Fire Problem Research Articles

Analysis of the government’s strategy and capacity in reducing the risk of fire disasters in the Indonesian capital

Urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to fire disasters due to high population density, sprawling infrastructure, and often inadequate safety measures. This study aims to analyze the capacity of the DKI Jakarta government in terms of human resource capabilities, asset readiness, and budget planning capabilities. Furthermore, it measures the government’s success as evidenced by the public response to the achievement of firefighter performance. This study uses qualitative analysis with a content analysis approach. Data sources come from annual performance report documents and the content of the DKI Jakarta Fire Department website containing city disaster information. Performance report and website data are analyzed and used as research data to support qualitative analysis. This research shows that command decisions are essential in the organizational structure of the fire brigade. Both laboratory services are carried out optimally as a concrete effort to map fire potential. The laboratory tests the safety and suitability of firefighting equipment. Available budgetary support provides broad operational powers for the fire service. The government’s strength in minimizing or overcoming fire problems has received a positive response from the public. The operational achievements of firefighting continue to be consistent and increase. Ultimately, this research provides scientific insight into disaster mitigation and reducing the fire risk in cities.

Quantifying oxygen diffusion during thermal degradation of combustible porous media

Oxygen diffusion controlled combustion occurs when local oxygen transport is slower than the chemistry, commonly found in porous combustible material or combustible material embedded within an inert porous medium. This mode of combustion, such as smouldering, can pose dangerous fire risks and also be harnessed in environmentally beneficial applications. However, the oxygen diffusion limitation is poorly understood in all contexts and persists as a key knowledge gap. Quantitative analysis of oxygen diffusion effects is therefore crucial for understanding the combustion behavior of combustible porous media and developing precise smouldering simulation models. In this paper, a reactive transport model incorporating both oxygen diffusion and chemical consumption was developed. Using coal as the model fuel, the impacts of key parameters on global mass loss during the one-dimensional diffusion combustion of coal samples were simulated and compared with TGA experiments conducted within a range of oxygen concentrations between 3–21%. Using this method, key kinetic and oxygen diffusion parameters were obtained within reasonable ranges by using a genetic algorithm optimization method. With these optimized parameters, the local oxygen distribution profiles in the samples at different inlet oxygen concentrations were simulated. The results indicate that oxygen diffusion can lead to large oxygen concentration differences within the coal samples, exceeding 63% of the inlet oxygen concentration. These oxygen differences can impact the local chemistry throughout the sample, and lead to fundamental errors in analyzing global kinetic analyses, if the transport effects are not considered. Altogether, this study delivers new insights into a potentially rate-limiting phenomenon that is relevant in progressing knowledge on many fire problems and engineering applications.

Status and Prospects for the Use of Remote Sensing Data for the Detection of Wildfires

The article discusses the problem of fires as a serious threat to life, economy and ecosystems, highlighting the need for early detection and suppression of fires. The potential of the combination of Earth remote sensing and neural networks for rapid and accurate detection of natural fires is studied. The significance of applying artificial intelligence, the development of deep learning methods for neural network models, to analyze space images and detect early signs of fires is emphasized. The article also provides examples of successful projects and research in the field of wildfire detection. The final part of the paper emphasizes the need for further research and development of neural network training methods, expansion of training datasets and improvement of space imagery acquisition technologies for effective control and prevention of fires, in order to protect the environment and minimize damage to people.

Knowledge Management System For Forest and Land Fire Mitigation in Indonesia: A Web-Based Application Development

Forest and land fires in Indonesia have serious impacts on many aspects, including the environment, health, economy, politics, and international relations. They cause haze pollution that extends to neighboring countries and peatland degradation. Despite extensive research and mitigation efforts, forest and land fires continue to occur and cost lives. Therefore, effective management and mitigation strategies are required. This research developed a web-based knowledge management system (KMS) using the Laravel framework as an effective forest and land fire mitigation platform. The KMS aims to support decision-making, facilitate knowledge exchange, improve coordination between stakeholders, and expand access to relevant information, while maintaining the sustainability of forest and land resources in Indonesia. The KMS evaluation results cover two important aspects: blackbox evaluation and performance evaluation. The blackbox evaluation showed that KMS provides knowledge retrieval features based on expert knowledge. The performance evaluation revealed that the KMS provides easy and quick access to information on forest and land fire prevention and management. Thus, this research has great potential to help overcome the problem of forest and land fires in Indonesia and protect the environment and society from their adverse effects.

