Fire Site Research Articles

A conservation-significant threatened mammal uses fire exclusions and shifts ranges in the presence of prescribed burning

Background Understanding how animals change their use of space following prescribed burning is essential for effective conservation management, particularly a threatened species such as the quokka (Setonix brachyurus). Aims To determine how individual quokkas change their home ranges following burns. Methods The movement patterns of 20 quokkas were tracked before and after prescribed burns between 2018 and 2020. Home-range area was calculated for each individual, and behavioural change point analysis was carried out to determine whether they changed their space use after the burns. Key results Six quokkas that had previously resided in areas that were prescribed burned, shifted their ranges and moved into the fire exclusions, avoiding the burn areas for an average of 105 ± 65 days. After 3 months, these quokkas spent no more than 2% of their time in the burn areas. By contrast, quokkas inhabiting fire exclusion and control sites did not show any change in their space use. Conclusions This study highlights the importance and proximity of appropriately sized fire exclusions to ensure that populations of species dependent on dense vegetation can be retained. Implications Fire exclusion areas are an important part of the planning of prescribed burns to retain habitat for fauna species that rely on dense cover for refuge and food.

Учёт показателя оперативности при управлении радиосвязью в подразделениях противопожарной службы

Purpose. Peculiarities of controlling radio communication when eliminating consequences of man-made disasters are considered. As an indicator that determines the purpose of control, the efficiency of communication in radio network deployed at a fire extinguishment site is considered. Methods. To assess the quality of work and the rationality of the radio network use, an efficiency indicator can be applied. This indicator is calculated using the methods of probability theory. Promptness is presented as a quantitative (probabilistic) assessment that the message will be transmitted to the required subscriber within a time less than the specified one. Findings. It is proposed to use radio communication efficiency indicator in the process of controlling radio communication during field work performed by fire units. Examples of its calculation for a radio network of three subscribers are given, the corresponding graphical dependencies are constructed. Research application field. The obtained results can be used to ensure safety in extinguishing fires and eliminating consequences of man-made disasters. Conclusions. It is shown that process of controlling radio communication can be considered as providing the required value of the efficiency indicator. In this case, the task of controlling radio communication will lie in excluding critical control modes, when network subscribers have an urgent need to contact other participants, who, in turn, are already communicating with network subscribers.

Active Utilization and Time Reduction of Connection Pipeline Facilities in Fire Sites

This study examined a method of confirming the location of connection water pipe facilities installed in buildings in a short time. The study aimed to help solve failure to supply firefighters with fire extinguishing water or delays because the location of the fire extinguishing facility’s water supply could not be timely identified. Owing to unclear regulations on the location of the fire-fighting facility’s water outlet installation as prescribed by the Fire Safety Technology, many apartments install it on the side or back of buildings. Given that the fire-fighting facility’s water outlet is not installed in a certain place, firefighters cannot quickly find the location of the fire facility’s water outlet at fire sites, leading to delays in securing fire extinguishing water. A solution is to attach “firefighting facility installation guide signs” to the indoor fire extinguishing tank on the first floor of apartment buildings. Additionally, the fire safety standards shall be stipulated on the installment of indoor signs indicating the fire-fighting facilities. These solutions can address difficulties in finding fire facility’s water outlet at the fire site and resolve delays. Above all, implementing these can ensure the timely supply of fire extinguishing water to firefighters.

ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH METHODS OF THERMAL DAMAGE TO STRUCTURES DUE TO FIRE AT CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES

