Columbia, SC (WLTX) - The South Carolina Forestry Commission says there are efforts statewide to make sure "difficult to control" brush fires never start.
"It burns hot and fast," said Jonathan Calore, Assistant Law Enforcement Chief with the South Carolina Forestry Commission.
Calore says the Red Flag Alert, which prohibits burning things like yard debris at home, is the first line of defense.
"That automatically changes our active staffing level," he says.
If a fire does start, the Forestry Commission calls upon bulldozers to stop spreading flames.
"There's three things you have to have to have a fire. Heat fuel and oxygen. You take away any one of those three things and in theory your fire will go out," said Calore.
The commission has around 140 bulldozers spread throughout the state. Those bulldozers literally clear single lane sized paths through wooded areas so fires are forced to stop spreading.
"What we're tying to do is remove the fuel by running a bulldozer through and making a fire break," said Calore. "It takes all that fuel, pine straw, leaves, limbs, whatever, that could carry that fire and it puts a break in it."
The forestry commission also tries to burn off excess brush in dense wooded areas.
They say at home, you can keep your property safe, by keeping that kind of low lying brush clear of structures or even the walls of your home.
"All your doing is putting more space around your home or your structure," said Calore.