The genomic tabulation of Kampung Tambora’s massing series

Well known as one of the most crowded and problematic urban kampungs in ASEAN since 2020, Tambora has been struggle with health, fire, and social problems. Its density is related to the composition between solid and void especially on the boundary as they control the accessibility while influencing the overall gesture of the kampung. Unfortunately, the majority of research related to boundaries is more interested in delineation rather than 3D relationships. Further investigation is required to understand its series of volumetric composition, configuration, and orientation to comprehend its architecture as a continuation of its geometrical investigation. As boundaries are relatively considered more stable locations, they exhibit intensity, complexity, and hybridity between formal and informal. A diverse collection of houses at these particular locations displays specific language while providing correlation. Genomic tabulation is utilized to interpret the kampung massing series' spatial quality. The QGIS instrument converts lines into volumes, with steps are follows: 1) collection of data, 2) conversion of 2D into 3D, and 3) interpretation of the samples. By focusing on the massing series at the kampung boundaries, the typology and morphology are emerged, providing various gaps and potentials as alternative solutions for building the kampung network.

Forest fire vulnerability in Nepal's Chure region: Investigating the influencing factors using generalized linear model

The Chure region, among the world's youngest mountains, stands out as highly susceptible to natural calamities, particularly forest fires. The region has consistently experienced forest fire incidents, resulting in the degradation of valuable natural and anthropogenic resources. Despite its vulnerability, there have been limited studies to understand the relationship of various causative factors for the recurring fire problem. Hence, to comprehend the influencing factors for the recurring forest fire problem and its extent, we utilized generalized linear modeling under binary logistic regression to combine the dependent variable of satellite detected fire points and various independent variables. We conducted a variance inflation factor (VIF) test and correlation matrix to identify the 14 suitable variables for the study. The analysis revealed that forest fires occurred mostly during the three pre-monsoon periods and had a significant positive relation with the area under forest, rangeland, bare-grounds, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (P < 0.05). Consequently, our model showed that the probability of fire incidents decreases with elevation, precipitation, and population density (P < 0.05). Among the significant variables, the forest areas emerges as the most influencing factor, followed by precipitation, elevation, area of rangeland, population density, NDVI, and the area of bare ground. The validation of the model was done through the area under the curve (AUC = 0.92) and accuracy (ACC = 0.89) assessments, which showed the model performed excellently in terms of predictive capabilities. The modeling result and the forest fire susceptible map provide valuable insights into the forest fire vulnerability in the region, offering baseline information about forest fires that will be helpful for line agencies to prepare management strategies to further prevent the deterioration of the region.

New beam-based models for fire-induced buckling analysis of class 4 steel columns

Steel cross-sections with thin walls are vulnerable to fire-induced buckling instability, which reduces their load-bearing capacity. Eurocode 3 design provisions have been found inadequate, leading to alternative methods such as effective design strategies and advanced structural models built mostly with shell FE, which can be complex. For Class 4 steel beam-columns subjected to fire conditions, beam-type modelling to predict the Flexural-Torsional Buckling (FTB) strength has been proposed as an alternative approach, but it has not yielded satisfactory results for large compressive load eccentricities. This paper presents two new low computational cost modelling strategies based on Timoshenko's beam FE to address this issue: the Single beam-column Model (SbcM) and the Cruciform beam-column Model (CbcM). The first consists of a single line of beam FE, while the second uses a grid of beam FE for more flexibility. Both strategies effectively simulate the FTB behaviour in Class 4 steel beam-column during a fire, offering quicker computations compared to shell models. Still, the single-line model is favoured for its simplicity, making it more efficient in analysing complex fire engineering problems.

