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A wildfire, also known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, or bushfire (in Australasia), is an uncontrolled fire in wildland often caused by lightning; other common causes are human carelessness and arson. Download high resolution version (1500x512, 629 KB)Photo from the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. ...
Download high resolution version (1500x512, 629 KB)Photo from the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. ...
San Bernardino is the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. ...
ISS Statistics Crew: 2 As of April 26, 2005 Perigee: 349. ...
Backburning in Townsville, Australia to prevent bushfires. ...
Australasia is the area that includes Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the many smaller islands in the vicinity, most of which are the eastern part of Indonesia. ...
For other uses See fire (disambiguation). ...
Wildlands are areas of land where the vegetation is permitted to grow and natural forces are permitted to act without significant human interference. ...
Multiple cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning strokes are observed during a night-time thunderstorm. ...
Arson is the crime of setting a fire with intent to cause damage. ...
Drought and the prevention of small forest fires are major contributors to extreme forest fires. A drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ...
The word "wildfire" originally meant a medieval European weapon substance somewhat like napalm; the word got its present meaning by people misunderstanding the expression "spread like wildfire". The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...
A napalm airstrike during the Vietnam War Napalm is a flammable, gasoline-based weapon invented in 1942. ...
| Contents | 4.1 French strategy Download high resolution version (674x1016, 337 KB)forestfire5 From: http://firepix. ...
Download high resolution version (674x1016, 337 KB)forestfire5 From: http://firepix. ...
| Background
Wildfires are common in many places around the world, including much of the vegetated areas of Australia, forest areas of the United States and Canada, where the climates are sufficiently moist to allow the growth of trees, but feature extended dry, hot periods when fallen branches, leaves, and other material can dry out and becomes highly flammable. Wildfires are also common in grasslands and scrublands. Wildfires tend to be most common and severe during years of drought and occur on days of strong winds. With extensive urbanization of wildlands, these fires often involve destruction of suburban homes located in the wildland urban intermix. closeup picture - from http://firepix. ...
closeup picture - from http://firepix. ...
Jackson is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming. ...
The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ...
A drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ...
Today it is accepted that wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem of wildlands, where, at the least, plants have evolved to survive fires by a variety of strategies (from possessing reserve shoots that sprout after a fire, to fire-resistant seeds), or even encourage fire (for example eucalypts contain flammable oils in the leaves) as a way to eliminate competition from less fire-tolerant species. In 2004, researchers discovered that exposure to smoke from burning plants actually promotes germination in other types of plants by inducing the production of the chemical butenolide. Most native animals, too, are adept at surviving wildfires. In ecology, an ecosystem is a naturally occurring assemblage of organisms (plant, animal and other living organisms—also referred to as a biotic community or biocoenosis) living together with their environment (or biotope), functioning as a unit of sorts. ...
A SeeD is a term given to mercenaries trained and employed by Balamb Garden in the Final Fantasy VIII video game. ...
Species About 600, see text Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (rarely shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Smoke is a suspension in air of small particles resulting from incomplete combustion of a fuel. ...
In a botanical sense, germination is the process of emergence of growth from a resting stage. ...
On occasions, wildfires have caused large-scale damage to private property, particularly when they have reached urban-fringe communities, destroying many homes and causing deaths. This page deals with property as ownership rights. ...
Slash (small, rotten, mis-shapen, or otherwise undesirable wood discarded during logging) has historically provided the fuel for devastating fires such as the fires in Michigan in the 19th century. For another article about a different type of logging, see data logging. ...
State nickname: Wolverine State or Great Lakes State Other U.S. States Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Governor Jennifer Granholm Official languages English Area 250,941 km² (11th) - Land 147,255 km² - Water 103,687 km² (41. ...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The aftermath of a wildfire can be as disastrous if not more so than the actual fire itself. A particularly destructive fire burns away all the plants and trees which prevented erosion. If heavy rains occur after such a fire, landslides, ash flows, and flash floods are to be expected. Not only does this result in severe property damage for those living in the immediate fire area, but it also affects the quality of the local water supply. Rain is a form of precipitation, other forms of which include snow, sleet, hail, and dew. ...
This entry refers to the geological term landslide. ...
