DCHP-1 Online

fireguard ((n.))

• 1 n. a strip of land, usually ploughed but sometimes burned free of grass, intended to stop the advance of a grass fire or a prairie fire.

  See also: firebreak (def. 2)  guard (def. 3a)  

  • 1890  The action of the C.P.R. in plowing fireguards along each side of their roadbed between here and Swift Current is worthy of praise.
  • 1925  He had thought a fire guard between the bush and the flax would be a waste of land. . . .
  • 1954  We tried to light a fire guard and after lighting a box of matches finally had . . . a strip burned on which we stood.
  • 1963  For days the smoky air had been redolent of sage and prairie herbs, and it choked us as we feverishly plowed fireguards

• 2 n. in the bush, a strip of land cleared of trees and brush and intended to stop the advance of a forest fire.

  See also: firebreak (def. 3)  

  • 1955  The immediate task was to get the fire guard finished, soaked as much as possible with the pumps and perhaps backfire.
  • 1961  They know the dangers when these splinters of flame . . . jump fire guards and set woods ablaze behind them.