of the 4 animals listed in Question 1a, describe what damage each can cause:
Warthog- warthogs do damage under our fences by digging trenches under our fences each time it goes to the next farm. This is why warthog high ways are created so that the warthog doesn’t dig to much under fences and create holes for other animals to escape.
Giraffe- when a giraffe decides to leave you farm there is absolutely nothing that you can do to stop it. They just run at the fence and trample them down destroying the fence. The main reason for this is if the fence has holes or is trampled down then it creates a gate way for the other animals to get out as well and that means you losing your animals and stock value of your farm.
Kudus- kudus can jump amazing heights the problem that kudus cause is that the usually either run straight through the fence hitting it down or try and jump and don’t clear the fence pulling the fence down. Most accidents caused from animals is because of the kudu as well but the problem is when people drive at night they put on their lights and the kudu tries and jumps hitting usually the top of the car. These animals can be very dangerous but also cause a lot of damage to fences and peoples property.
Red billed quellia- the problem with this bird is the amount of which it eats. They swarm in unlimited amounts of birds and wipe out entire crops at once. The problem is that they are protected by law that if the on a nature reserve you cannot touch them so the birds sleep on a reserve and then fly to the next farm eating everything and then flying back. This is a problem to farmers around south Africa and at the moment being taken care of.
Question 3: On a map illustrate how big the problems/damages are that these animals created in the different areas:
Question 4a: For each of the 4 animals listed in question 1a, provide a picture of the following:
a) Spoor
b) Droppings
Giraffe
Kudu
fires
Question 1: What role does fire play in an ecosystem? Discuss in detail:
Fires in the veldt are never a good thing even if it starts from lightning. Fire is an important role in the eco system due to the fact that the veldt can start again from the beginning. When a fire passes through a veldt then it needs to burn a source in order to survive. Therefore the fire burns down all the trees and grass and everything in its path in till it gets to no source and dies out or just gets put out. When this happens then all the grass and everything on top of the ground dies but there is a lot of dormant grass which is protected by the soil and will just start growing a few weeks after the fire has passed. Then when the new grass shoots come out then it attracts all the herbivores to that area to feed on. The herbivores will start eating the shoots and like to eat the ash as well. After fires then snakes come out to feed so it attracts the bird life as well such as snake eagles which will come and eat the snakes and you bigger birds like the secretary bird which feeds on the dead bugs. The predators will also move in to that area to hunt herbivores which are feeding in the area so it will start a whole eco-system in the area which burnt.
A negative effect is that the fire can kill the animals which live in that area so then the grass can grow and get very long without being controlled. Also a bad thing that a fire doesn’t is it destroys all the cover so that the water and everything gets absorbed out of the soil and then becomes unfertile. So there is a negative and positive effects on nature but this also depends on the amount of rain there is after the time of the fire.
Question 2: How can you use the following factors (that can influence a fire) as a management tool in the area of operation? (How can it make a difference?)
Fire frequency:
A fire frequency is the amount of times a fire moves through that area. If you have a high fire frequency then you need to make the proper arrangements to make sure every building in that area is fire resistant and fire breaks in that area must be big enough so that in any means possible you can prevent a fire. If you know your information then it can help in the future to prevent fires from passing through.
Season (time of year):
You need to know at what time of the year your fire season is so that you are ready. In warm baths our fire season is in the winter after rains when the grass is very dry. Just before winter then we burn our fire breaks so that we can prevent fires spreading on our farm. Then in winter is when all the farms in the area get together and have meetings about fire and then the fire warnings go out to warm farmers about fires in the area.
Fuel load:
The size of individual pieces of fuel has important implications for fire, due to the rate at which heat may be absorbed by the individual fuel particles / pieces. Heat uptake is faster in smaller fuels, due to their large surface to volume ratio. This in turn will alow faster drying of fuels that will make fuels more flammable. Small twigs are able to reach combustion temperature much faster than larger ones, and will burn up much faster. What this basically explains is that depending on the fuel (grass, wood, trees) is depending on how fast the fire can spread and you need to know how fast different fuels can burn. We know that if you have chemicals then they can explode and the fire can increase dramatically. We know if the grass is long then the fire will be a lot bigger and turn from a cool fire into a hot fire.