Flash flooding is rapid flooding of low-lying areas, rivers and creeks that is caused by the intense rainfall associated with a thunderstorm, or multiple training thunderstorms. ...
A falling water droplet Water (from the Anglo-Saxon and Low German wæter) is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is the most universal solvent. ...
There have been wildfires long before Man evolved. One main component of Carboniferous north hemisphere coal is charcoal left over by forest fires. The Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 340 million years ago (mya), to the beginning of the Permian period, about 280 mya. ...
Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground either by underground mining, open-pit mining or strip mining. ...
Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents of animal and vegetable substances. ...
Behavior
Bitterroot National Forest wildfire The propagation of the fire has three mechanisms: Download high resolution version (1023x632, 524 KB)Photo of a wildfire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, United States, on August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, employed as a fire behavior analyst at the Forest Service, an agency of U.S. Department of Agriculture. ...
Download high resolution version (1023x632, 524 KB)Photo of a wildfire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, United States, on August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, employed as a fire behavior analyst at the Forest Service, an agency of U.S. Department of Agriculture. ...
- "crawling" fire: the fire spreads via low level vegetation (e.g. bushes)
- crown fire: a fire that "crowns" (spreads to the top branches of trees) can spread at an incredible pace through the top of a forest
- "jumping" fire: burning branches and leaves are carried by the wind and start distant fires; the fire can thus "jump" over a road, river, or even a firebreak
The Nevada Bureau of Land Management identifies several different wildfire behaviors. For example, extreme fire behavior includes wide rates of spread, prolific crowning and/or spotting, the presence of fire whirls, or a strong convection column. Extreme wildfires behave erratically and unpredictably. Crown fires are fires in the tops of the trees Categories: Move to Wiktionary | Substubs | Forestry ...
Behavior (U.S.) or behaviour (U.K.) refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ...
In southern California, under the influence of Santa Ana winds, wildfires can move at tremendous speeds, up to 40 miles (60 km) in a single day, consuming up to 1,000 acres (4 km²) per hour. Dense clouds of burning embers push relentlessy ahead of the flames crossing firebreaks without pause. State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...
Santa Ana winds are warm, dry winds that characteristically appear in Southern California weather during autumn and early winter. ...
A firebreak is a usually-man-made gap in vegetation that is expected to slow or stop the progress of wildfires. ...
Propagation of the fire with a characteristic shape of a "pear" The powerful updraft caused by a large wildfire will draw in air from surrounding areas. These self-generated winds can lead to a phenomenon known as a firestorm. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
This is an article about a specific circumstance of combustion. ...
French models of wildfires dictate that a fire's front line will take on the characteristic shape of a pear; the major axis being aligned with the wind. In the case of the fires in South-Eastern France, the speed of the fire is estimated to be 3 to 8% of the speed of the wind, depending on the conditions (density and type of vegetation, slope). Other models predict an elliptical shape when the ground is flat and the vegetation is homogeneous Wind is the quasi-horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by a horizontal pressure gradient force. ...
In mathematics, an ellipse (from the Greek for absence) is a curve where the sum of the distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points is constant. ...
Prevention For many decades the policy of the United States Forest Service was to suppress all fires, and this policy was epitomized by the mascot Smokey Bear and was also the basis of parts of the movie Bambi. The policy began to be questioned in the 1960s, when it was realized that no new sequoias had been grown in the redwood forests of California, because fire is an essential part of their life cycle. This produced the policy of controlled burns to reduce underbrush. This clears much of the undergrowth through forest and woodland areas, making travel and hunting much easier while reducing the risk of dangerous high-intensity fires caused by many years of fuel buildup. The USDA Forest Service, a United States government agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, is under the leadership of the United States Secretary of Agriculture. ...
Smokeys instant catch-phrase is Only you can prevent forest fires! Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created in 1944 to educate the public on the dangers of forest fires. ...
This article is about the 1942 Walt Disney film. ...
Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ...
Sequoia is the name of: three species of trees in the family Cupressaceae: Coast Redwood, Giant Sequoia, and Dawn Redwood; three publically-owned lands in the Sierra Nevadas with Giant Sequoia groves: Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest, and Giant Sequoia National Monument several ships, including a Coast Guard vessel...
State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...