Simulations of flaming combustion and flaming-to-smoldering transition in wildland fire spread at flame scale

Our objective in the present study is to provide basic insights into the coupling between external-gas and solid biomass vegetation processes that control the dynamics of flame spread in wildland fire problems. We focus on a modeling approach that resolves processes occurring at vegetation and flame scales, i.e., the formation of flammable vapors due to the thermal degradation of the solid biomass, the subsequent combustion in ambient air, the thermal feedback to the biomass through radiative and convective heat transfer, and the possible transition from flaming combustion (taking place outside of the solid biomass) to smoldering combustion (taking place inside the solid biomass). The capability uses a multiphase combustion framework and treats external-gas processes through a Large Eddy Simulation solver and solid biomass processes through a discrete particle model. The discrete particle model adopts a one-dimensional porous medium formulation, includes descriptions of drying, thermal pyrolysis, oxidative pyrolysis, and char oxidation, as well as a description of the external-gas-to-solid-biomass diffusion of oxygen mass; the discrete particle model thereby provides a treatment of in-depth oxidative processes and allows the simulation of smoldering combustion. The modeling capability is applied to the simulation of fire spread across a surrogate biomass vegetation bed corresponding to a discrete array of cylindrical-shaped, vertically-oriented, pine wood sticks, characterized by a monomodal size distribution, in horizontal flat terrain and under wind-aided conditions. The numerical results demonstrate that the model can simulate successful flaming-to-smoldering transition followed by complete biomass consumption.Novelty and Significance statement:• A new computational model is proposed to simulate wildland fire behavior at high levels of resolution capable of capturing vegetation- and flame-scale phenomena.• Solid biomass vegetation processes are treated using a discrete particle model that features a porous medium formulation and includes a description of in-depth oxygen mass diffusion, and exothermic oxidative pyrolysis and char oxidation reactions.• The computational model is shown to be capable of simulating the transition from flaming to smoldering combustion, often observed in wildland fire spread problems.

Experimental study on coal seam moisturizing inhibitor and mechanism of preventing coal spontaneous combustion

To make the resisting fluid easier to inject into the coal body and efficiently solve the fire problem caused by the natural oxidation of coal. A composite inhibiting material was prepared with vitamin C, MgCl2, and sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS). Experiments such as contact angle, programmed temperature rise, and scanning electron microscopy were conducted to study the composite-resisting liquid's wetting and blocking properties and mechanisms. The results show that the ionization of the resisting agent in the composite solution improves the surfactant's filling effect, reduces the solution's surface tension, and increases the solution's wettability. Retardant to promote wettability enhancement at the same time will be in the low-temperature stage to play the water retention and moisture absorption properties, high-temperature cleavage of coal in the chain reaction of lipoxygen radicals, the reaction activation energy increased by more than 50 %, increasing the difficulty of the coal oxygen reaction, inhibit the occurrence of spontaneous combustion of coal. The study results are of guiding significance for enhancing the technology of injecting retardant fluid to prevent the spontaneous combustion of coal.

Heat transfer across an air curtain for heat confinement in road tunnels: Influence of the heat source

