A fuel ladder is a firefighting term for live or dead vegetation

Vegetation

Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...

 that allows a fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

 to climb up from the landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 or forest floor

Forest floor

The forest floor, also called detritus, duff and the O horizon, is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem. It mainly consists of shed vegetative parts, such as leaves, branches, bark, and stems, existing in various stages of decomposition above the soil surface...

 into the tree canopy

Canopy (forest)

In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns.For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms .Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent...

. Common fuel ladders include tall grass

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

es, shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s, and tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 branch

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

es, both living and dead. It is also part of Defensible Space

Defensible space (fire control)

In the context of fire control, Defensible Space is the natural and landscaped area around a structure that has been maintained and designed to reduce fire danger, sometimes called Firescaping. "Defensible space" is also used in the context of wildfires, especially in the wildland-urban interface...

 'Firescaping' practices.

Fire precautions

Potential fuel ladders should be removed to reduce the risk of fire bridging the gap to the canopy. To remove the ladder requires pruning any low limbs up to a minimum of 8 feet, and potentially as high as 15 feet. The required height depends on how low the branch tips hang, the steepness of slope, and the height and spacing of other nearby vegetation.

The desired result is to create a situation in which a low-burning fire could burn to the trunk

Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...

 of a tree, which is protected by its bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

, without having thinner, more flammable branches, leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 or needles within easy reach of the fire.

Other fuel ladders

Apart from tree limbs, anything that would help that fire move up into the tree canopy is a fuel ladder. This includes shrubs and even tall grass or weeds. Non-vegetation fuel sources such as woodpiles, wooden fenceposts and structures should also be considered.

The intent is to maintain a break in vertical and horizontal continuity so that, if for example a woodpile caught fire, it would not be positioned next to manzanita

Manzanita

Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus Arctostaphylos. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia, Washington to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and...

shrubs or directly under trees that could then easily catch fire.

See also

• Fire control
  Fire control
  control of fire 'control of fire' is the practice of reducing the heat output of a fire, or reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving a fire of fuel, oxygen or heat ....
  
  
• Defensible space (fire control)
  Defensible space (fire control)
  In the context of fire control, Defensible Space is the natural and landscaped area around a structure that has been maintained and designed to reduce fire danger, sometimes called Firescaping. "Defensible space" is also used in the context of wildfires, especially in the wildland-urban interface...
  
  
• Fire ecology
  Fire ecology
  Fire ecology is concerned with the processes linking the natural incidence of fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects of this fire. Many ecosystems, such as the North American prairie and chaparral ecosystems, and the South African savanna, have evolved with fire as a natural and necessary...
  
  
• Firefighting
• Wildfire
  Wildfire
  A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
  
  
• Wildfire suppression

External links

• CAL-FIRE: Homepage + Links Official CA State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection website.
• CA State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection: "General Guidelines for Creating Defensible Space"
• SBCFD Homepage + Links 'Defending Your Home and Hazard Reduction' - Official Santa Barbara County Fire Department Website
• Santa Barbara County Fire Department: "Landscape 'Firescape' Checklist"