Forest fire statistics are frightening, but hardly expresses the whole effect forest fires have. In November of 2001 cars traveled through heavy dark air with their lights on during all hours of the day in southern Appalachia. Visibility was near zero along some mountain stretches of highway. Schools closed. And people with asthma or other breathing disorders were forced to remain indoors, all of this coming as a result of the worst rash of wildfires to hit the region in a decade. Arson was discovered to be the cause for these Kentucky forest fires, which raged across more than 150,000 acres of Kentucky woodlands. The drifting smoke from the firestorms was evident even in Louisville, 200 miles away.
Forest Fire Statistics - at What Cost
In the terrible 1999 fire season in California, approximately 6,000 forest fires engulfed 273,000 acres, destroying 300 residential and commercial properties to the tune of 0 million in damages. While most wildfires are contained within a one acre range by fire service professionals, others spread over 100,000 acres, requiring the services of 3000+ firefighters working for weeks at a time. As our population growth continues to press people closer into parcels of land that are susceptible to woodland fires, the number of fires increases. In the last forty years, the number of these very destructive fires has quadrupled. Presently, protection services across North American woodlands cost well over half a billion dollars each year, and the annual fire loss totals approach a figure close to two billion dollars.
In the summer of 2001 the entire United States was on a Level 5 alert (the highest possible), as forest, brush, and grass fires burned across eleven western states. Fighting these prodigious infernos is extremely dangerous work. Here is a scary forest fire statistic; Temperatures at the heart of a wildfire blaze reach upwards of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the 1994 South Canyon fire in Colorado, fourteen firefighters lost their lives due to "area ignition," an instance whereby a large area of timber becomes instantly immersed in flames due to sharply rising air temperatures, the dryness of timber, the amount of fallen tree limbs and brush, and increased wind speed. In the South Canyon tragedy, the shifting wind initiated this phenomena in an area of steep terrain (a 45-degree slope), which created a fierce blaze that overtook the ill-fated crew at a speed of 18 miles per hour.
Controlling Forest Fires
There are three conditions that contribute to the possibility of wildfires: fuel load, topography, and weather. Little can be done, obviously, regarding either topography or the weather. But the prospect of mitigating the forest fuel load presents literally tons of fire suppression work. Annually, engineers are busy with strategic removal plans to be scheduled prior to the annual 6-month wildfire season. Interagency wildfire management teams incorporate the services of the U.S. Forest Service, the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, fire departments, state and local agencies, and several Native American tribes. Restriction of the fuel load is one of their primary objectives, utilizing national standards such as NFPA 299, Protection of Life and Property from Wildfire, and NFPA 295, Wildfire Control; to prioritize cutting and cleaning operations.
Vegetation is a crispy brown when the spring rains cease in April, signaling the onset of the wildfire season. Then come the rising temperatures to make matters worse. This is when many in the fire service take to the woods in a defensive effort to remove a large number of diseased and weakened trees. The aim is to get these thinner and unhealthy trees since they pose a far greater threat than the larger "fire-tolerant" trees. But the matter of dry brush removal from fire-prone terrain represents a much more arduous task. Mechanized equipment is just not compatible with rugged and hilly areas that need to be denuded. And deliberately set "prescribed burns" have had an inglorious history of getting out of hand themselves. These are tricky and complex endeavors that have proven to be very difficult to orchestrate successfully and safely.
Unique Solution to Curbing Fuel Loads
Small fires will periodically clear endangered lands of grasses, deadwood, and brush. However, if Forest Service policy dictates that these fires be extinguished in the interest of forest health, the resulting accumulation of fuel loads represent an ever-growing threat of a large-scale fire. Interestingly and creatively enough, some communities have employed the use of various breeds of foraging goats as a maintenance solution to the fuel load problem. The goats will graze quietly for bark, weeds, foliage, low branches, and brush with ravenous appetites. A herd of 350 will consume and effectively scour an acre per day. One advantage of this method is that the problem of debris hauling is eliminated. And although the tab for the deployment of a 500-head goat herd may hit ,000 per week, other alternatives are even costlier. Federal and state funding for these clearing efforts is not always easily obtainable. Fortunately the goats are usually looking for work. The bottom line is that fires in locations where goat herds have "browsed" have been much more successfully suppressed, making for a rather unique forest fire statistic.
Any wildfire can and will spread regardless of its cause and origin. The leading cause of these fires is known to be arson (about 30%), while debris burning (23%) is the second-leading cause. Other prominent causes include careless smoking, vehicle or equipment fires, unattended barbecues or campfires, and dry lightning. Lightning is actually the leading cause of wildfires in Arizona, New Mexico, and in the far northwest reaches of the U.S. The rain never reaches the ground in a dry lightning storm. It originates from high cumulus clouds and evaporates in midair. But the electrical charges rip into wooded mountain areas at a dangerously high rate, sometimes starting over 100 fires overnight, which can converge into one single unapproachable forest blaze.
Building protection within and surrounding remote endangered areas is of major concern to fire authorities nationwide.
One of the ways to combat the threat of exposure fires is to create an open "defensible space" around the structures. This is accomplished by clearing the area with bulldozers and land-moving equipment, and hauling off the timber. A minimum of thirty feet is the usual benchmark. Beyond that, the strategy focuses on other combustible materials present in the surrounding forest floor to b e removed. Grass must be kept mowed. Ensuring that the buildings are constructed with non-combustible roofs also reduces their potential for ignition. Ample fire roads are often built to access desired structures. Building employees must be made aware of the wildfire problem, through implementation programs and pre-incident training of key personnel.
Sensing that wildfires could jeopardize national security during World War II, U.S. officials initiated a fire prevention poster campaign. The considerable success of this effort took off in 1945 with the introduction of Smokey the Bear, an icon named after Smokey Joe Martin of the New York City Fire Department. In many respects, public service campaigns have been very instrumental in terms of the reduction in instances of wildfires, and should thereby be credited as an effective means of wildfire prevention. Other examples of fire prevention include:
• wildland firefighter training
• the maintenance of reliable water supplies
• reducing flammable growth along roadways
• procurement and maintenance of fire equipment
• mandatory spark arresters for chainsaws and tractors o ensuring a means for delivering adequate water to all potential fire areas
• modifying vegetation to favor the less-flammable plant species
• regular, periodic assessments of the fire potential
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the efforts of the 410 on-call smoke jumpers in the United States. Considered to be the first line of defense, this small (2% of the total firefighting force) but robust crew of specialists typically work in 20-man crews. Alerted by aircraft patrol or a fire tower lookout, they will parachute from elevations as high as 1500 feet to a remote area that is burning. Their goal is to respond as quickly as possible to arrest fire growth at an early stage. For advanced fires, a plane load of smoke jumpers armed with supplies (80 lbs. of it per man) will find a more acceptable place to land near the tail of the fire. There they may assist in the creation of a fire line, which is a strip of ground (scraped down to the mineral soil) which will be routed around the perimeter of a fire.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho is the hub of organizational activity for all wildfire prevention and firefighting teams. This is where the routing systems for water sources, control lines, and roadways are developed. The Fire Center stresses education and training, safety on the fire line, and handles recruitment of personnel. They continue to search for more effective and less costly methods of wildfire prevention and containment.
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