firebreak

A strip of land cleared of vegetation to slow or stop the advance of a wildfire. Firebreaks can be narrow hand-cut lines scratched through duff to <a href="https://rewilding.mx/word/mineral-soil/" class="word-autolink">mineral soil, or wide bulldozed swaths carved through forest. They work by removing fuel — if the fire has nothing to burn, it stops. In practice, the contest between fire and firebreak is rarely so clean.