Experiments were carried out to study the influence of the heat source using double-flow double-jet curtains (DS-TJ) to confine heat in fire safety problems. For this purpose, a small-scale road tunnel facility in 1:34 was built. The heat source used is an electric resistance. Simultaneous two-dimensional temperature and velocity measurements were made across the DS-TJ air curtain and in its immediate vicinity using a fine thermocouple and a 2D laser Doppler anemometer (LDA), respectively. Four cases were studied, by modifying the air curtain velocities at the nozzle exits and the heat source power. It is noted that hot-cold jets and heat source play a role in the curtain heat confinement by modifying the development of the two jets. Both the entrainment of the upward flow rising from the heat source as well as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities contribute to this. On the other hand, the nozzle exit velocities determine the behavior of the Reynolds stress profiles as well as the production of the velocities fluctuations across the curtain, showing a non-correlating effect on the hot side, so that the profiles take values around zero, suggesting a heat source influence. In contrast in the cold side negative values indicate energy-draining behavior. The intensity of thermal turbulence reveals that the hot jet has higher values than the cold jet, constituting a thermal barrier to turbulent heat flow, and all activity is relegated to the zone of interaction between the two jets. In fact, the production derived from temperature fluctuations occurs mainly in the interaction of hot-cold jets, and negative values are due to large turbulent eddies, such as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and Görtler-type structures. The Richardson number shows that buoyancy forces prevail on both sides of the curtain (Ri > 0.1), especially on the hot side, due to the heat source. Lower Ri values within the curtain indicate the presence of a thermal barrier, attenuating heat transfer through the curtain and favoring thermal sealing.

전통시장 화재위험요인과 대응방안 우선순위에 관한 연구

Fires in traditional markets are a yearly occurrence and are highly likely to expand into large-scale fires and disasters. Therefore, in order to prevent the spread of large fires in traditional markets, it is important to closely analyze fire risk factors and derive countermeasures. Accordingly, the results of the previous research case survey — the traditional market fire status survey — were analyzed and countermeasures were presented based on the derived fire risk factors and problems. In addition, 30 fire officials who are experts in the field of fire risks were surveyed (expert survey techniques) and the importance and priority of fire risk factors and countermeasures were analyzed through risk assessment and Analytic Hierarchy Process.

Forest Fire Dynamics in Nepal’s Mid-hills: Insights from Spatial Analysis and Risk Mapping of Doti District

Forest fires have significantly contributed to forest degradation and pollution all over Nepal. Despite their high severity, limited studies have been conducted on the spatial-temporal analysis and risk mapping of these fires especially in the Mid-hill region. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data from 2012 to 2022, along with satellite imagery, using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Nine variables, including land class, distance to roads, proximity to settlements, temperature, wind speed, precipitation, slope, aspect, and elevation, were utilized to identify forest fire patterns and create a fire risk map. A multi-parametric hierarchical weighted index model was employed, with multicollinearity checked (VIF&lt;2) to ensure model accuracy and validated by Area Under Curve (AUC=0.787). The study revealed an increasing trend of forest fires, particularly during March to May, in broad-leaved forests near human interference. Out of the total forested area of 1447.58 km2, 42.9%, 46.03%, and 11.07% were classified under high, moderate, and low-risk zones, respectively. The study emphasizes the recurring forest fire problem in often-neglected Mid-hill districts and underscores the need to prioritize them in future strategies.

Understanding Wetland Environmental Risk Mitigation Communication Strategy: A case study in Banjarmasin

The environmental problems of wetlands in Indonesia, especially in Kalimantan, are not only problems of land fires, haze, floods, but can also be in the form of collapse of buildings due to the contour of swampland and the use of river channels with various uses both for community life, transportation facilities, and river channels as part of tourist destinations. The purpose of this study is to explain the problem of phenomena that often occur in wetlands for tourism activities. Qualitative research methods with case studies, data collection techniques are carried out by collecting various news about motorboat accidents, observations, interviews, and documentation of river crossing tours from social media. The results showed that mitigation communication to prevent accidents in river channel tourism activities has three components that should be jointly responsible, namely the government, river crossing tourism managers, and river crossing visitor communities. Three components are not partially but comprehensively responsible for overcoming problems with risk mitigation. The river is part of the local wisdom of the people in Kalimantan, by utilizing the existing potential to maximize the increase in tourism objects based on comfort and safety.

