Number Of Large Fires Research Articles

Lightning-induced fire regime in Portugal based on satellite-derived and in situ data

Fire databases typically contain information regarding the location, timing, and duration of fire occurrences, as well as the cause (natural or human-induced). These databases allow for the analysis and understanding of the circumstances surrounding the ignition and propagation of wildfires, being highly relevant when addressing fire suppression and management plans, or for improvement of prevention policies. In Portugal, a large number of fires in the official database have unknown causes, which limits the understanding about the relevance of each fire cause, in particular the role of lightning on the ignition of fires over the country. The objective of this paper is twofold: first, we investigated the spatial-temporal variability of lightning-induced fires from 2003 to 2020. Then, we evaluate the feasibility of using remote sensing data as a surrogate for identifying fire causes, through validation with the fire database. Our results revealed that lightning-ignited fires represent an even smaller fraction of all fire events than mentioned in the latest official report about fire causes in the country, accounting for only 1 % of the fire occurrences and 4.6 % of the total burned area in the 18-year period under analysis. The months of June to September comprise 91 % of all lightning fires, which occur more frequently in the northern, remote regions of the country and at relatively high altitudes. Moreover, lightning ignitions originate fires larger than the global average and contributed significantly to the total area burned during the extreme 2003 and 2017 fire seasons. Its importance in these extreme years suggests that lightning can trigger large fires when in conjunction with compound events such as droughts and heatwaves. When compared with in-situ databases, the application of remote sensing data reproduced the seasonality of lightning-ignited fires, but failed to account for the contribution of smaller fires, which represent the majority of occurrences in the Portuguese fire database. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the improved assessment of fire risks, causes, and impacts in Portugal.

Smoke emissions from biomass burning in Central Mexico and their impact on air quality in Mexico City: May 2019 case study

Smoke emissions from biomass burning considerably influence regional and local air quality. Many natural wildfires and agricultural burns occur annually in Central Mexico during the hot, dry season (March to May), potentially leading to air quality problems. Nevertheless, the impact of these biomass burning emissions on Mexico City's air quality has not been investigated in depth. This study examines a severely deteriorated air quality case from 11 to 16 May 2019, during which fine particle concentrations (PM2.5) exceeded the 99th percentile of the available official dataset (2005–2019). Specifically, this work aims to highlight the role of fires and regional pollution in the severe episode observed in Mexico City, identifying the fires that were the sources of regional pollution, the type of fuel burned in those fires, and the dominant atmospheric transport pattern. Biomass burning emissions were calculated for different land cover types using satellite data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). PM2.5 increased by a factor of 2 at some monitoring sites, and ozone concentration increased to 40 % in Mexico City during the poor air quality episode. Our results indicate that over 50 % of the fire activity observed during the 2019 fire season was concentrated in May in Central Mexico. The burning activity was mainly seen over shrubland and forest between 10 and 15 May. Moreover, the fire radiative power analysis indicates that most energy was associated with burning shrubland and forests. Organic carbon emissions were estimated highest on 14 and 15 May, coinciding with the largest number of fires. Back trajectory analysis indicates that enhanced concentration of air pollutants in Mexico City originated from biomass burning detected in neighboring states: Guerrero, Michoacán, and the State of Mexico. Smoke from fires on the specific vegetation cover was advected into Mexico City and contributed to the bad air quality episode. Further meteorological analysis evidenced that the fire intensity and emissions were worsened by low humidity and the late onset of the rainy season in Central Mexico.

