Catbuster I don't know which dozers Cal Fire is buying now (I think John Deere but I don't know the model) but at least for the last few years they were NOT buying angle dozers, only straight blades. They said it was to reduce cost. Sorta like BLM buying bareback dozers until they found out they couldn't back up hill.
This is a new angle dozer. Can you tell the model?
http://wildfiretoday.com/2015/07/16...00-acres-northwest-of-placerville-california/
That's a Deere 750. J model. Deere makes an OK machine, but Cat is king of the dozer market. Komatsu is my second pick, and after that I won't buy the machine. When I think wildland fires I think of a Cat D7 or D8, either N or R model. I run one on a daily basis, but they're oversize loads and aren't very nimble like a smaller machine such as that 750.
That dozer has a 6-way Power-Angle-Tilt blade. They're nice in construction, but are kind of meh for any rough work, too many hoses to snag and joints to break. An angle blade is like you see on an LA County D8. A true angle blade mounts on a U shaped frame and pins back into mounting holes on the frame. You only have sideways tilt, to throw material off to one side.
Granted, there aren't a lot of machines that actually work fires like those. But, they're a whole lot more powerful and do more work in less time. They also cost twice as much as a 750 Deere to purchase, burn a lot more fuel and are almost prohibitively expensive to maintain. With that said, I tested out on a D8N, and I have large dozers (Cat D8Rs), so I'm biased towards them. But even a small dozer can pretty often replace a hand crew.