Igniting a controlled burn. ...
A forest fire's charred remains The previous policy of absolute fire suppression in the United States has resulted in the buildup of fuel in some ecosystems such as dry ponderosa pine forests. However, this concept has been misapplied in a "one-size-fits-all" application to other ecosystems such as California chaparral. Fire suppression in southern California has had very little impact over the past century. The amount of land burned in 6 southern California counties has been relatively unchanged. In fact, fire frequency has been increasing dramatically over the past century in lock step with population growth. Urbanization can also result in fuel buildup and devastating fires, such as those in Los Alamos, New Mexico, East Bay Hills, within the California cities of Oakland and Berkeley, between October 19 and 22, 1991, all over Colorado in 2002, and throughout southern California in October, 2003. Homes designed without considering the fire prone environment in which they are built have been the primary reason for the catastrophic losses experienced in wildfires. Download high resolution version (1024x768, 398 KB)forestfire4 From: http://firepix. ...
Download high resolution version (1024x768, 398 KB)forestfire4 From: http://firepix. ...
Los Alamos is an unincorporated townsite in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. ...
The Oakland Hills Firestorm occurred on Sunday October 20, 1991. ...
Aerial view looking west over downtown Oakland, Lake Merritt and the Port of Oakland in the upper left portion of the image. ...
Berkeley is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California, United States. ...
October 19 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ...
On average, wildfires burn 4.3 million acres (17,000 km²) in the United States annually. In recent years the federal government has spent $1 billion a year on fire suppression. 2002 was a record year for fires with major fires in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oregon. State nickname: The Grand Canyon State, The Copper State Other U.S. States Capital Phoenix Largest city Phoenix Governor Janet Napolitano Official languages English Only State Area 295,254 km² (6th) - Land 294,312 km² - Water 942 km² (0. ...
State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...
This is the article on the state. ...
State nickname: Beaver State Other U.S. States Capital Salem Largest city Portland Governor Ted Kulongoski Official languages None Area 255,026 km² (9th) - Land 248,849 km² - Water 6,177 km² (2. ...
The risk of major wildfires can be reduced by reducing the amount of fuel present. In wildland, this can be accomplished by either conducting "controlled burns" - deliberately setting areas ablaze under less dangerous weather conditions in spring or autumn - or physical fuel removal by removing some trees as is conducted in many American forests. Such techniques are best used within the wildland/urban interface where communities connect with wild open space. Prescribed burns in the backcountry, away from human habitations, are not particularly effective in preventing large fires. All the large catastrophic fires in the United States have been wind driven events where the amount of fuel (trees, shrubs, etc.) has not been the most important factor in fire spread. Spring is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ...
Autumn colours at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire, England. ...
People living in fire-prone areas typically take a variety of precautions, including building their homes out of flame-resistant materials, reducing the amount of fuel near the home or property (including firebreaks - their own miniature control lines, in effect), and investing in their own firefighting equipment. A firebreak is a usually-man-made gap in vegetation that is expected to slow or stop the progress of wildfires. ...
Rural farming communities are rarely threatened directly by wildfire. These types of communities are usually located in large areas of cleared, usually grazed, land, and in the drought conditions present in wildfire years there is often very little grass left on such grazed areas. Hence the risk is minimized. However, urban fringes have spread into forested areas, for example in Sydney and Melbourne, and communities have literally built themselves in the middle of highly flammable forests. These communities are at high risk of destruction in bushfires. Grazing is the regular consumption of part of one organism without killing it by another organism. ...
Sydneys skyline with the Opera House on the left Sydney is the capital city of the Australian state of New South Wales and Australias largest and oldest city, founded in 1788. ...
Melbourne - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...