Arctic Oscillation and Pacific-North American pattern dominated-modulation of fire danger and wildfire occurrence

Based on statistical analyses and Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Pacific-North American pattern (PNA) induced climate anomalies in the 2001–2020 interval, it has been found that these climate modes drastically influence the fire danger (PFIv2) in differing ways across coastal and inland regions. The AO induces higher fire risk in northern Eurasia and central North America, whereas the PNA increases the fire danger across southern Asia and western North America. Moreover, fires have been predominantly identified, up to 70%, during the positive phases of AO and PNA northward of 50°N, in particular over Alaska, Baltic States and eastern Asia. For coincident positive AO and negative PNA days, a large number of fires have been identified over northwestern North America and northern Eurasia. Spectral analyses demonstrate that weather anomalies related to AO and PNA lead fire danger by 10–20 days, and both modes are significantly correlated to PFIv2 over north America and most of Eurasia. Despite some drawbacks related to the fire danger methods currently applied (PFI and FWI), it is demonstrated that the influence of AO and PNA on potential environmental driven-fires can be anticipated, in some locations on almost 90% of days. Fire danger forecasts are urgently needed and the understanding of factors and conditions, which are able to modify the environmental susceptibility to fire development, are crucial for adequate management to reduce the harmful effects of fire. In this sense, our results reveal that a better prediction of the fire season can be achieved by advanced assessment of the PNA and AO behavior, and shed light on the need to investigate the impact of other modes of climate variability upon wildfire frequency and severity.

Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Variability of Lightning Activity and Wildfires in Western Siberia during 2016–2021

This research compares the spatial and temporal variability of lightning activity associated with wildfires in several natural geographical zones of Western Siberia from 2016–2021. The study was based on the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) for the warm (April–October) season. It was revealed that areas of hotspots and lightning activity most often coincide in the southwestern part of the territory (near Khanty-Mansiysk and Tyumen), in the mountain regions (Kuznetsk Alatau, Altai), and in the northern part of Kazakhstan. Maximum values of lightning occur in July for the whole territory of Western Siberia, and maximum values of hotspots occur in April in the central and southern regions of Western Siberia. Despite the largest number of fires in the south of the territory, the probability of ignition from lightning over the whole warm season is higher in the northern parts of Western Siberia; it reaches up to 30%. Thus, the revealed lightning–fire association allows us to better understand this process in the region that will be useful in the prediction of the potential fire danger in different natural zones.

Проблемы учета состояния систем молниезащиты и защиты от статического электричества при оценке величин пожарного риска на производственных объектах

In paragraph 10 of Chapter 2 of the Methodology for determining the calculated values of fire risk at the production facilities, the list of the most likely events that may be the causes of fire-hazardous situations is presented. This list contains the phrase «the appearance of ignition sources in the places of formation of combustible gas-air mixtures». There are no more specific mentions about the probability of a fire from static electricity discharges and lightning strikes, as well as any other sources. This situation, at first glance, does not pose any problem, since it is assumed that the specialist performing the calculation will have to consider the likelihood of ignition sources appearing in places of the formation of combustible gas-air mixtures, which, obviously, will include both a lightning strike and its secondary manifestations, as well as a discharge of static electricity. However, lightning protection is not a part of the technological process of a production facility, but only ensures its safety. Also, lightning protection may not provide protection for an object with an explosive and fire hazardous technological process (for example, it does not correspond in parameters) or be absent altogether, which in practice will not in any way affect the procedure for calculating fire risk according to the specified methodology, in which the presence (absence) of a lightning protection system is not considered in any way. At the same time, fire statistics indicate the large number of fires from lightning and from discharges of static electricity. The 1st place in the world among large countries in the number of people killed in fires is an important indicator testifying the need for systemic changes in the approach to ensuring fire safety in Russia. Nowadays, it is often easier for an owner or tenant to obtain a document on the safety of an object than to ensure this safety in real practice. This cannot be achieved only by control — it is required to motivate all the participants for safety (for example, through compulsory insurance), which would become profitable to ensure fire safety.