Fuel type:
Just as the vegetation can be divided into a woody and herbaceous component, so may the fuel be divided. Leaf litter plays an important role as well. However, it is more appropriately considered as part of the herbaceous fuel. The woody fuel may then again be divided into different size classes (though these may be arbitrary). Wood takes longer to burn but also burns for a lot longer then grass. Depending on the fuel and the amount depends on how fast your fire can spread and it is very important to know.
Humidity:
Humidity has an important impact on fires in two major ways. First, long periods of low humidity tend to dry out all forest fuels to a dangerous degree. Even a few days of low humidity can increase the risks of grass and brush fires. During fire suppression, the daily cycle of humidity can cause fires to burn with more intensity during the heat of the day and "lay down" when the humidity is higher (usually at night, or during precipitation). Humidity changes the ignition point of small and light fuels, slowing down the spread of fire.
Time of day:
The time of day can depend on the fire. In the early mornings a fire wont burn very easily because the grass will be wet from the dew and frost but it can be bad because people start veldt fires to keep warm which isn’t very clever. In the late afternoons then the fire will spread quick because the sun has absorbed all the water of the leaves and grass then there will not be any moisture on the grass. So at all times you must be cautious but more aware during the late afternoons and early mornings around 3-4am
Aspect:
Aspects of the fire are the wind speed and the wind direction. It could also be the fuel load and the amount of fire breaks in the area of operation. There are a lot of aspects to a fire that you need to consider and if you are aware of these aspects then it can make fighting a fire easier and make things a lot safer for the personal fighting fire.
Slope:
Depending on the gradient of the slope depends on how fast the fire will move and how you will approach the fire when you fight it. If a fire is moving up a slope then it will move slower and be a smaller more controllable fire. If it is going up a slope then you can fight it from the sides and back or burn a back burn at the top of the slope so it doesn’t move over the slope. If the fire is moving down the slope then it means that the fire is moving quicker and gets bigger. You never fight the fire in the direction that the fire is moving else you can get burnt. The safest place to fight the fire is from the side and the back to avoid being injured.
Wind:
Wind has a big role when starting a fire or fighting fire. When the wind is below 20km/h then you can burn fires but it still makes life very difficult. If its fire season and the wind is blowing to difficult then the fire warnings will go out to be careful of fires in the area and asks not to burn fires in with the wind for safety purposes.
Question 3: Define the following different types of fires:
Point of ignition:
Where the fire started originally. You can usually tell this by looking at the first place to burn out and the ground will still be very hot.
Ring burns:
Back burns:
When you start a fire a head of the fire which burns against the wind and burns out all the fires fuel.
Tracer belts (use of herbicides):
When you divide the farm up into different belts. Then one year you can burn one belt and the next year you can burn the others. It is important to remember that you can’t burn in the same time in 3 years otherwise you destroy you land.
Block burns:
Basically the same as a tracer belt but you divide you farm up into blocks instead of stripes. Then you burn different blocks each year and then once you have burnt the hole farm you start again with the first block that you started with.
Brush pile burning:
Piles to be burned typically have a water source nearby, crews also have shovels and other hand tools to scrape fire lines (bare earth) around each pile or an area the piles are located. Ignition occurs only after all proper protocols have been met.
Question 4: Summarize the National Veldt and Forest Fire Act (101 of 1998) (as it applies to the eco-zone and area of operation)
Forming of fire protection associated
Owners can form their own association for the purpose of predicting, preventing, managing and extinguishing veldt fires
In charge of the area which has regular veldt fires, uniform risk of veldt fires, climate conditions and types of forest or vegetation.