Fire suppression
An Air National Guard C-130 Hercules drops fire retardant on wildfires in Southern California Most fire-prone areas have large firefighter services to help control bushfires. As well as the water-spraying firetrucks most commonly used in urban firefighting, bushfire services use a variety of alternative techniques. Typically, forest fire fighting organizations will use large crews of 20 or more people who travel in trucks to the fire. These crews use heavier equipment to construct firebreaks, and are the mainstay of most firefighting efforts. Other personnel are organized into fast attack teams typically consisting of 5-8 people. These fast attack teams are helicoptered into smaller fires or hard to reach areas as a preemptive strike force. They use portable pumps to douse small fires and chainsaws to construct firebreaks or helicopter landing pads if more resources are required. Hand tools are commonly used to construct firebreaks and remove fuels around the perimeter of the fire to halt its spread, including shovels, rakes, and the pulaski, a tool unique to wildland firefighting. In the eastern United States, portable leaf blowers are sometimes used. In the western United States, large fires often become extended campaigns, and temporary fire camps are constructed to provide food, showers, and rest to fire crews. These large fires are often handled by 20 person hand crews, known as "hotshot" crews, specially organized to travel to large fires around the west. An ANG C-130 fights wildfires in Southern California. ...
An ANG C-130 fights wildfires in Southern California. ...
Shield of the United States Air National Guard In the US military, the Air National Guard (ANG), as part of the National Guard, is the organized militia of a particular US state and is a reserve of the US Air Force (USAF), too. ...
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a four-engine turboprop aircraft, is the main tactical air transport aircraft of the United States and United Kingdom military forces. ...
Firefighter with an axe A firefighter, sometimes still called a fireman though women have increasingly joined firefighting units, is a person who is trained and equipped to put out fires, rescue people and in some areas provide emergency medical services. ...
Engine 4 - City of Chico, CA A Fire Engine is one of many specialized fire suppression apparatuses. ...
A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more large horizontal rotors (propellers). ...
A pump is a mechanical device used to move liquids or gases. ...
A chainsaw (also spelled chain saw) is a portable mechanical, motorized saw. ...
The pulaski is a special hand tool used in wildland firefighting. ...
Fast attack teams are often considered the elite of firefighting forces, as they sometimes deploy in unusual ways. If the fire is on a particularly steep hill or in a densely wooded area, they may rappel or fast-rope down from helicopters. If the fire is extremely remote, firefighters known as smokejumpers may parachute into site from fixed-wing aircraft. In addition to the aircraft used for deploying ground personnel, firefighting outfits often possess helicopters and water bombers specially equipped for use in aerial firefighting. These aircraft can douse areas that are inaccessible to ground crews and deliver greater quantities of water and/or flame retardant chemicals. Managing all of these various resources over such a large area in often very rugged terrain is extremely challenging, and often the Incident Command System is used. As such, each fire will have a designated fireboss who oversees and coordinates all the operations on the fire. This fireboss is ultimately responsible for the safety of the firefighters and for the success of firefighting efforts. In British English, abseiling (from the German abseilen, to rope down) is the process of descending on a fixed rope. ...
A smokejumper is a firefighter who is parachuted into a remote area to combat a wildfire. ...
The Apollo 15 capsule landed safely despite a parachute failure. ...
An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ...
An Air National Guard C-130 Hercules drops fire retardant on wildfires in Southern California Aerial firefighting is a method to combat wildfires using aircraft. ...
An Air National Guard C_130 Hercules drops fire retardant on wildfires in Southern California Aerial firefighting is a method to combat wildfires using aircraft. ...
An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ...
A typical Incident Command Post This article needs cleanup. ...
A helicopter dips its bucket into a pool before returning to drop the water on a wildfire outside of Naples, Italy. Large fires are of such a size that no conceivable firefighting service could attempt to douse the whole fire directly, and so alternative techniques are used. In alternative approaches, firefighters attempt to control the fire by controlling the area that it can spread to, by creating "control lines", which are areas that contain no combustible material. These control lines can be produced by physically removing fuel (for instance, with a bulldozer), or by "backburning", in which small, low-intensity fires are started, using a device such as the driptorch, or pyrotechnic flares known as "fusees", to burn the flammable material in a (hopefully) controlled way. These may then be extinguished by firefighters, or, ideally, directed in such a way that they meet the main fire front, at which point both fires run out of flammable material and are thus extinguished. Download high resolution version (1362x843, 240 KB)An Italian firefighting helicopter fills its 125-gallon bag (a Bambi bucket) with water from the Carney Park public swimming pool at Naval Support Activity, Naples, Italy, to assist authorities fighting local wildfires, Sept. ...