Preliminary study on the case of black rain in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: A synoptic point of view

Particles of soot from forest fires are transported by the wind, reaching distant locations and being deposited on the soil through precipitation, which clears the atmosphere, taking suspended particulate matter into its drops. The general circulation over South America indicates the possibility of soot from forest fires in the Amazon and Pantanal to be transported to southern Brazil. The event called “black rain” was observed in the period from 11 to 13 September 2020 at São Francisco de Assis City, in Rio Grande do Sul State (RS), and so this work aims to analyze if there were any anomalies of the flow that favored the occurrence of this event, given that there was a large number of fires in this period. Through ERA5 reanalysis data and GOES-16 satellite images, it was observed that on the three days under study low-level flow to the south of Brazil was more intense than normal, with the Low Level Jet occurrences, and on days 12 and 13 such flow to the south was also observed at 500 hPa. The precipitation was due to the instability of an extended trough from the Northwestern Argentinean Low. Thus, it is believed that there was a contribution from circulation at low and mid levels in the occurrence of black rain over RS. Estudo preliminar sobre o caso da chuva negra no Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil: um ponto de vista sinóticoR E S U M OAs partículas de fuligem originadas de queimadas são transportadas pelo vento e podem atingir localidades distantes e serem depositadas no solo através da precipitação, que realiza uma limpeza na atmosfera, levando em suas gotas o material particulado suspenso. A circulação geral sobre a América do Sul indica a possibilidade de fuligem das queimadas da Amazônia e Pantanal serem transportadas para o sul do Brasil. O evento denominado de “chuva escura” foi observado no período de 11 a 13 de setembro de 2020 no município de São Francisco de Assis, no estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS), e assim este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar se houve alguma anomalia do escoamento que favoreceu a ocorrência deste evento, haja vista que ocorreu um grande número de queimadas no período em questão. Por meio de dados de reanálise do ERA5 e imagens de satélite do GOES-16, observou-se que nos três dias em estudo o escoamento em baixos níveis para o sul do Brasil esteve mais intenso que o normal, inclusive com a ocorrência de Jato de Baixos Níveis, e nos dias 12 e 13 tal escoamento para sul também foi observado em níveis médios. A precipitação foi oriunda da instabilidade de um cavado estendido da Baixa do Noroeste Argentino. Desta forma, acredita-se que houve contribuição da circulação em baixos e médios níveis na ocorrência de chuva escura sobre o RS.Palavras-chave: Queimadas, Amazônia, Pantanal, ERA5, BNOA, JBN.

Characteristics of the spatial and temporal distribution of fire regime in ONE OF the most fire prone Region Of The Russian Far East

Wildfires affect the structure and distribution of vegetation all over the globe and have their own specifics in different regions. In this study, we considered the spatial and temporal distribution of fires in the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), which is the most fire-prone area of the Russian Far East. Using data from the Department of Natural Resources of the Jewish Autonomous Region, fires and burned areas for more than 40 years were analyzed. The average annual number of fires is near 100, and the average area of one fire is 134 hectares, which is significantly higher compared to other regions of Russia. The largest number of fires and fires with the greatest extent took place in 1975. The intra-annual distribution of fires is bimodal and depends on the climate characteristics of the region. Mapping of burning areas showed that most of the fires occurred near settlements and along roads. The main centers of fire ignition were areas with a large number of small fires (no more than 5 hectares), located within several types of locations: (1) asphalt and dirt roads, railroads and river valleys near settlements; (2) areas of former logging that have several large burned spots of more than 300 hectares; (3) plains with a high concentration of fires over a large region; and (4) small burned spots on the mountain slopes, along the field roads and small rivers. Regions with different degree of fire exposure were identified. Sedge-reed mixed grassy meadows and Agricultural land with shaded meadows are the plant formations most prone to wildfires. At the same time, more fires were detected in Cedar-deciduous forests as well as Oak and black birch forests. The findings are useful for environmental protection agencies in planning fire management strategies, optimizing the fire services and firefighting actions.

