Fire suppression effectiveness for simultaneous fires: an examination of fire histories

Abstract

We examined fire and weather records for areas of the western United States for the period 1970-1984 to determine the effects of simultaneous wildfire occurrence on fire suppression efforts. Burning conditions were accounted for by use of short strings of fires which involved simultaneous suppression efforts. These strings were matched with closely preceding isolated fires to form matched sets, which were used to examine the relative effects of simultaneous fire occurrence. Fires were predominantly lightning-caused, and within matched sets they showed little difference in burning conditions. The first-occurring fires in the strings showed significantly longer suppression times than the preceding isolated fires, and travel times to the sixth-occurring fires were significantly greater than times to the first-occurring fire. These effects are not entirely consistent with expectations of fire personnel, perhaps because of shortcomings in the fire history records, which are particularly deficient in reporting force allocation, fire progress, and fire location.

Citation

Bednar, L.F.; Mees, R.; Strauss, D. 1990. Fire suppression effectiveness for simultaneous fires: an examination of fire histories. Western Journal of Applied Forestry. 5(1): 16-19.