As one of the ground component projects in the South African Fire-Atmosphere Research Initiative (SAFARI-92) the herbaceous fuel loads, comprising mainly fine grass fuels, were characterized before and after the application of controlled burns to small experimental plots, approximately 7 ha in size, situated in moist savanna in the Pretoriuskop section of the Kruger National Park. The grass fuel loads were estimated before and after the controlled fires with a disk pasture meter (DPM) which comprises a circular aluminium disk fitted with a measuring rod and which relates the settling height of the disk to the quantity of grass material holding it off the ground. One hundred readings were recorded in each plot before and after the burns, and these data were used to estimate the quantity of fine fuel consumed during the fires. Surveys were conducted to describe the botanical composition and structure of the grass sward and tree and shrub vegetation in the plots prior to burning. The fuel moisture, air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction were recorded for each fire. Fire behavior parameters comprising rate of spread, fire intensity, and flame height were estimated for the head and back fires occurring during each burn. The results showed that the fine fuel loads on the plots varied greatly ranging from 323 to 4495 kg ha-1. Generally, the behavior of the head fires was more variable than the back fires with fire intensities varying from 93 to 3644 kJ s-1 m-1 for the former and 20 to 160 kJ s-1 m-1 for the latter. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996