firefighting a fire suppression tool primarily designed and used by fire fighters to construct firelines on a forest fire; kinds of hand tool include the following:

—brush hook a heavy cutting tool with a wide blade, generally curved to protect the blade from being dulled by rocks, designed primarily to cut brush at the base of the stem and used in much the same way as an ax

—double-bit(ted)ax an ax having a head with two cutting edges

—fire rake a long-handled combination rake and cutting tool having a blade with a single row of three or four sharpened teeth —note a fire rake is sometimes made by fastening mowing machine cutter teeth to a piece of angle iron —synonym council tool, rich tool

—fire shovel a shovel with a tapered blade with both edges sharpened for scraping, digging, grubbing, and cutting

—fire swatter a fire suppression tool used in direct attack for beating out flames along a fire edge —note a fire swatter may be improvised and consist merely of a green pine bough or wet sacking, or be a manufactured tool, e.g., a flap of belting fabric fastened to a long handle —synonym swatter, fire broom

—mattock a hand tool with a narrow hoeing surface at one end of the blade and a pick or cutting blade at the other end, used for digging and grubbing

—mccleod a combination hoe or cutting tool and rake, with or without removable blades

—pulaski a combination chopping and trenching tool that combines a single-bitted ax blade with a narrow trenching blade resembling an adz hoe fitted to a straight handle

—rich tool —see fire rake This definition last updated 10/27/2008