• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

8 DRÄGER REVIEW 100 | JUNE 2010 FOREST FIRES FOCUS Fighting Fire with Fire Fire is often successfully FOUGHT WITH FIRE – for prevention purposes and as a last resort. hen we think of forest fires, the and Canada certainly could increase due places that automatically come to dry conditions and elevated tempera- W to mind are Greece, Portugal, tures. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide Australia, and California. What we often released by these fires could then cause fail to realize, however, is that forest fires the atmosphere to heat up even faster as are a not an uncommon occurrence in part of a vicious cycle. In densely pop- more northerly latitudes, too. Take Russia, ulated Europe, however, experts such for example. There are between 20,000 as Maushake consider humans to be and 35,000 fires a year in Russia’s 800 mil- the number one cause of fires. And not lion hectares of coniferous forest, the larg- just in Europe. An estimated 95 percent est contiguous wooded area in the world. of all fires worldwide are caused by Each summer, the fire departments there people. The root cause is often care- face the monstrous task of fighting fires in lessness, such as a BBQ fire in difficult an area almost as large as the U.S. terrain or a car with a hot catalytic con- Even damp Germany is a forest fire verter that is parked over dry leaves. How- country. “The authorities registered ever, the experts also often find evidence roughly 1,000 forest fires in 2009,” says of arson – driven by malice, pyromania, Detlef Maushake, Training Director for insurance fraud, or real estate specula- Wildland Firefighting at the German aid tion aimed at turning supposedly useless organization @fire, which provides fire- forest into productive pasture or expen- fighting and rescue assistance to its Eu- sive building land. Unfortunately, fires ropean neighbors but was also recently are sometimes lit as a job-creation mea- deployed to Haiti following the devastat- sure. In Spain, Portugal, and Greece, most ing earthquake there. “Open-area fires firefighters are hired on an as-needed are not included in the statistics. We es- basis, and some are not above creating timate that the total number is roughly the need themselves. four to five times greater than the re- The consequences of this game with ported cases,” he adds. And the number fire can now be seen nearly year-round on of fires is increasing: The average surface television. There is always a fire burning area consumed by forest fires in the Med- somewhere, and when the forest fire sea- iterranean region annually has increased son comes to an end in southern Europe fourfold since the 1960s. it is just beginning in the southern hemi- sphere, particularly in Australia and Af- People are the main cause of fire rica. Fires burn on more than 300 million Is climate change the reason for these hectares worldwide each year. Thousands MAGES I He looks like an arsonist, huge numbers? Maushake sighs. He is of people are forced to flee the flames. ETTY but he’s actually a firefighter G often asked this question, but he cannot “We’re seeing a global trend of fires not HY: HY: setting a firebreak. P provide a definitive answer. Researchers only covering greater areas in many re- suspect that the number of fires in the un- gions, but also having much more seri- PHOTOGRA populated expanses of Siberia, the U.S., ous consequences,” notes fire ecologist > DRÄGER REVIEW 100 | JUNE 2010 9 FOCUS FOREST FIRES Once they have jumped, smokejumpers are on their own > Johann Georg Goldammer, who heads measuring no more than 30 centime- land firefighters is also less heavily pad- the Global Fire Monitoring Center in ters in width is enough to stop a ground ded than that of structural firefighting Freiburg, Germany, and has been assess- fire. If necessary, the firefighters start a units. “Although the other clothing of- ing forest fire activity throughout the small, controlled backfire to deprive the fers greater protection, the clothing and world for many years. actual fire of fuel. “This is a good tool for equipment worn outside – including the stopping the flames in remote regions helmet (editor’s note: see also news, page Smokejumpers: help from the sky or in terrain that is impassable or con- 6) – has to be light because we sometimes Unless the fire was caused by lightning, a taminated with munitions and thus in- have to wear it for days,” says Maushake. forest fire always begins as a ground fire. accessible to vehicles,” says Maushake. In “We have to be able to deal with the heat for As long as the fire hasn’t yet jumped to the Germany, the