Caterpillar Dozers fighting CA fires

Hi, Did you mean to include a link within your post ?

Click the image box below the post

Yep
Dozers are key to fighting wildfires. Cal fire fire stats include # dozers right with helicopters and fire crews.

Hi, Folks.
Thank you, pbamburak, for the link to the article.

Dependent on the situation, there are several earth moving machines that can make a big difference pretty quickly. While crawler dozers pretty much have a monopoly on wildfires in rough country, I have used both graders and an elevating scraper to very good effect on grass fires in open fields.

The elevating scraper, a Cat 633D, was spectacular. It was fitted with teeth on the middle section of the cutting edge. The bowl floor was left fairly wide open, the elevator was running and the machine straddled the edge of the fire, gobbling up dirt and burning grass, scrambling it all up and dumping it out behind the cutting edge at about 2 - 2 1/2 miles per hour. The fire was caught early and "mission accomplished" in about 15 minutes.

I take my hat - or rather my Cat cap - off to the people operating dozers in wildfires here in California and up in Oregon 'cos they perform their miracles in some pretty rugged country at times.

Just my 0.02

I'm surprised they dont use offset disks for the grass areas, they would cover so much more ground and be allot faster than a narrow dozer blade.

Hi, ROME K/G.
When there is already a fire, you use what you have at the time to the best of its and your ability. If there is a dozer working in the same field, would you go looking for a tractor and disks? When you have a Cat 633D scraper working on a road right next to the field that is on fire, would YOU go looking for a tractor and disks? Ditto with a grader working right alongside that field?

It also takes a fairly big tractor and set of disks to cut wider than a D6 dozer - or a grader - or a 633 scraper.

Several times now, I have had grass fires out before the fire brigade arrived using what was at hand.

Just my 0.02.

Some fires are not even close to the areas where the fire is heading and nothing is done! They [the property owners or who else] could have those areas taken care of. but what ever, there's always the experts out there and by the time they figure it out its to late anyway. Fire prevention is the key, but everybody waits until it happens, so deal with it!

On a fire near me they were working on slopes up to 45 degrees at night with helicopters with spotlights guiding them. No place for a disc. They used to only use straight blades. Worried about burned hoses. Now they use angle blades. Straight blades were much slower on most fires..

Hi, Oldbeek.
I can understand why they would choose to use angle blades - the grader advantage of getting rid of the cut material to the side while still cutting more combined with the dozer advantage of handling rougher terrain without risk of punctures.

Just my 0.02.