"firebreak" is a correct and usable word in written English.
It typically refers to a gap in vegetation, such as a road, designed to prevent the spread of fire. For example, "The authorities created a firebreak around the forest to prevent it from spreading any further."
In an attempt to put a firebreak in the Ukip advance, the Tories are likely to move the writ for the Rochester and Strood byelection in Kent next week before choosing its candidates in a full postal ballot of constituents.
This would be like the garrison in the Tower of London bringing out gunpowder in 1666 to blow up nearby houses so as to create a true firebreak.
WILDFIRES can sometimes only be stopped by the act of lighting a second blaze to create a firebreak.
The capacity of both journalists and the public to speak up in huge numbers has breached a firebreak not crossed since the Tiananmen protests in the pre-internet age.Autocracy hits the buffersChina's rulers love to point out the shortcomings of Western-style democracies; the "Beijing model" by contrast gets difficult jobs done.
But the firebreak between Greece and the other embattled sovereigns of the euro zone is even more important.
Ministers hope the Games will provide a firebreak after the Government's miserable run since a disastrous Budget in March.
But the FAO also suggests that loud talk of arson can be cover for government "ineffectiveness".Forestry experts favour rather mundane solutions, like education, making firebreaks and hiring ground crews with spades and hoes.
Roads have been widened to serve as firebreaks and emergency routes.
Hazard is reduced by compartmentalizing a forest with firebreaks (alleyways in which all vegetation is removed) and reducing the buildup of fuel (litter, branches, fallen trees, etc).
Artificial barriers can be roads, railways, canals, and power-line tracks, but usually extra firebreaks must be cut to link these and provide wider gaps that fire cannot readily jump.
Forest managers, for example, try to prevent the spread of wildfires throughout a forest by building firebreaks that follow changes in the landscape, such as those that separate one patch of trees from another.