Analysis of forest fires in Irkutsk region for 2010-2019

The urgency of the ecological problem of natural forest fires in Russia, especially in rich forests of Eastern Siberia, makes it necessary to study their features, consequences, and measures to combat them. The aim of the article is to assess the state of forest fires in Irkutsk region over the last ten years. Based on the statistical data of monitoring in 33 districts, the dynamics of fires was studied, and areas affected by fires were identified. The largest number of fires was revealed in Irkutsk and Bratsk districts. The fire rate was assessed by districts in fire hazardous periods, and the largest fire rate was identified in Bratsk, Kachug, Irkutsk, and Katanga districts. The fire indicators for 2019 were compared with the average indicators for each district. A comparative analysis of the forest fire situation in Irkutsk region and its districts was carried out. Recommendations on possible firefighting measures were provided.

The Statistical Effectiveness of Fire Protection Measures: Learning from Real Fires in Germany

Fire protection measures are taken to prevent fires or to keep the resulting damage as low as possible. The statistical effectiveness of fire protection measures can be derived from a large number of fires that have already occurred. With the research paper presented here, such proof of effectiveness is rendered for certain specific fire protection measures, such as installed fire detection and fire alarm systems, fire extinguishing systems, smoke and heat exhaust systems, as well as according to the type of fire service. The investigation is based on a systematically collected database of 5,016 building fire interventions with 1,216 real fires by 29 fire services across Germany. The results can be used by applying engineering methods for quantitative risk analyses, within the scope of the risk-based performance level oriented planning of object-specific protection strategies. In this way, the performance level can be achieved effectively, flexibly and economically.

Борьба с пожарами на Харьковщине в годы военного коммунизма (1919–1921)

The aim of the article is to analyze the development of firefighting in Kharkiv and Kharkiv province during the war communism. The author explores the features of complex processes of fire prevention and firefighting in the Kharkiv region in 1919-1921. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-systemic) methods with the principles of historicism, scientificity and systematics. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the peculiarities of fire fighting in one of the largest and most significant for the Soviet government in the studied period of the domestic regions - in the Kharkiv region. Conclusions. After the arrival of the Bolsheviks in Kharkiv in 1919, given the large number of fires that regularly occurred in the Kharkiv region, a number of measures were taken to improve the situation in the firefighting sphere in the region. Resolutions were adopted on the procedure for installing temporary portable furnaces in residential premises, special fire control commissions were created to check the state of fire safety in residential buildings, non-residential buildings and enterprises, etc. These measures were not always effective, due to lack of funds, qualified specialists, problems in the sectoral subordination of firefighting, especially in 1919 – the first half of 1920. However, during the second half of 1920- 1921, the situation in the firefighting sector began to improve: firefighting was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the situation with financing and logistics of firefighters gradually began to improve, Ukrainian courses for firefighters were opened in Kharkiv. Thus, the fight against fires in Kharkiv during the war communism had difficult periods, especially at the beginning, but gradually the situation in firefighting improved, largely due to the enthusiasm of ordinary firefighters and strict regulation of fire by the authorities.

Spotted owls and forest fire: Comment

Western North American forest ecosystems are experiencing rapid changes in disturbance regimes because of climate change and land use legacies (Littell et al. 2018). In many of these forests, the accumulation of surface and ladder fuels from a century of fire suppression, coupled with a warming and drying climate, has led to increases in the number of large fires (Westerling 2016) and the proportion of areas burning at higher severity (Safford and Stevens 2017, Singleton et al. 2018). While the annual area burned by fire is still below historical levels (Taylor et al. 2016), some forest types in the west are burning at higher severities when compared to pre-European settlement periods (Mallek et al. 2013, Safford and Stevens 2017). As such, they face an increased risk of conversion to non-forest ecosystems (e.g., shrublands, non-native grasslands) following large, severe fires because of compromised seed sources, post-fire soil erosion and loss, high-severity re-burn, and climatic thresholds (Coppoletta et al. 2016, Stevens et al. 2017, Rissman et al. 2018, Shive et al. 2018, Wood and Jones 2019). Restoration methods such as mechanical thinning and prescribed and managed wildland fire that reduce accumulated surface and ladder fuels (e.g., removal of smalland medium-sized trees, especially non-fire adapted species) may reduce the spatial extent of severe fires and increase forest resilience to fire in a changing climate (Agee and Skinner 2005, Stephens et al. 2013, Hessburg et al. 2016, Tubbesing et al. 2019) and, in doing so, promote key ecosystem services (Hurteau et al. 2014, Kelsey et al. 2017, Wood and Jones 2019).