If the person has not been registered in the areas where the minister is of the opinion that a fire protection association should be formed and the un-registered person must convene a meeting of owners in the area to explain the provisions, see if there is support for the forming of a fire protection association, identify what assistance the department can provide.
The minister may give assistance to and co-operate with the owners in forming a fire protection association.
Registered of fire protection associations
Fire protection association must be made in the prescribed way.
Minister must approve the association
Must be registered and recognized and issued with an certificate
Committee must be established under section 19 of the forest act 1984
Duties of the fire protection associations
A fire protection association must as least
Develop and apply a veld fire strategy for the area
Adjoining fire protection association in the event of a fire crossing the boundaries.
Make rules which bind its members.
Identify ecological conditions that affect the fire danger
Communicate fire danger
Train its members in fire fighting, management and prevention
Have appropriate fire fighting equipment and technology available for preventing fire.
Provide support in communities
Supply stats to the minister once a year
Appoint a fire protection officer
Minister may delegate a power or duty to a fire protection association if he or she has consulted with the fire protection officer beforehand.
Fire protection officers
Fire protection officer must
Perform function of chief executive officer
Carry out assigned tasks
Take control of any fire fighting in the area
Enforce rules
Monitor and report
Train their own members
A fire protection officer has the right of entry onto the land of a member of the fire 35 protection association on reasonable notice to carry out the duties contemplated in subsection (1)
The Director-General may designate an officer or employee of the Department to act as fire protection officer for a fire protection association if a fire protection association does not have the means to do so itself.
A fire protection officer must apply to the Director-General for registration as a fire protection officer in the prescribed way.
The Director-General must register a fire protection officer if he or she is satisfied that the person will be able to enforce the Act in a responsible manner.
The fire protection officer may delegate his or her powers and duties in terms of this Act, except the powers of arrest, search and seizure.
Financial
The minister may give out a loan for assistance to-
Any fire protection association for any activities
A land owner preparing fire breaks which struggles with the expense
Question 5: List the legal requirements that need to be followed during a veldt burn operation:
Planned fires are usually set when there is still some green grass in the veld, which makes for a cooler fire. Cooler fires do less damage to young trees, making them less likely to turn into stunted, multi-stem trees. However, sometimes the park burns with the intention of dealing with bush encroachment. When, where and under what weather conditions to start their fires to break up the fuel load in the veld. Weather stations take readings of the weather and translate them into a fire danger index, which is sent out twice a day to the rangers. High temperatures, low humidity and high berg winds are likely to create runaway fires, so planned burning is avoided at these times. Some burning is also carried out by scientific services, which are in charge of one of the world’s longest running experiments on the effects of fire on savanna ecosystems.
Question 6: List the equipment that will be required for executing a veldt burn operation; this included the safety, operational and personal protective equipment/gear:
Fire fighting vehicles
Helmet
Gloves
Balaclava
Goggles
Fire resistant suit
Boots
Flapper
Sprayer
Igniters
Radios
Nozzles
Hose
Water
Smoke mask
Question 7: What instructions will the supervisor give, regarding the equipment that needs to be compiled to ensure the safety of the veldt burn operation?
The fire boss is in charge of the whole fire operation. There for he will give the instructions to what happens and where he needs the proper equipment in the right section. He/she will decide what vehicles need to stay behind on standby and what vehicles will go to where the burn is taking place. Need to decide what equipment is going to be used and what equipment can stay on standby. It is important to remember that you cant take out all your equipment and vehicles because if there is another fire or the fire gets out of control then you need that extra equipment to help. He will give the instructions to who needs to be where and who needs to do what in the burning process. The more experienced people will fight the fire and the people that haven’t fought fire will go behind and make sure the coals have been properly extinguished so that another fire doesn’t start up again.
Question 8: Why is it necessary to carry out maintenance checks on the equipment?
