July 1, 2011

The Kut Kwick Corporation's FireMasterSupport for the Firewise Concept

Following this write up is a link to a video we uploaded to YouTube filmed by a Sarasota, Florida TV Station featuring members of the Florida Commission of Forestry telling about their experiences with the Kut Kwick FireMaster©. The video shows the FireMaster© being used to cut fuel breaks around houses, businesses, and to cut lanes into the forest, not only for getting equipment and personnel into forest fires, but also providing exit paths.

Kut Kwick, Corp. designed and perfected this machine to clear typical southern forest lands. An important use of this machine is for fire prevention and control. Kut Kwick, Corp. has application patents for reducing brush to small chips that lay flat on the ground where they cannot get the oxygen required to sustain a fire. Kut Kwick also has design patents on the FireMaster©. The machine has been actively used in brush clearing for utility and beautification purposes. The machines have proved to be very heavily constructed, east to maintain, have low maintenance cost, and an extremely long useful life in the abusive commercial environment. The FireMaster© machines have recorded more than 7000 hours on them and are still running with minimal maintenance.

We have completed extensive testing regarding the efficacy of the FireMaster© for stopping forest fires. We have confirmed in all of our tests that, when a blazing brush fire reaches the fuel break cut by the Kut Kwick FireMaster©, the fire drops to the ground where it transverses slowly with a low flame, smolders, or goes out. In any case a firefighter can easily extinguish any remaining hot spots with a tamp, water or by other traditional means.

These machines can replace hundreds of firefighters who are attempting to do brush removal by hand. The time and cost savings are tremendous. Actual performance records from typical southern forest lands confirm that in one hour a single FireMaster© can do the brush removal that it would take 100 firefighters to do in one hour. A man can only clear 400 sq. ft. of normal forest land in one hour. This machine cuts an average of 1¼ acres in normal forest land or a 1¼ mile long swath 7-feet wide in just one hour. We estimate the savings, in Georgia alone, will be at least $7million each year and could save as much as $20 million per year. These savings assume that the state of Georgia would purchase two FireMasters for each of its 6 districts.

We estimate each of these twelve machines would be used at least 500 hours per year. Included in that estimate is approximately 200 or more hours fighting forest fires, the balance doing Wildland Urban Interface, clearing forest land back 200-400 feet from houses and commercial structures. The operational costs for the 12 machines would be less than $200,000 per year. The first year savings would be approximately $7,000,000, and could literally be as high as $20,000,000 in the first year and of $7,000,000to $20,000,000 each following year for the 12-year useful life of the machines. The best possible forest fire protection would be produced by using the machines 12 months out of the year to produce a Wildland Urban Interface a quarter of a mile deep next to populated areas.

This multipurpose machine can also be used by fire fighters for rapid access to forest fires caused by lightning strikes. Lightning strike fires are now immediately identifiable and located by GPS. However, they often occur in densely forested areas that are difficult to walk to. The FireMaster© mower can quickly cut a path to the fire, perhaps 4 times as fast as required by walking personnel. The machine can then be used to cut a fuel break to control the fire. The path cut to the fire assures firefighters an open path to get equipment in and a path to “get out” should the fire get out of control. In addition to firefighting and fire control the machines will produce very sustained savings by reducing the labor costs to maintain parks, road right-of-ways, historic places, and all of the areas that must be maintained for utility as well as beautification but tend to be reclaimed by forest growth. And it can turn on a dime. It has a 0° turn radius. It will

July 1, 2011operate on 32° slopes.

Other methodology is certainly appropriate for dealing with forest fires. In wetlands, in front of some roadways, inside forest and swamps, backburns and plowed fire breaks have a place along with the use of bulldozers, other tracked equipment, air craft deposited water and fire retardant. But not in Wildland Urban Interface.

The FireMaster© machine is very mobile. It can easily be tow on a trailer behind a pick up truck. The driver of the truck normally also operates the machine. No special drivers license is required to transport this machine.

This week the Georgia Forestry Commission called on Kut Kwick to clear approximately 30-acres at the Ruskin School in Waycross, GA, that was designated as an evacuation point and staging location. The FireMaster©cleared this land in excess of 1 acre per hour. The Georgia Forestry Commission also requested that Kut Kwick help with the fire threatened “Okefenokee Swamp Park.” Kut Kwick responded immediately and in approximately one hour was clearing the brush at the park. All of the brush was removed around the buildings, other facilities. Natural fire breaks were enhanced by removing brush in front of them. All of this was done within three hours by one machine completing the protection of the Park. This week we were called to remove the brush around two homes in the Argile, Georgia area to exemplify “firewise” practices. The cutting of this area demonstrated the maneuverability of the machines. The area was covered with obstacles. It took 4 hours for two machines to clear this 6 ½ acres. The job was well done. The area is now considered to be “firewise.”

Kut Kwick continues to offer at, no charge, the services of operators along with the FireMaster© machines to deal with the terrible fires that we are now experiencing in our area.

“Each machine Kut Kwick builds and sells over and beyond its normal sales volume results in one more job in Georgia for one year. “

YouTube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ1BqhLPybA Robert M. Torras, Sr.

President Kut Kwick, Corp.