The work is devoted to the solution of an actual scientific task in the field of civil protection, namely, the analysis of methods of researching thermal damage to structures due to fire at critical infrastructure facilities, with the aim of further developing a model for preventing terrorist emergencies at critical infrastructure facilities of Ukraine. This work is a continuation of the cycle of previous works on the development of structural, logical and mathematical models for managing an emergency situation of a terrorist nature at an object of the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, which is protected, which are intended for the development and constant implementation of procedures of an organizational and technical nature that ensure the safety of the object. Further research will be directed to the development of appropriate mathematical models and conducting field experiments, performed using a specially designed laboratory facility to determine the reliability of the latter, comparing theoretical and practical results. Today, there are a number of physical and chemical methods that can be used to reliably determine the signs of a fire and establish the causes of fires. Almost all of them are based on the ability to register structural transformations that occur under the influence of high temperatures and directly from the flames of fires. The problem of obtaining objective data, necessary to establish the center of the fire and the ways of the spread of combustion, remains extremely relevant, especially in cases where it is impossible to examine the objects of the physical environment due to their destruction and removal from the fire site. The task of determining the burning conditions in different fire zones and identifying the focal signs of a fire in yours were not set and solved. The analysis of the electrical resistance of the soot layer makes it possible to investigate the sooting of the place at the site of the fire and, thus, to identify the ways of propagation of the main convective flows and the focal zone. Keywords: emergency, critical infrastructure object, thermal damage.

The Performance of the Fire Service Office of Central Bengkulu Regency in Dealing with Fire Hazards

This study aims to determine the performance of Central Bengkulu Regency Fire Department in dealing with fire hazards. Data collection techniques were carried out by means of in-depth interviews, observation and documentation. After the research results were obtained, they were analyzed by means of data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. There were 6 informants in this study consisting of 3 key informants and 3 main informants. This study used the theory of Lazer 1977 in Bintoro and Daryanto (2017:153). The Technician component, in accepting prospective employees at the Fire Department, must have requirements such as an equivalent high school diploma, physically and mentally healthy, male height 165 cm and female 160 cm and have special skills. The training and seminars conducted by the firefighters are limited in nature, not all officers receive special training, only firefighters who are close to the leadership can attend training and seminars. Conceptual ability, the way the leader overcomes problems that occur in the field by using a personal approach to firefighters or employees to overcome the problem of fire hazards. The leadership takes a personal approach to each officer and the existing units or posts so that they can give direct responsibility to Danton in giving orders to existing officers. Interpersonal Relations Ability, the leaders only receive reports from Danton about information on fires that have occurred in the community. The leaders rarely go directly to the scene of a fire incident. The community was dissatisfied with the performance of the firefighters in extinguishing the fire at the fire site due to the delay in the fleet of cars arriving at the location to extinguish the fire.

Analysis of Visual Characteristics of Short-circuited Arc Sites

Identifying the cause of fire at a fire site is an important fire prevention measure to prevent recurrence. In particular, information about molten marks of the copper wire is essential to check whether electric power is being supplied at the fire site. This study aims to analyse the visual characteristics of arc sites formed by a short circuit to identify the molten marks at the fire site. When a short circuit occurs, electromagnetic force is generated by the short circuit current, and the arc repulsion force is generated by the contact arc. In this study, the effects of the forces, which act on the short-circuited melted area, on the formation of copper molten marks were investigated. Copper molten marks formed by a short circuit were experimentally fabricated, and the visual characteristics based on the force that was applied to the melted area were identified and classified based on features. The results showed that the melted area was affected by both the arc repulsion and electromagnetic forces, resulting in the visual differences between the short-circuited arc sites and flame-melted ones, which are affected by gravity and molecular force. These results provide a theoretical basis for discriminating between arc sites formed by a short circuit and flame-melted marks at the fire site. The validity of this study was verified via a comparative analysis using shape and cross-sectional microstructure of molten marks collected at the fire site.