When you own a farm and have put a lot of money into your farm then you don’t want to lose your farm because your equipment has broken or some malfunction. The reason we check our fire fighting equipment everyday is because you never know when something might go wrong. When you use something like a back pack sprayer and it breaks then you must fix it or report it immediately. The reason for this is because at any time a fire can start on your farm or nearby and then you have to be ready for your fire. If you send out an employee with broken equipment then there is no way of protecting him and you putting their life in danger. So therefore you need to check your equipment for ware and tare every day first thing in the morning to keep yourself and your employees safe.
Question 13: Describe why it is important to prepare a post burn report and state how it can help management to make decisions?
Post burn reports are very important as to the fact that on our farm of 5200 hectors we need to know at all time we have to know the parts of the farm that are under threat. When you prepare a post burn report you have to take a lot of things into consideration. For our farm we could look at the amount of over growth on the farm and where the fire breaks are. You supposed to cut your fire breaks around all our border fences 15m wide but it doesn’t help if on the other side of the fence the bush is very thick and the have no fire breaks. For example the chances of a fire coming through on the side of the makhato houses is very unlikely because of the fact that there is fire breaks on outside of the farm and the grass has been cut on the other side of the farm. And there is a road running through between the 2 farms. This mean there is a very unlikely chance of a fire coming over that road because there is a fire break of about 30m wide+. But the problem on the caravan exit and entrance road is that the farm on the other side of the fence has heavily over grown due to the fact that the plot owner had neglected to cut his grass during fire session. And on our side of the farm the fire breaks weren’t well done. So when the fire started there last year then the fire jumped our fire break with ease but the other factor was because of the wind it was able to jump that far. So just before fire session it is important to set up a post burn report of where you should cut fire breaks and where are danger area’s on the farm where a fire can gain entrance onto the farm and the management can decide what action they going to take to prevent a fire on that part of the farm.
Question 14: Why is it necessary to explain the precautions before a veldt burn operation?
Question 15: List and describe the processes and techniques for the following actions:
Igniting the fire:
Before you ignite any fire you need to give warning to the farm owners around your farm and write a report saying where you going to burn what day and what time following the 5w’s basically to give all the information that is needed for the other farmers. The reason for this is so that your neighbouring farmers can prepared them on this day for if anything goes wrong. The other thing is you have to check your weather conditions for that day. In the Kruger Park they have a meter reading of the temperature and humidity reading so and it sends a message twice a day to the fire Marshall. This machine also tells them how dry the ground is in that area and if the ground is at a certain dryness then it will send out warning to the fire teams to warm them in case of fires in that area. Only when you have all this information does it allow you to know weather you can ignite your fire on that day.
Direct attack: any treatment of burning fuel, for example, by beating, wetting, smothering, or chemical quenching, or by physically separating the burning from the unburned fuel.
Fire control line: a natural or constructed barrier used in veldfire suppression and prescribed burning to limit the spread of veldfire.
Backburn: a fire ignited along the inner edge of a control line to consume the fuel in the path of a wildfire.
Fire suppression: the activities connected with restricting the spread of wildfire following its detection and making it safe.
Firebreak: a strip of land where vegetation has been removed or modified to contain or to reduce the spread and intensity of any veldfire that may occur in or enter a property. Called a firebelt under previous legislation.
Prescribed burning: the controlled application of fire under specified environmental conditions to a predetermined area and at the time, intensity and rate of spread required to attain planned resource management objectives
Veldfire: a veld, forest or mountain fire, where veld means the open countryside or peri-urban land beyond the urban limit or homestead boundary.
Wildfire: an unwanted veldfire.
Controlling and extinguishing:
Fire prevention methods-
A firebreak has to be wide enough and long enough to have a
reasonable chance of preventing a veld fire from spreading to or from
neighbouring land.
Farming communities should establish fire protection associations to prevent and control veld fires as required by
the National Veld and Forest Fire Act
Fire watch. Keep an eye out for any fires in the area and keep an eye out for any fire warnings cause of the weather conditions.
