WILDFIRE: LATEST LEARNINGS- v01.6

WILDFIRE: LATEST LEARNINGS

[Home] [Index] [News]

[Previous] [Next] Click to view: [General content] ...then... [Operational content] ...then... [Expert content]

[Posters]
[Science]

.
General learning outcome:

GENERAL FIRE CONCEPTS:

Specific learning outcome:

The interaction of wind & terrain is a fundamental concept for understanding fire behaviour.

Topic:

That while wind and slope are both critical drivers of a fire's spread, they are not independent.

Operational Awareness for Advanced Firefighters & Fire Behaviour Analysts


The appropriate mathematical techniques need to be applied to finding the correct solution to combining wind and slope vectors for fire spread.
Recent research is showing how it is important to use correct techniques when both slope and wind are driving fire spread. Without wind a fire will accelerate upslope. Without slope a fire will accelerate downwind. in complex terrain the balance of these two forces varies from time-to-time and from place-to-place.
Wind-terrain interactions are also significant. When air flow is blocked by terrain the air flow can be complex and may produce quite different weather to the unimpeded weather, in the form of deflected wind, accelerated wind, drier air and turbulence. Some of these effects can be broad-scale, others very localised. More than one effect can be present.
In some cases wind will be accelerated upslope, and the slope may have no direct effect on rate of spread.
.
This website is dedicated to bringing forward the latest research findings. They are provided to allow firefighters to be made aware of critical safety issues ahead of the material being included in the national training curriculum.
Material prepared by Rick McRae for AFAC Research Dissemination Pilot Study, March 2012.