A firebreak or double track is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is an absence of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as a logging road, four-wheel drive trail, secondary road, or a highway.
Red fire retardant dispersed aerially onto brush adjoining a firebreak during the Tumbleweed Fire in California, in July 2021; while vegetation to the left of the firebreak has completely burned, everything to its right was protected
A firebreak
A poster promoting plowing to create a fire break
By comparing the burnt (right) and unburnt (left) sides of a dirt road in South Africa after a major veldfire (grassland fire) the effectiveness of the road in acting as a firebreak can be seen.
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire. Some natural forest ecosystems depend on wildfire. Wildfires are distinct from beneficial human usage of wildland fire, called controlled or prescribed burning, although controlled burns can turn into wildfires. Modern forest management often engages in prescribed burns to mitigate risk and promote natural forest cycles.
Wildfire burning in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, United States, in 2020. The Mangum Fire burned more than 70,000 acres (280 km2) of forest.
Wildfire near Yosemite National Park, United States, in 2013. The Rim Fire burned more than 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of forest.
Global fires during the year 2008 for the months of August (top image) and February (bottom image), as detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite.
Lightning-sparked wildfires are frequent occurrences during the dry summer season in Nevada.