C) Preparing for a fire (Drills, use of equipment, etc.):
Before fire session starts you need to be ready and know where you have to be in the event of a fire taking place. In the start of a fire from when the alarm goes off you need to be dressed and all vehicles already left in less than 10 minutes. The reason for this is if the wind is blowing 50km/h on that day then the fire can jump 50 m far. So for every minute you take or time you waste it means that more of a percentage of the farm can burn down. Therefore every person who is involved in the fire needs to know where he/ she have to be and what exactly they have to do when the fire starts. When you getting ready to go out and fight fire it is important that those people that are going out are fully equipped with their fire gear and follow their OHS guide lines before going out. The person In charge of the fire sending people out has to make sure that each person is fully equipped from head to toe with all their safety equipment before going out. They need their special equipment before going out such as a fire beater or a back pack sprayer. And they need to make sure that this is in working condition before they go out so that they don’t get there and their equipment doesn’t work.
Question 16: Describe the following ignition techniques:
Point of ignition:
The point of where you need to start any of your burning procedures. This should be done by any experienced fire fighter usually the order is given by the fire Marshall before the act is done. This will be done on a specific point usually a line before the fire depending on the reason for lighting the fire.
Ring burns:
My understanding of a ring burn is that you will light a fire on a specific line in a circle. Then you let the fire burn towards the inner point of the circle extinguishing itself in the end. This is difficult to do as to the fact that if the wind picks up then the fire can turn on your fire fighters. It will eventually die out to the fact that it will burn all the fuel and then just die as it can’t burn any more.
The other thing that a ring burn could be is the same concept as a block burn. You divide your farm up into an outer ring and then different layers going from the outside in. Then you burn the one layer one year and carry on in till you reach the inner circle and then you can start again from the outside.
Back burns:
In the event of a really big fire when you can try and predict the path of the fire the is a certain practise that you can try and do to kill the fire. This practise is very risky to do because if the wind changes directions then either you going to have one huge fire or you might have two separate fires to fight. This is called a back burn. When the fire Marshall decides to do a back burn then you can look at the path of the fire and where its heading. You need to try and predict where the fire is moving to and then just a head of the fire you need to start anther fire so that it burns all the fuel for the bigger fire. This is called a back burn. What happens is you need to start a fire a head of the other fire so that the smaller fire burns all the fuel in the path of the bigger fire. Then when the 2 fires meet in the middle they will burn each other out because there is nothing left for the fire to burn. But this is very risky to do because most of the time the wind shifts and you just have a bigger fire then what you started with.
Block burns:
2011 2012
2013 2014
This is our farm divided up into 4 blocks set to burn each year
Block burning is basically dividing your farm up into different sections. This is mostly used because the veld is over grown and you need to re-generate the grass in this area. In the eco-system the ecological role of locusts is usually they fly over and eats the grass and move on but we use fire which plays the same role in the eco-system. Now the important thing to remember is that you can’t burn the same block in less than 3 years otherwise you destroy your ecosystem and destroy the soils which become bad agriculture practises. So like in the diagram above you have divided up Sondela into 4 blocks and each year has an allocated year in which to burn. Then in 2014 when you finished burning all the sections on the farm then you start again at the first block which you burnt in 2011. The reason for block burning is animals will eat constantly on one spot which will cause soil erosion. So if you burn then the new grass grows back and the animals will move to that area to feed. Then you burn your next block in the following year and the animals move to that area to feed. So this encourages the animals to move around on the farm and give the other grass a chance to grow.
Brush pile burning:
What this basically means is putting up a huge pile of tree’s, branches and grass into one pile and then cutting a fire break around that area. Then once all this is done you can set a light to the pile and burn all the refuges.
Drip torch:
Drip torch is a fire fighting equipment used to light fires when burning block burns or back burns. You use I certain type of mixture that lights the fire and then can drag the fire out across a long line.
Gas:
A gas torch is basically like a flame thrower which you can also use to fight fires. The problem is that gas explodes they don’t encourage it in the modern days any more like they used to do in the olden days.
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