back-burn

verb, transitive + intransitive

ˈbak-¦bərn

variants or backburn

back-burned or backburned; back-burning or backburning; back-burns or backburns

firefighting

: to set controlled fires to eliminate the fuel in the path of a wildfire

Much of the work has involved backburning the pine plantations and bulldozing an abundance of thick, flammable underbrush that has accumulated over the years.—

Jan Hollingsworth, Tampa Tribune, 8 June 1999

… bulldozing fire lines, backburning to deprive the fires of fuel and air-dropping fire retardant when the smoke is not too thick and the wind not too capricious.—

Gary Blonston, Miami Herald, 31 Aug. 1984

An isolated cottage … lay directly in the fire's path and our five-member crew was dispatched to back-burn.—

Peter Meredith, Australian Geographic, January–March 1995

… firefighters could have dug a line to stop the fire, but backburning is much more ecologically sound …—

Tom Ragan, Albuquerque Journal, 5 July 1997