Palisades, Eaton fires’ containment grows, but what does that mean?
As firefighters continue to battle the deadly and destructive Palisades and Eaton fires, their progress is largely measured through a containment percentage.
As of Wednesday morning, that figure stood at 19% for the Palisades Fire and 45% for the Eaton Fire. But what exactly does that mean?
“Containment does not mean that a blaze has been completely extinguished,” NBC News explains. “Rather, it refers to how much of a perimeter has been established around an active fire, preventing it from growing and engulfing more land.”
Think of it like a fence: The more containment grows, the closer firefighters get to having a blaze completely surrounded.
However, as the Western Fire Chiefs Association points out, “containment does not mean safety.”
“It means a control line has been placed around that portion of the fire and fire should not be able to cross,” the WFCA said on its website. “However, if a fire is 100 percent contained, that does not mean the fire has stopped burning and no longer poses a threat. Wind and other factors can sometimes cause spot fires to jump these lines. This is why containment percentages can sometimes decrease in media releases.”
Often, these control lines are known as firebreaks or fuel breaks, as firefighters remove trees and vegetation — sometimes using a controlled burn — or otherwise create a gap so the fire’s spread will stop.