Head fire

A head fire is usually a fire front spreading with the wind. Where slope has a greater effect on fire behavior than wind, a fire burning upslope may be considered a head fire. Head fires create the most rapid and intense fire spread. They consume large amounts of fuel quickly, produce strong convection columns, rapid heat buildup, produce large volumes of smoke and create erratic behavior on other parts of the burn. Head fires are the fastest way to complete a prescribed burn, but it is rare to have conditions and prepared firebreaks capable of containing a burn if a head fire is used alone. Instead, it is nearly always used in combination with backing and flank fires in a technique known as a ring head fire.