Comparative Analysis of Environmental Risks of Wildfires in the Baikal Region

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problems of ecological consequences of forest fires in protected areas. It is proposed to assess atmospheric air pollution during forest fires and their impact on public health by the calculated method of specific emissions and hazard coefficients. The aim of the work is to perform a comparative analysis of environmental risks for the populations of three subjects of the Russian Federation in the Baikal region, and ranking of territories by the level of atmospheric air pollution during forest fires.Materials and Methods. The initial data were statistical information on forest fires in the Irkutsk region, the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory in the period from 2013 to 2020, procedural documents of forest fires, including schemes and types of fires, areas and coordinates of fires, protocols of inspection of the fire site, acts of official investigation and other materials.Results. The paper analyzes forest fires in the protected Baikal natural area of the Baikal region and their environmental consequences. The emphasis is placed on establishing the average annual characteristics of forest fires (number, area, economic damage, specific emissions of combustion product into the atmosphere, risks to public health). It is proved that bulk emissions from forest fires bring additional atmospheric pollution; it is 20 % of stationary sources of emissions. The Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region contribute the most to the pollution of the atmosphere of the Baikal region.Discussion and Conclusion. The methodology proposed by the authors for ranking territories by environmental risks can be used for predictive assessment of the consequences of fires for public health. The forecast results serve to support organizational and administrative measures, including decisions to attract additional forces and equipment, and to evacuate the population. According to the results of the forecast of the consequences of fires for the health of the population, a fire-fighting plan is being developed, which determines the methods and tactics of fire extinguishing, the distribution of forces and means, the decisive direction of actions, etc. According to the greatest contribution to the deterioration of living conditions and the risk of poisoning by combustion products, the studied territories are ranked in the following order: Irkutsk region – Republic of Buryatia – Trans-Baikal Territory.

Model of the activity load of the interrogator during the investigation of fires

Modern trends in the socio-economic development of the state imply the optimization of human resources for law enforcement agencies. This task is also relevant in the context of ensuring fire safety, since determining the optimal number of interrogators of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia will improve the quality of fire investigation and provide a preventive component in reducing the number of fires and damage from them. The balanced structure of the body and the optimal number of employees will ensure the timely and high-quality provision of public services, the consumers of which are citizens of the Russian Federation. Therefore, determining the optimal activity load of an employee in the context of an increase in the service area and reengineering of the number of employees of the federal state fire supervision is a necessary tool in determining the effective structural and staffing of the inquiry agency of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. The purpose of the article is to develop and propose an approach for predicting the optimal workload of an employee in fire investigation activities. This study proposes an information-analytical model for determining the optimal load of an interrogator of a territorial subdivision of an inquiry agency of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. The basic factors and criteria influencing the determination of the functional load of an employee in the investigation of fires are considered. Methods and methods for predicting the time spent on performing the main work in the fire investigation activities are given. The activity load of an employee is a constituent element (indicator) in making a managerial decision to form the optimal structure of the body. The use of geoinformation technologies and simulation of prompt arrival at potential fire sites is proposed to determine the optimal territorial boundaries of employee service and use the results obtained in predicting the optimal activity load. Scientific novelty lies in the developed information-analytical model for determining the optimal load of the interrogator of the territorial division of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, as well as the method for collecting initial data for calculation.

Discrimination of Copper Molten Marks through a Fire Reproduction Experiment Using Microstructure Features.

The copper molten marks at a fire site provide important clues for determining the causes of fire. Four factors have been presented to quantitatively discriminate copper molten marks, namely the fraction of (001) component perpendicular to the demarcation line, the grain aspect ratio, the fraction of Σ3 boundaries, and the fraction of maximum grain size. However, only laboratory-level results of these parameters have been presented, and their applicability in actual fires is yet to be verified. In this study, a fire reproduction experimental system was configured to generate molten marks similar to those in actual fire sites. The molten marks were measured by electron backscatter diffraction and applied to the four discriminant factors. The results obtained similar characteristics to those of the laboratory unit, confirming the applicability of the four discriminant factors. Discriminant equations and processes that can distinguish the primary and secondary arc beads were derived using the molten marks generated in the laboratory and reproduction experiments. Furthermore, a probabilistic discrimination method and classification model developed by machine learning were proposed. Therefore, the use of the discriminants in actual fires can improve the reliability of the statistics and prevent the recurrence of similar fires.