forest is generally so well- long periods of time.” (see also page 6) canopy, the fires are easy to extinguish. developed because of commercial forestry Another piece of mandatory equipment The firefighters use shovels, fire swatters, that the forest roads can serve as such for his people is a protective tent that folds chain saws, brushwood branches, and a lines of defense. It is a completely differ- up into an easy-to-handle package. It is tool called a Pulaski fire axe that has an ent story in the dense macchia (thicket, made of a special fire-resistant fabric with axe on one end and a grub hoe on the shrubland) that is often encountered in a vapor-deposited aluminum layer that re- other. Sometimes the crews even fight the southern European countries. flects up to 95 percent of incident heat flames with their bare hands. Even today, the methods of the smoke- radiation. “It’s like the airbag in a car,” says In the extensive coniferous forests of jumpers hardly differs from the work of Maushake. “You’d rather not have to use Russia and the U.S., smokejumpers have the founding fathers. Of course, the para- it, but it’s safer to have one with you.” proven to be the most effective strike chutes can be steered more precisely now- So far, this professional firefighter force against fire. They parachute out adays and there are satellite navigation has traveled to the U.S. ten times for ad- of airplanes or rappel from helicopters and radio telephones. But once the strike ditional training in order to learn from into the threatened woodland and be- force has jumped, the firefighters are on colleagues there how to extinguish forest gin a battle against the flames that some- their own until the fire is extinguished – in and brush fires. “The biggest difference times lasts for days. During this entire which case they march to the nearest road between an open-area fire and a struc- time, the smokejumpers are completely to be collected – or they are evacuated by tural fire is the dynamics of the fire,” ex- on their own. This style of firefighting was helicopter. But at least one thing has plains Maushake. “There are more vari- invented in Russia in the 1920s. The aer- changed dramatically: The staff working ables outside. A cloud in front of the sun ial fire service still exists today and goes by for the American aerial fire service now can be enough to dampen the fire. Forest the name Avialesookhrana, which trans- have much better protective clothing than fires move. It’s like in chess: You have to lates roughly as “Aerial Guarding of the their predecessors had. think ahead!” Forests.” The first Avialesookhrana fire- If the flames have already engulfed en- fighters climbed onto the wings of a trans- Learning from the U.S. tire trees, there is little that the teams on port plane and parachuted into a fire-en- The firefighters in the U.S. and the vol- the ground can do. In such a situation, it’s circled village in 1930. unteers of the German @fire group wear time to call in the water bomber planes. There are two ways to stop a fire: You bright yellow uniforms rather than the The CL-415 was developed specifically for can use something like sand to cut off the dark blue ones associated with town and this purpose by the Canadian firm Cana- supply of oxygen to the fire or you can re- city fire departments. “They don’t heat dair. This amphibious aircraft can scoop move all of the flammable material from up as much in the sun,” explains Maush- up an impressive “payload” – 6,000 liters the path of the fire. A trench in the soil ake. The protective clothing of the wild- in 12 seconds – while flying low over a 10 DRÄGER REVIEW 100 | JUNE 2010 FOREST FIRES FOCUS Water bombers fight a fire from the air. In mountainous areas like this one, helicopters are also used for this purpose. body of water at 120 kilometers an hour. The water is mixed with fire-retardant chemicals before being dropped in or- der to enhance the extinguishing effect. Flying just 30 meters above the burning treetops, the pilots open the four valves of their water tanks, either gradually or all at once so that the mass of water can break through even dense canopy. Ever- green International Airline has a Boeing 747-200 that has been reconfigured as a water bomber. It rents this unique aircraft to governments as needed. The jumbo wa- ter bomber can hold up to 77,600 liters of water and was first deployed in July 2009 to fight forest fires in Spain. Fire planet earth Leaving aside the absolutely destructive power of conflagrations that hardly ever occur without human involvement, na- ture is much less distressed by the flames than we humans believe.

Load more

  6

Copy Link