About Wildland Fire Tools
Firefighting is demanding and hard work. When a firefighter is working in remote areas, the communication lines can be spotty at best. Many firefighters will carry their hand tools with them to help fight the fires without the help of a fire truck. Wildland fire tools are the tools of choice for most firefighters in the line of duty.
Digging or Shoveling Tools
A firefighter uses a shovel type tool to dig and move small amounts of earth. The lines for a fire control are small at about a 12-inch-wide strip of disrupted ground. To make these narrow lines, a shovel is ideal and the ones the firefighters carry are small enough to carry with them but strong enough to get the job done. There is also a combination shovel and pick which is helpful when having to break up harder ground.
Cutting or Grubbing Tools
Roots, rocks and other fragments are often encountered by firefighters when they are digging the fire-control lines. To get past this debris a grubbing tool is desired. An axe would work but that would take up space of one tool when a firefighter may need more than one. Ed Pulaski, a Forrest Service District Ranger, invented the Pulaski to help firefighter with cutting debris. The Pulaski combines a hoe and an axe.
Raking Tools
A raking tool is needed to maintain the fire line as fresh and clean as possible once the heavy machinery is finished working. A Wildland raking tool does not resemble a traditional garden rake. It is used if nothing else is available as a grubbing or digging tool so it has stiff spined tines. Ranger Malcolm McLeod, also with the Forrest Service District, invented a raking tool with a wide, flat hoe on the end.
Suppression Tools
Wildland firefighters will maintain a line with suppression tools when construction is finished. They will do this by soaking up hot patches or suppressed burning. A fire swatter is a small tool with a flat, heavy rubber flap on one end and is used to pound out small fires that are set in brush and grass. Bladder bags are also used when a water supply can be found nearby. Bladder bags are a backpack style water carrying device that is attached to a hand pump.