Linking Bacterial Rhizosphere Communities of Two Pioneer Species, Brachystegia boehmii and B. spiciformis, to the Ecological Processes of Miombo Woodlands

Miombo is the most extensive ecosystem in southern Africa, being strongly driven by fire, climate, herbivory, and human activity. Soils are major regulating and supporting services, sequestering nearly 50% of the overall carbon and comprising a set of yet unexploited functions. In this study, we used next-generation Illumina sequencing to assess the patterns of bacterial soil diversity in two pioneer Miombo species, Brachystegia boehmii and Brachystegia spiciformis, along a fire gradient, in ferric lixisol and cambic arenosol soils. In total, 21 phyla, 51 classes, 98 orders, 193 families, and 520 genera were found, revealing a considerably high and multifunctional diversity with a strong potential for the production of bioactive compounds and nutrient mobilization. Four abundant genera characterized the core microbiome among plant species, type of soils, or fire regime: Streptomyces, Gaiella, Chthoniobacter, and Bacillus. Nevertheless, bacterial networks revealed a higher potential for mutualistic interactions and transmission of chemical signals among phylotypes from low fire frequency sites than those from high fire frequency sites. Ecological networks also revealed the negative effects of frequent fires on the complexity of microbial communities. Functional predictions revealed the core “house-keeping” metabolisms contributing to the high bacterial diversity found, suggesting its importance to the functionality of this ecosystem.

Establishing patterns of nitrogen application for fire safety of sunflower grain storage facilities

The issue of using nitrogen to eliminate fires in granaries is related to ventilating the grain mass with nitrogen while it is necessary to take into consideration the change in gas concentration. Therefore, the object of this research was the value of the minimum concentration of nitrogen to eliminate the combustion of sunflower grain. It has been proven that in the process of thermal destruction of sunflower grain, the composition of gaseous products of thermal destruction of sunflower grain contains more than 70 % of combustible gases. Namely: carbon monoxide, over 51 %; hydrogen, about 5.7 %; and hydrocarbons with a total concentration of 13.72 %, which provide fire hazardous properties of organic material. Therefore, it should be noted that the release of the amount of combustible gases during pyrolysis requires a reduction in the amount of oxygen in the gas-air environment to eliminate fire sites. Obviously, such a mechanism for the decomposition of sunflower grain during pyrolysis is a factor in regulating the extinguishing process, due to which the amount of nitrogen to eliminate combustion increases. Comparison of experimental studies on the composition of gaseous products of thermal destruction of sunflower grain and studies to determine the minimum fire extinguishing concentration of nitrogen, at which combustion was stopped, made it possible to justify the use of nitrogen. Based on the study's results on the elimination with nitrogen of fire sites of sunflower grain, the values of the minimum fire extinguishing concentration were revealed at extinguishing, about 33.7 % by volume. At the same time, terminating the combustion of sunflower grain occurs with a decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the gas-air environment of about 14 %. The practical significance is the fact that the results obtained for determining the minimum fire extinguishing concentration of nitrogen make it possible to establish operating conditions for granaries when eliminating fire sites

고분자 절연체의 가속열화에 따른 화학적특성 및 발화위험성에 관한 연구

In this paper, among the causes of electrical fires, the chemical properties due to thermal degradation of the wire coating, which is a polymer material, and the risk of ignition through temperature change by equivalent lifespan were analyzed. Insulated wires (HIV, 2.5SQ, single wire) used in small buildings under 500V were accelerated to deteriorate over time to produce samples for 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 years. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of insulators was performed using equipment such as strength, SEM, XRD, IR, TGA, and DSC. In addition, the temperature change by step above the allowable current was analyzed with an overcurrent tester, and through this, it was possible to confirm the risk of fire due to deterioration of insulation of old wires used in buildings. Through this study, it is possible to present the rationale for systematically introducing the replacement and repair period for old wires, and it is judged that it can be used as basic data for investigators to verify the cause of ignition due to insulation deterioration at the fire site.

