Forest fires are very common in various places of the world. These includes the most vegetated and forested areas of Australia, the synbos in the south African Western cape and also the forested areas of Canada and the United States.
The climatic conditions in these area are moist which allows the growth and the development of trees. But during summer and fall there is extended dry and hot periods, which results to drying of leaves and falling of branches. These materials are very dry and therefore are highly flammable.These fires usually occur when there is a prolonged drought and also during periods of strong winds. The fires usually causes extensive damages due to the high rate of urbanization in the surrounding area. The suburban buildings are therefore at higher risk of being consumed by these fires, extensive damage in large-scale of the public property and death.
The fires are mainly propagated in three ways.(i) Crown fire: These are the fires which spreads to the to most branches of the trees. These fires can spread at a very high speed through the forest. They are extremely dangerous to all living organisms underneath because the fires spread too fast. (ii) Crawling: these fires spreads vice the underneath vegetation. (iii) Jumping: This occurs mostly during windy conditions when fired spreads across roads and across rivers.
Forest fires are known to spread very fast under the influence of wind. It can spread at a tremendous speed of up to 60 km per day consuming up to 1,000 acres per hour. (iv) Smoulding fire: This involves the slow consumption of fuels by fire without generating the actual flame.It can last caused result to consumption of large amount of trees and causing enormous emission of smoke into the atmospheres. Managing Fires.
The risk of wild fires can be reduced by reducing the amount of highly flammable ones. In dry areas, this reduction can be accomplished by controlling the burns i. e. the area should be set ablaze when its less risk for the fire to spread and when the conditions are less volance.
Also trees can be physically removed in areas where fire is o be set.Forest fires can also be reduced by altering the fuel ladder which involves shredding of trees to a mulch. This mostly occurs in areas where people live nearer to the forests. People living nearer to the fire-phone forests should be encouraged to build their homes using flame resistant materials.
They should also reduce the amount of flammable materials around their homes and should always ensure that their fire fighting equipments are working well. Forest fires can also be reduced by use of suppression methods. This is a unique way of fighting forest fire.Most areas with forest-prone fires have diverse fire fighting services as well as fire spraying apparatus which are mainly used in urbanized centers. In cases of forest fire fighting, must fire fighting companies use a very large crew of up to 25 people who travel in big trucks to where the fire is. These crew always construct a fire break using heavy equipments.
Some times very fast response team is used. This team usually contains 6-10 people who are helicoptered to the scene. The team is usually used to fight fire in areas where it is difficult to be accessed by roads, mainly remote areas.They usually use portable fire fighting equipments to put off the fire and chainsaws to build a firebreak.
Hence tools are used to clear off any kind of fuel in the surrounding area. If the fire is in a remote and a steep hill, fire fighters usually fasten themselves with the rope or use parachutes to gain access to the area. Sometimes aircraft which are equipped with water bombers are used in areas which are distinct to be accessed by ground personnel. These water bombers contains large quantities of water and flames vetardnt chemicals.In order to ensure that the fire fighters are safe when conducting this operation, there is a system called the incident command system which is mostly used in coordinating these operations.
Whenever the fire is too large to be contained by the already mentioned methods. An alternative approach is used. This involves creating boundary lines and ensuring that the fires does not pass those boundaries. All he flammable materials are removed from the boundary. Small fires may also be lit and controlled in order to burn any consumable material which may spread the big fire.
This method is not advisable to be used incase when there is shifting winds. Predicting people caused fires. Forest fires fighters need to have enough information on where and when the forest fire will occur so that they Can deploy enough fire fighters to help fight off the fire. Statistial information can be used to analyse and predict the probability of fire occurring in a given area. The predictions used by the Canadian forest fire management in predicting people caused fires is based on on the research that was done in the university of Toronto which were done in collaboration with Ontario ministry of Natural Resources.
Professor Mike Wotton recently developed a model for predicting people caused forest fires. Local sensor network could be used to monitor the presence of humans in the fire-prone area. This technology is able to penetrate thick vegetation and can also detect crawling fires. Satelite and aero monitoring equipments is also used in detecting and predicting the presence of human in the area. Forest fire management Forest fires are mostly expected to be caused by global warming .
For example in Canada,the existence of carbon pol has ben blame for the recurrence of forest fires.Canadian forest fire records has mainly been used to identify what really causes these forest fires. Many of the Canadians believe that these fires are mainly due to the climatic change. The monitoring of the records kept in order to identify the causes of fire has not been that easy. This is due to the variability of Canada fires. Annual area burned by forest fires should be studied in order to determine the factors which might have caused the wide spread of the fires .
Methods of managing these fires should therefore be developed to prevent the spread of fire in these vast area.Fire suppression techniques should also be determined and the resources should be allocated. The level of protection,the amount of vegetation destroyed and the effects on climate should be determined. Computer based decision making system should e used in order to assist in addressing these critical issues on evaluating the level of fire control strategies. Decision analysis should be used in developing a methodology for studying and evaluating various management policies in order to enable forest be useful in terms of economic supply and also in the conservation of wildlife.
