How to Use firebreak in a Sentence

firebreak

noun
Definition of firebreaknext
  • For your first burn, light the edge of the downwind firebreak so that the flames creep slowly into the wind.
    — Will Brantley, Field & Stream, 17 Mar. 2021
  • So the avenue provided the firebreak that saved the city.
    — Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Nov. 2021
  • When the sheriff told the family to leave, Mike stayed to create a firebreak and spray down the house.
    — Washington Post, 28 July 2021
  • The greatest risk was that winds would blow embers across the firebreaks and ignite new blazes.
    — Time, 14 Oct. 2017
  • The doe stood at one end of the firebreak, stamping her foot, before taking off again.
    — Will Brantley, Field & Stream, 23 Nov. 2020
  • There was already 15 feet of firebreak behind homes in the area, Santee Fire Capt.
    — Karen Pearlman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Oct. 2020
  • The immense labor force needed to maintain the firebreak dried up with World War II.
    — Matthias Gafni, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Nov. 2020
  • Some divisions fought fires nowhere near the firebreak.
    — Matthias Gafni, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Nov. 2020
  • Delaney Park, better known as the Park Strip, was first cleared as a firebreak in 1917 and has served as parkland ever since.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 19 June 2022
  • Firefighters have taken advantage of the lull to cut firebreaks in dry forests and pile up soil to control the blaze.
    — Umair Irfan, Vox, 17 Nov. 2018
  • The strike crew planned to burn along the 25N09 Road for a little more than a mile to increase the depth of the firebreak on the downhill side of the road and slow the fire’s progression, according to the report.
    — Matthias Gafni, SFChronicle.com, 25 Oct. 2020
  • The other is that despite high winds that fanned the flames, the area’s vineyards formed fairly effective firebreaks.
    — Mike Dunne, sacbee, 23 Oct. 2017
  • To widen the firebreak, the fire department, with the assistance of the military, turns to explosives.
    — WIRED, 15 June 2023
  • Regulators have been busy cutting firebreaks in an attempt to control the spread of the crisis.
    — Heard Editors, WSJ, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Winds squeezed through a mountain pass and blasted firebrands over natural firebreaks and a branch of the Feather River.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2019
  • Neighborhoods can be buffered by seawalls for storm surges, levees for floods, firebreaks for wildfires.
    — Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg.com, 2 May 2018
  • The area surrounding each is slashed and cleared with hoes to produce a firebreak to protect it from occasional wildfires.
    — Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2019
  • Thousands of unemployed men joined Civilian Conservation Corps camps up and down the state, building the firebreak in three years.
    — Anna Buchmann, SFChronicle.com, 20 Nov. 2020
  • The majority of Napa’s wineries and vineyards (which served as firebreaks) were spared.
    — New York Times, 21 June 2018
  • Shock collars can compel grazing cattle to create firebreaks in the scrublands of the American West.
    — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Many of the hikers in ball caps, running shoes and face masks returned home with memories of seeing mountain quail, deer and snakes moving through the brush edging the park’s paved lanes, rugged trails and firebreaks.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2020
  • The area was first cleared as a firebreak in 1917, a wise recognition of Anchorage’s susceptibility to fire.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Some vineyard owners decided to stay and fight back, spending days digging firebreaks and sleeping among their vines for safety.
    — Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Adam Mariani, with help from a changing cast of relatives, friends, neighbors and passing crews of firefighters, used shovels and tractors to gouge firebreaks in the dirt.
    — Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Police departments in violent cities have long talked of making a firebreak.
    — The Economist, 16 Apr. 2020
  • And in the Mountain West, fire cleared out dead trees and created patchworks of vegetation within the forest to act as natural firebreaks.
    — Andria Hautamaki, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Many of the roads selected are single-lane, primitive and unmaintained, cleared almost 100 years ago for timber haul or firebreak roads.
    — Bill Pollnow, Star Tribune, 2 June 2021
  • Varney had worked through the night and was driving the bulldozer to cut a firebreak to keep the fire from extending into a nearby community, Koerperich said.
    — Amy Lieu, Fox News, 16 July 2018
  • In addition to the firefighters and aircraft crews that responded the day of the fire, a hungry herd of as many as 500 goats helped create a firebreak months before in the brush that surrounded the complex, officials said.
    — Ray Sanchez and Stella Chan, CNN, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Biden, in his campaign, had presented himself as a firebreak, a barrier against the inferno of another four years.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'firebreak.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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