КРУПНЫЕ ПОЖАРЫ - КРИТЕРИи ОТБОРА

Исследование организации тушения крупных пожаров в оперативных пожарных подразделениях проводится на постоянной основе в целях повышения уровня боеготовности. Критериями отбора крупных пожаров является количество пострадавших людей и размеры материального ущерба, но в категорию крупных по формальным признакам попадает большое количество пожаров, не представляющих интереса для исследования. Учитывая широкое разнообразие условий деятельности пожарных подразделений Российской Федерации, проблематично определить приемлемый критерий отнесения пожаров к крупным. Research on the organization of large fire extinguishing in operational fire departments is carried out on an ongoing basis in order to improve the level of combat readiness. The criteria for selecting large fires are determined by the number of people affected and the amount of material damage, but a large number of fires that are not of interest to the study fall into the category of large fires based on formal criteria. Taking into account wide variety of operating conditions of fire departments in the Russian Federation, it is problematic to determine an acceptable criterion for classifying fires as large ones. For operational divisions, the allocation of large fires from among others is carried out in order to determine the most difficult cases from the point of view of fire tactics, to identify positive experience for further use. For a long period of firefighting history there have been preserved a large number of fire descriptions, which gradually formed the methodology of scientific research of fires. As far as it was possible to trace the development of methods for studying large fires, the earliest sources were able to find Instructions for the study of fires, developed jointly by employees of the Main Fire Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and VNIIPO. The analysis of this Instruction and subsequent normative documents allowed us to trace the evolution of fire research methods in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation over a period of 70 years. The study of historical experience allows not to repeat old mistakes. Therefore, one of the foundations for fire service development has always been the study of experience. In order to maximize the use of experience, it is desirable to include in the research circle as many fires as possible, and ideally all fires, which in real conditions is not always possible for many reasons. In this case, it is advisable to use a method similar to the Pareto Principle, when the study of a relatively small number of fires allows to make useful conclusions applicable to the entire population. But in practice, it is still physically impossible to investigate more than 120-150 cases of fires in order to effectively organize the entire process from the collection and processing the materials to study and implementation of relevant innovations in the fire departments of the Russian Federation. The article discusses the main problematic issues and suggests a possible way to solve them.

ЛЕСНЫЕ ПОЖАРЫ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ ЕРМАКОВСКОГО МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОГО РАЙОНА КРАСНОЯРСКОГО КРАЯ В 2018 ГОДУ

В статье приведен обзор пожаров, которые произошли на территории Ермаковского муниципального района. Автор проанализировал особенности пожароопасного сезона в 2018 году, в частности – число пожаров, площадь, освоенность лесной территории, климатические условия, растительность, а так же техническое оснащение и уровень охраны лесов. Рассмотренные лесные массивы распложены на особо охраняемых природных территориях, где обеспечивается активный отдых для населения. В связи, с чем высока вероятность пожаров от антропогенных факторов. Отмечено, что на начало пожароопасного сезона приходится самое большое количество пожаров – 89%, которые происходят по вине человека. С апреля по июнь регистрируются 73% пожаров, которые преобладают по площади. А в июле высок риск пожара от «сухих» гроз. Однако, не смотря на сложность тушения пожаров и удаленность от населенных пунктов, отмечена слаженность и оперативность работы сотрудников лесопожарного центра. Это подтверждается активной борьбой с лесными пожарами – 100%.