Biological monitoring for exposure assessment of phthalatesby Korean firefighters at the fire site

[BACKGROUND AND AIM]The phthalates metabolites in urine for exposed phthalates were evaluated for firefighters who participated in the actual fire suppression to determine whether firefighters were exposed to hazardous chemicals, which is the basic data on health risk of firefighters [METHODS]The results of comparing the concentration of metabolites of phthalates immediately after fire suppression and after 3 weeks of fire suppression in spot urine. [RESULTS]The concentration of Mono-n-butyl phthalate(MnBP), Mono-benzyl phthalate(MBzP), and total phthalates(Σphthalates) increased significantly immediately after fire suppression than after 3 weeks of suppression. In case of adjusted for creatinine, the concentration of MnBP, MBzP and Σphthalates were equally increased. There was a statistically significant difference in the geometric mean concentration(GM) of firefighters who performed fire suppression tasks as 55.59㎍/g as Cr and 29.69㎍/g as Cr for other tasks. The GM concentration of firefighters who were active within 50m from the fire site was 44.80㎍/g as Cr, and when it fell over 50m, there was a difference of 20.47㎍/g as Cr. The GM concentration of firefighters with subjective symptoms within 7 days after extinguishing the fire was 61.68㎍/g as Cr and without symptoms was 31.62㎍/g as Cr, which was different. [CONCLUSIONS]This study confirmed that fire fighters are exposed to various phthalates during the firefighting process. [KEYWORDS]Fire fighter, Phthalate metabolites

A PROPOSAL FOR USING FIELD ARTILLERY CORRECTION TABLES ON DIFFERENCE OF ALTITUDES OF A TARGET AND FIRING SITE

The paper deals with a proposal for correction of settings of field artillery sights caused by different altitudes above the sea level of a target C and a firing site SO. The basic principles are described for preparation and use of main firing tables and additional tables, considering the difference of altitudes between the target and the firing site, together with consequences of using the existing methodology of application of the corrective tables. An interpretation of the sight corrective tables which has been used for many decades in the field artillery of the Polish army causes that they are used in a wrong way. This error is repeatedly present in the training of servicemen, in biding instructions and methodologies, and in practical applications, as well.

Numerical Simulation of Fire in Underground Commercial Street.

In this study, while aiming at the prevention of fire accidents in underground commercial streets, an underground commercial street is selected as a research object, and the building fire is numerically simulated using the PyroSim software. Fire simulation scenarios are divided according to different fire zones by analyzing the temperature, carbon monoxide (CO) concentration, and visibility in the smoke layer inside a building. The available safe evacuation time is calculated according to the critical fire hazard judgment conditions. We found that the time when the flue gas temperature and CO concentration reached the critical value in the fire site was longer than the time when the visibility reached the critical value reducing or even avoiding the spread of smoke from the fire area to the evacuation stairs can provide effective help for crowd evacuation. Finally, the safety of the building is evaluated, and fire prevention countermeasures are defined based on the actual situation and fire numerical simulation results to reduce fire incidence, casualties, and economic losses.

Visual and oxide analysis of an oil-filled heater fire scene

This study demonstrates the use of visual and oxide analyses to identify the cause of an actual electrical fire. Three severely oxidised electric oil-filled heaters and heating elements located at different locations were discovered in the debris of a megamall fire. According to visual analysis, the steel fins exhibited signs of overheating and the presence of large amounts of iron oxidation, denoting that the fins were the probable ignition source. Metallographic analysis showed that oxidation inside the oil-filled heaters at the fire site was also severe. Moreover, the temperature-dependent wear of the metal parts provided new evidence about the exposure temperature of the fire. The microstructure of the oxide scale of metallic materials was also temperature dependent, indicating that metallurgical characterisation will greatly complement conventional evidence collection by way of macroscopic visual examination.

Experimental and Numerical Simulation Analyses of Flame Spread Behaviour over Wood Treated with Flame Retardant in Ancient Buildings of Fuling Mausoleum, China

AbstractTo protect ancient buildings from fire, prevent the occurrences of fire, and minimise the losses caused by fire to the maximum extent possible, this study combined experimental measurements and numerical simulations to analyse the flame spread behaviour over wood treated with flame retardants. First, some wood blocks were treated with a nitrogen and phosphorus (water-based) flame retardant, and then a smoke combustion experiment was performed to test the smoke density. Scanning electron microscopy was also employed to observe the flame retardant effect. Next, a fire dynamic simulation software was used to simulate and analyse the results of the flame spread behaviour over the yellow pine collected from the Long’en Hall of Fuling Mausoleum, that was treated with flame retardants. The results showed the variation trend of the fire site’s heat release rate (HRR) over time to be consistent with the movement of fire spread after its occurrence. Compared with pristine wood, the flame retardant-treated wood exhibited a HRR reduction of 53.1%. The addition of flame retardants also reduced the concentration of the released smoke and CO2 gas, decreased the temperature of the fire site, and enhanced visibility.

