These giant machines rarely make the news when a brush fire breaks out, so it may surprise you to know the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) uses bulldozers in their arsenal of tools and equipment to fight brush fires. The elite team operating these immense machines are the silent heroes in the battle against raging brush fires. Witness them in action, fearlessly confronting danger on the frontlines to safeguard lives, homes, and property.
Mechanical titans in action: LAFD bulldozers
The Wildland Fuel Management Division of the LAFD oversees training and operating the earth-moving, firefighting bulldozers, used to cut safe paths for hose lays, protect homes and lives by creating a wide dirt fire break. We frequently see images and footage of the air drops and ground teams, but rarely get to witness the muscle of the bulldozer, slowly churning up soil to starve hungry flames from their fuel source – dry brush and vegetation.
The LAFD bulldozers are fitted with oven glass and aluminum heat shield curtains. A tender is a firefighter who walks in front of the dozer, to be extra eyes on the terrain as the operator works the controls. In constant contact with other ground and air teams, the bulldozer can capitalize on an air drop and expand a fire break. Dozers cut a path clear down to mineral earth, allowing ground crews to lay hoses up to the working fire line.
During the rainy winters when fire season is at its lowest, these dozers and their crews maintain the nearly 70 miles of dirt roads within the City of Los Angeles as well as debris from mudslides and large construction fires.
Since it is unsafe to train during a live fire, these dozer operators learn to work their massive machines in other locations during wetter weather, keeping up their skills to use during the intense fire season.
By Shawna McLean