Revitalization of Forestry Extension For Prevention Land And Forest Fire: A Learning from Kubu Raya Regency

Various efforts to overcome the problem of land and forest fires in Indonesia are still being carried out. All parties' involvement is necessary to prevent forest and land fires, including forestry extension workers. Prevention is not only in the form of outreach to the public about the prohibition of burning, but prevention is more aimed at how to prevent fires from being lit or small fires from being extinguished before the fire spreads. This is where the role of the forestry extension agent as a community assistance agent is essential. This paper examines the role of forestry extension workers in forest and land fire prevention at the site level. This study uses a qualitative approach with case study methods. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, document studies, focus group discussions. and field observations. The study results indicate that there still needs to be more in the number and capacity of forestry instructors. The revitalization that needs to be done is to increase the capacity of existing extension workers, both forestry and self-employed extension workers. Equitable capacity distribution, especially for self-employed forestry extension workers, needs to be an important concern given the level of trust and specific local strengths that require support. Community empowerment to diversify economic resources has been essential in preventing forest and land fires. In this case, community assistance is the determinant carried out by forestry extension workers.

Improving fire retardancy of Ti alloys with a refractory ceramic barrier layer

Reliable service of indispensable titanium alloys in aeroengines is limited by the bottleneck problem of titanium fires. In this study, a tri-layer fire retardant coating with a bi-functional ceramic barrier layer is proposed to suppress titanium fire. Results show that the current coating can increase the fire retardant temperature by ≥ 300 K under droplet ignition. Thermal barrier effect of the YSZ refractory ceramic layer significantly reduces Ti alloy temperature, and oxygen barrier effect prevents active Ti from directly contacting oxygen during the entire ablation process. Therefore, the two barrier effects effectively prevent occurrence of titanium fire. In addition, dissolution of the Ni-based abradable seal coating makes burning TC4 molten droplet extinguished in a short time, thus further inhibiting titanium fire ignition. The present study provides an effective method for reliable service and titanium fire-resistant design of titanium alloys.

Social Capital of Banjarese for Peatland Fire Mitigation: Combining of Local Wisdom and Environment

Repeated fires cause peatlands to degrade. Fire management has been carried out, but fires continue to occur, especially during the dry season. Through social capital that exists in the community based on the local wisdom of the Banjar people in environmental management, it is hoped that peatland fires can be overcome in this area. This research aims to analyze the social capital of the Banjar people in mitigating land fires based on local wisdom and the environment. The sample in this study was 250 people who live in an area prone to fires on peatlands in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. There are three variables in this study, namely Trust (T), Network (N), and Norm (N). There are 33 Likert scale questions (1–4, strongly agree-strongly disagree). We also conducted interviews with 20 members of the Fire Care Community (MPA) to obtain information about the social capital of the Banjar community in mitigating land fires. The analysis used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study results show norms have the greatest influence on disaster mitigation of peatland fires compared to trust and social networks. Norms in the community in the form of values from peatlands, rules, norms, and sanctions regulate the community more to deal with the problem of peatland fires than trust and social networks

Design and research of suburban railway fire alarm system

With the rapid development of suburban rail transit, fire safety issues have received more and more attention. As the first line of the Shanghai Suburban Railway, the fire safety problem of the Shanghai Suburban Railway Airport Link Line is more prominent. In this paper, an automatic fire alarm system is designed and researched for the fire safety problem of the Shanghai Railway Airport Liaison Line, which adopts a hierarchical distributed structure and can realize accurate fire detection thorough immediately sending fire alarm information to the station control room and line operation control center and informing the location of the fire area. At the same time, the system also coordinates with the BAS system and ISCS system or independently realizes the linkage control of fire fighting equipment. The research results of this paper are of great significance for improving the fire safety level of Shanghai railway airport links.