Estimation of fire-induced CO plume age from NAST–I during the FIREX-AQ field campaign

Ultra-spectrally resolved infrared measurements from aircraft and space-based observations contain information about tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3), as well as other trace species. A methodology for retrieving these tropospheric trace species from such remotely sensed spectral data has been developed and validated for the National Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST–I). The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign was conducted during August 2019 to investigate the impact of wildfire and biomass smoke on air quality and weather in the continental United States. NAST–I CO and O3 measurements from the recent FIREX-AQ field campaign are presented and used to estimate wildfire plume age. Results show enhanced levels of CO in the evolving plume as it is transported away from the fire ground site, and its plume age is associated with the plume distance in both the vertical and horizontal directions from the wildfire location. These results are enabled by the moderate-vertical and high-horizontal resolution obtained from the NAST–I IR spectrometer onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft. This study advances our knowledge of fire-induced plumes with their evolution and age characterized in three-dimensional space using information from NAST–I retrieved CO and O3 and relative changes in their concentrations.

Wildfire Prediction Model Based on Spatial and Temporal Characteristics: A Case Study of a Wildfire in Portugal’s Montesinho Natural Park

Wildfires influence the global carbon cycle, and the regularity of wildfires is mostly determined by elements such as meteorological conditions, combustible material states, and human activities. The time series and spatial dispersion of wildfires have been studied by some scholars. Wildfire samples were acquired in a monthly series for the Montesinho Natural Park historical fire site dataset (January 2000 to December 2003), which can be used to assess the possible effects of geographical and temporal variations on forest fires. Based on the above dataset, dynamic wildfire distribution thresholds were examined using a K-means++ clustering technique for each subgroup, and monthly series data were categorized as flammable or non-flammable depending on the thresholds. A five-fold hierarchical cross-validation strategy was used to train four machine learning models: extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT). Finally, to explore the performance of those we have mentioned, we used accuracy (ACC), F1 score (F1), and the values for the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics (ROCs). The results depicted that the XGBoost model works best under the evaluation of the three metrics (ACC = 0.8132, F1 = 0.7862, and AUC = 0.8052). The model performance is significantly improved when compared to the approach of classifying wildfires by burned area size (ACC = 72.3%), demonstrating that spatiotemporal heterogeneity has a broad influence on wildfire occurrence. The law of a spatiotemporal distribution connection in wildfires could aid in the prediction and management of wildfires and fire disasters.

Burn Intensity Drives the Alteration of Phenolic Lignin to (Poly) Aromatic Hydrocarbons as Revealed by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC/MS).

High-intensity wildfires alter the chemical composition of organic matter, which is expected to be distinctly different from low-intensity prescribed fires. Herein, we used pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), in conjunction with solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, to assess chemical alterations from three wildfires and a long-term frequent prescribed fire site. Our results showed that black ash formed under moderate intensity burns contained less aromatic (ArH), polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and nitrogen-containing compounds (Ntg) but more lignin (LgC) and phenol compounds (PhC), compared to white ash formed under high intensity burns. Both 13C NMR and FT-IR confirmed a higher relative percentage of carboxyl carbon in white ash, indicating the potential for higher water solubility and more mobile carbon, relative to black ash. Compared to wildfires, ash from low-intensity prescribed fire contained less ArH, PAH, and Ntg and more LgC and PhC. Controlled laboratory burning trials indicated that organic matter alteration was sensitive to the burn temperature, but not related to the fuel type (pine vs fir) nor oxygen absence/presence at high burn temperatures. This study concludes that higher burn temperatures resulted in higher (poly)aromatic carbon/nitrogen and lower lignin/phenol compounds.