An Assessment of Fire Refugia Importance Criteria Ranked by Land Managers

There is evidence that forest resiliency is declining in the western US due to recent increases in both areas burned by wildfire and the number of large fires. Fire refugia may increase forest resiliency; however, for land managers to incorporate fire refugia into their management plans, methods need to be developed to identify and rank criteria for what make fire refugia important. As part of a larger effort to build a spatially explicit ranking model for unburned islands in the inland northwestern US, we investigated the perceived importance of criteria used to inform a ranking model to identify high-value fire refugia. We developed a survey targeting land managers within the inland northwestern US. Participants were asked to score a predetermined list of criteria by their importance for determining the value of fire refugia. These scores were analyzed to identify trends among respondents that could be used to develop a fire refugia ranking model. The results indicate that respondents generally organized criteria into two groups: Human infrastructure and wildlife habitat. However, there was little consensus among respondents in their scoring of fire refugia importance criteria, suggesting that a single region-wide fire refugia ranking model may not be feasible. More research with a larger sample size is needed to develop targeted ranking models.

Experimental Study on the Smouldering Combustion of Mineral Wool Insulation in Chimney Penetrations

A large number of fires have been caused by metal chimney penetrations in recent years. One factor that has contributed to these occurrences is smouldering combustion within mineral wool, which is often used as insulation in metal chimneys and their penetrations. Based on reaction to fire performance mineral wool is typically classified as a non-combustible material and in European standards it belongs to category Euroclass A1. However, mineral wool insulation products contain organic material, which smoulders and generates heat at temperatures between 200°C and 500°C. Experimental research indicates that this additional heat may increase the temperature in the chimney penetration materials over 100°C for a limited period of time. The European fire classification of materials does not set requirements to control mineral wool smouldering and limit the subsequent heat release. This experimental study examined the smouldering of mineral wool insulation products specified for chimney penetrations and the heat release generated during the smouldering combustion. The aim of the study was to determine the actual level of temperature increase within the chimney penetration and to estimate the effects of the increase with regard to fire safety. The study also reviewed how the smouldering potential of an insulation material could be considered in the fire classification of products.

Fire-regime changes in Canada over the last half century

Contemporary fire regimes of Canadian forests have been well documented based on forest fire records between the late 1950s to 1990s. Due to known limitations of fire datasets, an analysis of changes in fire-regime characteristics could not be easily undertaken. This paper presents fire-regime trends nationally and within two zonation systems, the homogeneous fire-regime zones and ecozones, for two time periods, 1959–2015 and 1980–2015. Nationally, trends in both area burned and number of large fires (≥200 ha) have increased significantly since 1959, which might be due to increases in lightning-caused fires. Human-caused fires, in contrast, have shown a decline. Results suggest that large fires have been getting larger over the last 57 years and that the fire season has been starting approximately one week earlier and ending one week later. At the regional level, trends in fire regimes are variable across the country, with fewer significant trends. Area burned, number of large fires, and lightning-caused fires are increasing in most of western Canada, whereas human-caused fires are either stable or declining throughout the country. Overall, Canadian forests appear to have been engaged in a trajectory towards more active fire regimes over the last half century.