July 1, 2011

The Kut Kwick Corporation's FireMasterWhy to use the FireMaster to create “Wildland Urban Interface”

There are many applications where backburns may be used but the “Wildland Urban Interface” is not one of them. Brush removal for “fuel breaks” is the way of the future for dealing with the “Wildland Urban Interface” problem. Brush removal is the only way to protect homes, buildings and facilities from the threat of forest fires.

Brush fires are stopped by Kut Kwick's FireMaster© by producing “fuel breaks.” When set on fire, the massed brush in forest lands draw air into the fire supporting very hot blazes that extend up as high as twenty feet into the tree canopy. The extreme heat from the brush fires ignite the canopy producing wind born fire embers called “fire brands” that ignite new fuel as much as one mile away with a 40 mph wind. The small cuttings that are produced by the FireMaster© can not blaze up because the oxygen necessary for combustion can not get to the clippings that are flat on the ground. The oxygen deprived clippings can not blaze up or produce a hot fire.

When a raging brush fire reaches the FireMaster© produced fuel break, the fire drops to the ground where it transverses slowly with a low flame, smolders, or goes out. In any case, a firefighter can easily extinguish any remaining hot spots with a tamp, water, or with other means. The canopy does not catch fire over a FireMaster© produced fuel break. The greatest protection from wind blown “fire brands” is to utilize the FireMaster© machines to produce “fuel breaks” up to ¼ mile in depth. With enough wind firebrands can jump firebreaks as well as any fuel break/fire break combination. The greater the depth of the fuel break the greater the distance the fire must jump. A FireMaster© machine will produce a fuel break of 1¼ acre or 1¼ miles long and 7' wide in one hour. 12 FireMaster© machines that are operated 80% of the working year would produce approximately 20,000 acres of Wildland Urban Interface in one year. This would give a tremendous amount of protection to homes and businesses that are bound by forest.

The only process of stopping and controlling forest fires that compares to the FireMaster© produced “fuel break” in cost as well as effectiveness is the backburn produced “fire break.” The backburn process costs are normally considered to be slightly less to produce than the mowed “fuel break,” however, the cost of the backburn produced fire break is substantially higher than the mowed fuel break after all the costs that are always incurred during and after backburning are considered. Some of these costs are:

• Hot Spots – Personnel must remain on hand for extended periods after a backburn to eliminate “hot spots.” Tree stumps, roots, buried limbs, and pete deposits flame up and rekindle forest fires long after a backburn is completed.

July 1, 2011

• Out of Control Backburns – A substantial amount of personnel and equipment must be kept readily available and often on hand to deal with wind direction and wind velocity changes that frequently turn backburns into out of control forest fires.

• Smoke – Wind directional changes can take smoke from any backburn and send it over populated areas and highways causing visibility, fogs, and public health problems. Personnel and equipment must be on hand to stop the backburn when this occurs.The ash produced by fire is not as beneficial to the fertilization of the forest land as is the

deteriorated biomass produced from the FireMaster's unique mowing style. The smoke is undesirable and unhealthy for the public. When smoke is embedded in a fog bank it makes the fog visually impenetrable. Frequently massive automobile wrecks occur because of the smoke intensified fog banks. The courts have ruled that the party producing the fire are at fault and that these fires are no longer considered “Acts of God.”

The forest is a wonderful place for people. When the brush is removed and subsequently maintained the appreciation expressed by the public to those who have protected them and improved the beautification of their forest lands is overwhelming.

July 1, 2011

The Kut Kwick Corporation's FireMasterEnvironmentally Friendly Brush Removal

The Kut Kwick FireMaster is the ideal machine for producing an environmentally friendly “Wildland Urban Interface”. This forest clearing mower cuts down all vegetation up to 4” in diameter. The FireMaster's rotary cutters reduce the vines and small trees to small cuttings that are laid flat on the ground. Trees that are smaller than 4” in diameter are cut down. The limbs of the small trees are then cut off and chopped into pieces leaving the stalk of the tree flat on the ground. The removal of brush supports the health and growth of the large trees in the area. The removal of brush also allows the birds, deer, and hogs to feed. Immediately after the brush is removed from an area, the birds flock to the cleared ground to feed simultaneously the deer and hog population increases.

Deterioration of the clippings occurs over the following weeks and during subsequent months, fertilizing the ground, improving the new growth that supports deer and other grazing animals. A most interesting phenomenon is that deer and other wild life remain in the immediate vicinity of the machine while it is clearing. As soon as the operator gets out of the machine the wild life scramble away.

Another forest related problem is alleviated or eliminated is ticks. Ticks are protected from birds because they locate themselves on the underside of the foliage of the brush. When the brush is cut down to the ground the birds can get to the ticks and utterly devour them. It is normal to walk through brush in the spring and be covered by ticks. However, the ticks will be gone immediately after the brush cutting. The area will be clear of ticks until new growth allow them to start their breeding in October. If the brush is not cleared again annually, the ticks will gradually return.

One of the most important benefits from brush clearing is the removal of ticks from public parks and camping areas. Equally important is the tick removal from the areas adjacent to homes and businesses, the “Wildland Urban Interface”. The public always show their appreciate first from the beautification but almost always when they realize that the tick menace has been removed.

The machine is truly environmentally friendly. The root structure of plants is not disturbed. The healthy root structure prevents erosion and assures that animals and fowl can successfully feed in the future. Returning new growth does not support fire for at least one year. It is recommended that the returning growth be removed annually both for beautification and to maintain an effective fuel break that will stop forest fires.