Development of biodegradable tableware from novel combination of paddy straw and pine needles: A potential alternative against plastic cutlery

Plastic cutlery for food packaging and serving has long been in trend due to its versatile properties but accumulation of the single use plastic cutlery creates disposal problem due to its non-biodegradability. The two biomasses paddy straw and pine needles are known to cause serious problems of stubble burning and forest fires respectively. However, these two biomasses hold tremendous potential to be used as raw material in pulp industry due to their high holocellulose and cellulose content which can be further enhanced after pre-treatments. This study aims to use a combination of two biomasses in a ratio of 1:1 and further process it to derive pulp by employing enzymes such as laccase, manganese peroxidase, and lignin peroxidase for lignin removal by fermentation mechanism. After sufficient lignin removal, the processed beaten pulp was casted into cups and bowls. Binding agents such as carboxymethyl cellulose, gum acacia and potato starch along with cross-linking polymer were blended with pulp in binding matrix to cast durable and non-brittle biodegradable cups. PLA (bio-plastic) polymer was applied in the form of a thin film over the developed tableware. The developed tableware was further verified for anti-microbial properties by testing it with common food-poisoning pathogens. Mechanical stiffness and rigidity were estimated along with thermal stability examined over a wide temperature range by dynamic scanning colorimetric (DSC). Lattice structure and morphology was studied by SEM and XRD analyses. Based on the analytical analyses, the developed biodegradable tableware can be a suitable alternative to combat plastic cutlery menace.

How global narratives shape local management: A history of fire in the tropical savannas of Belize and Guyana

AbstractThe suppression of anthropogenic fire is an important legacy of European colonisation worldwide. Fire suppression has undermined human livelihoods and fire‐dependent ecologies. Belize and Guyana are the only former British colonies on the mainland of Central and South America. Both countries have fire‐dependent tropical savanna ecosystems, where fire is used within local livelihoods, for example, for hunting. We compare the creation and implementation of savanna fire suppression and management policies and projects by agencies in twentieth to twenty‐first‐century Belize and Guyana, and the extent to which global environmental narratives have shaped this process. In both countries, a picture emerges of weak state efforts to control fire, largely driven by economic concerns. In colonial Belize, the state made intermittent attempts to suppress or manage savanna fires in limited areas, owing to interest in pine forestry. In Guyana, the colonial state did not attempt to control fires, given economic interest in cattle ranching, and the remoteness of the savannas. Since 2000, both states have developed new fire policies, and state agencies, conservation non‐governmental organisations and Indigenous advocacy groups have won funding for fire‐related projects. We show that these contemporary policies and projects, like those of the colonial period, primarily financed by inconsistent international funding, continue to lean heavily on international discourses about fire that make assumptions about fire problems and propose solutions incompatible with local realities. Understanding the local geography, ecology and politics, and recognising the ways colonial fire legacies altered, and continue to impact these places, could inform more just and productive approaches to working with local fire users in Belize, Guyana and beyond.

Wildland surface fire spread: Mechanism transformation and behavior transition

Surface fire is the most prevalent type of wildland fire and dominates the cost of wildland firefighting. The high-intensity burning behaviors in surface fires stem from the significant interaction of combustion with heat transfer and fluid flow under complicated fuel, meteorology, and topography conditions. Over the past several decades, research has resulted in incrementally enhanced insights into the mechanism transformations and behavior transitions related to surface fires, with theories and models developed and validated. These advances have improved the fundamental understanding of surface fire evolution significantly. However, the current knowledge is still inadequate for dealing with practical surface fire problems. In this paper, we specifically address two complexities associated with fire growth. First, the fuel preheating mechanisms involving various forms of flame heat transfer may change under different conditions. Second, a surface fire may transition to other intensely burning behaviors by interacting with environmental conditions. For the first complexity, we initially discuss the fuel preheating mechanism, flame propagation across discrete fuels, and flame geometry transformation in wind-driven fire spread. Then, we examine the firelines interaction and its induced junction fire. Followed are the fireline transformations under different topography conditions, focusing on the flame attachment in upslope terrain and the fireline behaviors in canyon terrain. For the second complexity, we highlight the transitions between surface fire and other behaviors with distinct mechanisms, including smoldering, crown fire, fire whirl, and spot fire. Despite significant advances, more understanding of the mechanisms underlying fuel preheating processes and fireline behaviors is needed. Furthermore, we need more exploration into the scaling law of combustion dynamics of surface fires and the non-steady transitions to other intense burning behaviors. All these challenges have proven an elusive goal for future work to enhance surface fire predictive capabilities.