Regional air quality impact of northern South America biomass burning emissions

Biomass burning emissions have a substantial impact on regional air quality and climate. The region of Amazonia in South America has long been identified as one of the largest contributors to short lived pollutants globally. However, massive natural wildfires and agricultural burns also occur every year in the grassland plains of Northern South America during the dry season (November to April). The regional-scale air quality impact of these biomass burning emissions has not been studied in depth and is analyzed in this study. We used PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations from three large urban areas: Bogotá, Medellín, and Bucaramanga, for the period 2006–2016. Carbon monoxide data was only available for the city of Bogotá for the analysis period. These cities are located hundreds of kilometers westward of the emission areas. The spatio-temporal distribution of fires was obtained from MODIS Active Fire Data. The back-trajectories of air masses reaching the receptor sites were computed with two different meteorological datasets. Radiosonde data, available only for Bogotá, was used to account for local meteorological factors impacting pollution dispersion. A novel analysis algorithm was developed to combine active fire data with back-trajectory locations to select those active fires in the vicinity of the air masses arriving at each city. This analysis allows the selection of only those upwind fires that can be related to the air quality in the selected locations. We show that anomalously high PM and CO levels occurred when air masses originated from the Orinoco grasslands during the times when the largest number of fires in the region were active. The correlation between number of fires and PM10 concentration was found to decrease with increasing distance from the sources, ranging from 0.6 to 0.25. Our results are insensitive to the meteorological dataset used to generate back-trajectories. For Bogotá it was found that mixing height variations can explain an important fraction of the observed seasonal variations in PM10, PM2.5, and CO concentration. The number of upwind fires can explain 11% ± 5% of the seasonal variability in CO concentrations. Estimates of the seasonal variability of PM10 and PM2.5 explained by fires are 45% ± 7% and 39% ± 8% respectively. However, covariance between occurrence of fires and non-combustion local sources of PM imply that the latter estimates are likely an overestimation of the actual contribution. Our findings support the possibility that fires in the Orinoco river basin deteriorate air quality in highly populated urban centers hundreds of kilometers away from the sources.

Analysis of the environmental impacts caused by fires in the state California from 1999 to 2017

The primary objetive of this research has been the study of the multiple fires that have affected the State of California over the last decade. California is a region where collage the largest leading agricultural production and conservatio, military areas, wildlife reserves, cooperative plans for the conservation and development of wildlife and wildlife managed by the Navy. The Google tool was used has a search engine to obtaine the data througth articles and sites, as well as images obtained by remote sensing. It was noted that even today, a large number of fires in California are not justified by scientists in the agencies responsible for their extincion. The larger number of fires in California over the last decades an unprecedented destruction of homes and commercial establishments; areas of agriculture, livestock, leisure and recreation completely characterizing the region, despite the fact that so much wood extraction is common.

Risk of Fuel Spills and the Transient Models of Spill Area Forecasting

Most accidents in chemical process industry, as well as a large number of fires in general, are triggered by accidental spilling of flammable liquids. Such spills either get auto-ignited or are set on fire by one or the other ignition source. If other flammable material happens to catch fire before the initial fire is extinguished, the accident gets escalated. In many situations, the escalation is catastrophic, resulting in very large fires, with or without explosions. This paper assesses the transient models developed so far to predict the areas covered by accidental fuel spills.

Understanding wildfires in mainland Spain. A comprehensive analysis of fire regime features in a climate-human context

Understanding fire regime is a crucial step towards better knowledge of the wildfire phenomenon. However, the concept itself, in spite of its widespread use, still lacks a clear, widely accepted definition and there is no general agreement on which features define it best. In this paper we provide an in-depth characterization and description of fire regimes in three regions – Northwest, Hinterland and Mediterranean – comprising the whole of mainland Spain, to identify their key features. Data on number of fires, burned area, fire season and cause are retrieved from historical fire records for the period 1974–2010. Specifically, fire frequency, burned area, number of natural/human-caused fires, burned area from natural/human-caused fires, number of large fires (≥500 ha), and burned area from large fires were examined for each region and fire season. We used a multi-group Principal Components Analysis approach to determine the importance of each fire regime feature. Next, climate and socioeconomic variables were explored using Multidimensional Scatterplots and Generalized Additive Models to find the extent to which fire regimes are controlled by either environmental, human, or both factors. Results revealed differences among regions and seasons in terms of the characteristics of their respective fire regimes. However, several common features have been identified as key components of fire regimes, regardless of region or fire season: fire frequency, number of large fires, and burned area from natural fires. In addition, results confirm that fire regime in the Northwest area mainly depends on human activity, especially during winter, in contrast to the Mediterranean region.