Download high resolution version (1362x843, 240 KB)An Italian firefighting helicopter fills its 125-gallon bag (a Bambi bucket) with water from the Carney Park public swimming pool at Naval Support Activity, Naples, Italy, to assist authorities fighting local wildfires, Sept. ...
Categories: Stub | Firefighting ...
A bulldozer is a powerful crawler ( caterpillar tracked tractor) equipped with a blade. ...
Using a driptorch to ignite a prescribed fire A driptorch is a tool used in wildland firefighting, controlled burning, and other forestry applications to intentionally ignite fires. ...
The word pyrotechnic (literally meaning fire technology) refers to any chemical explosive device, but especially fireworks. ...
A WWI-era parachute flare dropped from aircraft for illumination. ...
Unfortunately, such methods can fail in the face of wind shifts causing fires to miss control lines or to jump straight over them (for instance, because a burning tree falls across a line, burning embers are carried by the wind over the line, or burning tumbleweeds cross the line). Fireplow cutting lane in advance of a forest wildfire, South Carolina File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Fireplow cutting lane in advance of a forest wildfire, South Carolina File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Historic Front Street Georgetown is a city located in Georgetown County, South Carolina. ...
The actual goals of firefighters vary. Protection of life (those of both the firefighters and "civilians") is given top priority, then private property according to economic and social value and also to its "savability" (for example, more effort will be expended on saving a house with a tile roof than one with a wooden-shake roof). In very severe, large fires, this is sometimes the only possible action. Protecting houses is regarded as more important than, say, farming machinery sheds, although firefighters, if possible, try to keep fires off farmland to protect stock and fences (steel fences are destroyed by the passage of fire, as the wire is irreversibly stretched and weakened by it). Preventing the burning of publicly-owned forested areas is generally of least priority, and, indeed, it is quite common (in Australia, at least) for firefighters to simply observe a fire burn towards control lines through forest rather than attempt to put it out more quickly - it is, after all, a natural process. Ensuring the safety of firefighters takes priority over fire suppression when a situation becomes dangerous. When arriving on a scene a fire crew will establish a safe zone, known as an "anchor point," which they can retreat to if necessary, and are trained to keep aware of escape routes and designate lookouts (known by the acronym LCES - for lookouts, communications, escape routes, safety zones). They carry portable fire shelters that can be deployed if all else fails. This emphasis on safety is reinforced with a list of 18 "watch out situations" for firefighters to be aware of, which warn of potentially dangerous conditions.
French strategy Forest covers about 28% of France (189,000 km², 46.7 million acres); the biggest forest is the forêt des Landes de Gascogne, a pine forest which covers over 10,000 km² (2.5 million acres), mostly part being in the Landes (6,193 km², 1.53 million acres). This relatively small area allows for excellent forest management. Preventive logging (used for the wood and paper industries) and mandatory clearing of undergrowth for private landowners are enforced. These measured usually eliminate the need to send teams to remote zones that are not accessible from the ground. Airborne teams are seldom used (there are no smokejumpers), but teams are occaisionally deployed via helicopter (e.g. on the top of a hill). Gascony (Gascogne in French) is a region in southwest France. ...
Landes is a département in southern France. ...
The firefighting system is called DFCI (défense des forêts contre l'incendie, literally "Forest defense against fire"). The system used for the localisation is called "DFCI coordinates" (coordonnées DFCI) and the access tracks are called "DFCI tracks" (chemins DFCI). Three different forces are involved in fire prevention and firefighting: - the police forces (Police nationale, Gendarmerie and foresters), for the prevention (patrols, information of wanderers, possibly sanction of dangerous acts);
- département employees (sapeurs forestiers, forest sappers) and volunteers construct preventive firebreaks and keep a firewatch;
- sapeurs-pompiers (french firefighters); local firefighters are reinforced in summer by columns from lower risk départements and by military troops assigned to the civile defense (UIISC, Unité d'instruction et d'intervention de la sécurité civile).
Météo France, the French national meteorology institute, computes an index for 40 locations in France (3 are in the Landes), the "forest meteo index" (indice forêt météo, IFM). This index ranges from 0 to 20, the higher the index, the higher the risk. This index helps in prepositionning men and vehicles. The National Police (Police Nationale) is the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns. ...
Gendarmes guarding the Paris Hall of Justice Gendarmerie motorcyclists police the roads and autoroutes of rural France. ...
The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas régions. ...
French fire engine parading The sapeurs-pompiers (SP), officially le Corps du Sapeurs-Pompiers, are the firefighters of France. ...
The indice forêt météo (IFM) is an estimation of the risk of wildfire computed by Météo France, the French national meteorology institute; it means Forest meteo index. ...
The indice forêt météo (IFM) is an estimation of the risk of wildfire computed by Météo France, the French national meteorology institute; it means Forest meteo index. ...
A strategy pioneered in France dictates that firefighters attack the sides of the fire to make the head as small as possible and limit its propagation until it dies. This attack can be performed by land teams or by air units. Excellent coordination is required between air and land teams: dropping tons of water on ground-based firefighers can cause severe injuries and death. Usually, land teams attack one side and air teams attack the other. To prevent accidents, land-based firefighters will raise their firehose and shoot water into the air if they hear an aircraft. The water jet is easy to see from the air and allows air crews to avoid those firefighters' positions. French firefighters do not use backburning. The firebreaks are made preventively and are not aimed at stopping the fire. Rather, they are used as access lines and withdrawal routes. Land teams use four wheel drive fire engines called "tank engines for wildfire" (CCF, camion-citerne pour feu de forêt). These engines have a protection system that sprays water around the truck in case it is surrounded by the fire; in such a case, the firefighters lock themselves in the truck. For this reason, a minimum water level is always kept. Unfortunately, this is sometimes not sufficient and several deaths occur each year in Southern France and Corsica. Four wheel drive or 4x4, is a type of four wheeled vehicle drivetrain configuration that enables all four wheels to receive power from the engine simultaneously in order to provide maximum traction. ...
This article is about the Mediterranean island. ...
Maintaining an adequate water supply to the front lines is very difficult. Inflatable tanks are often prepositionned in strategic places downwind of a fire. They also use 30 tons tank trucks, called "large capacity tank trucks" (CCGC, camion citerne de grande capacité). As in other jurisdictions, the main concern is the protection of people and houses. The population is always evacuated beforehand. The protection of a house consists on: - parking the car inside the garage;
- closing the shutters;
- spraying water on the house to prevent the temperature rising via radiation;
- making a line of wet ground to direct the fire around the building.
Protecting a house usually involves four fire engines; isolated houses are the greatest problem. City planners usually forbid the construction of isolated homes in fire-prone areas, but some jurisdictions permit it
Statistics Every year, the burnt surface represents about: - France: 30,000 hectares (300 km², 12,140 acres), 0.04% of the country
- Portugal:
- 1991 : 182,000 ha (1,820 km², 73,650 acres), i.e. 2% of the territory
- 2003 : 424,900 ha (4,249 km², 298,000 acres), i.e. 4.6% of the territory; 20 deaths ;
- 2004 : 120,530 ha (1,205.3 km², 1.05 million acres), i.e. 1.3% of the territory
- United States: 1.74 million hectares (17,400 km², 4.3 million acres) i.e. 0.18% of the territory
A hectare (symbol ha) is a metric unit of surface area, equal to 100 ares (the name is a contraction of the SI prefix hecto + are). ...
Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ...
An acre is a measure of land area in Imperial units or U.S. customary units. ...
1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also Famous Forest Fires In North America Miramichi Fire in New Brunswick, which burned three million acres (12150 km²) and killed 160 people. ...
An Air National Guard C_130 Hercules drops fire retardant on wildfires in Southern California Aerial firefighting is a method to combat wildfires using aircraft. ...
Contents: Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A Aerial firefighting: Use of aircraft to combat wildfires. ...
External links - Current Wildland Fire Information (http://www.nifc.gov/information.html)
- FEMA report on the East Bay Hills Fire (http://www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/publications/tr060.cfm)
- Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) (http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/)
- Interesting Forest Fire Policy (http://www.infoaboutnetwork.com/view/news/531/)
- Details on chaparral fires in California (http://www.californiachaparal.com/)
- The 10 standard fire orders and 18 watch out situations (http://www.nifc.gov/safety_study/10-18-lces.html)
Other uses of the word "wildfire" |