The Causes Of Firebrand Storms

For as long as mankind can conceive, fire has been a remarkable tool to conquer. When controlled, it provides necessary heat, energy, and fuel for a consumer to use; however, when fire goes unattended, it has the potential to become a wholly destructive element. The more western states of America, such as Utah and Colorado, have repeatedly experienced this concept in its most devastating form: wildfires. A wildfire is generally considered to be difficult to control and fast moving, swallowing anything that lay in its path, including forest or human habitat. As human incursion reaches more remote areas in wooded mountains, wildfires pose a serious threat to high-end homes and secluded cabins. The untamed nature of these fires also allows them to creep into subdivisions and endanger more

When one is fighting a forest fire, it is not known how that fire is going to react to the way you are fighting it. The wind, precipitation, and altitude has to do with how extreme a fire is. Bigger tools such as water helicopters, called rotorcraft’s, are used to help put out fires by dumping water or fire retardant chemicals from up above. Firemen also can put fires out faster by cutting down trees and digging trenches. This allows fire to have no place else to go and eventually puts itself out.

The winds were up to 70 miles (110 km) per hour whipped the flames into a frenzy as individual blazes united and formed a gigantic conflagration. Balls of fire shot up into the air hitting branches and debris making them burn more the balls of fire eventually fell as far as 50 miles away that’s 80 km the fire spread so

On July 3rd around noon the fire burned downhill and had only covered about 3 acres, burning mostly cured grass, twigs, and small shrubs. It continued to burn throughout the day and by midnight had reached upwards to burning 11 acres. July 5th the fire had burned 50 acres and on the 6th had reached 127 acres. Officials said the fire was steady until winds of speeds between 30-45 mph picked up mid afternoon on the 6th. Winds were blowing the fire over the ridges, upslope, and in the drainage. The winds gave the fire a blow torch affect and caused it to spread rapidly everywhere. Studies say that with the fire having practically unlimited fuel it was spreading at 3 feet per second in the drainage areas, and moving upslope at 6 to 9 feet per

If you look at all the deaths worldwide that are caused by fires each year, this number is a staggering

As local climatic conditions play a significant role in bushfire behaviour, it is important to understand fire weather and its influence on bushfire risk levels to a site on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis.

Over the past 30 years, Wildfires have become more frequent and have increased in size. Records show that all vegetated continents have experienced uncontrolled fires. (Science Magazine) According to the American Geophysical Union, "The total area these fires burned increased at a rate of nearly 90,000 acres a year -- an area the size of Las Vegas. Individually, the largest wildfires grew at a rate of 350 acres a year." (Science Daily, 2014)

The summer of 1871 was unusually dry, leaving Chicago in a drought. A hot, dry wind would blow in from the planes at around 20 mph. The dry air and a scorching breeze made the wooden structures of Chicago as dry as tinder, making fires almost impossible to prevent from happening and making a large unstoppable fire completely inevitable [Charles, 2003]. All summer long, firefighters were working nonstop trying to keep fires from blazing and ripping through forests and farms [History, 2016].

The city is most vulnerable to urban fire, storm-water flooding, dam flooding, and extreme cold. However, extreme heat and cold are the city’s immediate concerns due to its concentrated urbanized population and measurable homeless. With extreme heat during the summer and cold during the winter being of significant concerns to the city, it is notable to highlight that the risk of urban fire ranks number one for several reasons. For instance, “In 2004-2009, the last year for which data was available, The Massachusetts Fire Incident Report System reported a total of 815 fires in Worcester. There were 4 deaths resulting from these fires, and a total of $35,370,024 in property loss” (CMRPC, 2012). Using these numbers as evidence, one can certainly confirm that urban fire is the top hazardous risk the city of Worcester faces in regards to economic risk factors. These fires pose an immediate threat to life, property and overall functionality of local

Wildfire in California is a significant environmental problem that is increasing becoming more severe. Recent studies have shown that wildfire frequency, size, and area burned are all increasing in the western United States (Miller et al. 2008). The 2015 fire season set a record for the amount of acres burned in the United States with 68,151 wildfires burning 10,125,149 acres of land (Insurance Information Institute 2015). High severity wildfires have substantial environmental, economic, and human health impacts. Policy changes such as an adaptive management system of fuel reduction, as well as communication and education are essential tools in combating wildfire in California.

As the differences between Legacy (circa 1950-1970) and Modern fires (circa 1980-2017) are explored, one must examine and answer a few questions. When is oxidation not combustion? When is combustion not oxidation? What is the basic mechanism of fire spread? How does legacy fires differ from modern fires in fire growth? These questions and the findings associated directly correlate to the study and findings of multiple controlled lab experiments conducted by the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in 2012. Underwriters Laboratories is a global, non-profit safety organization. UL tests, certifies, verifies, inspects, audits, advises and educates in many markets.

Much like all events and natural phenomena that pose a threat to civilization, humans have learned to cope with and prevent the loss of human life and destruction of property in devastating blazes that can break out seemingly at random. Fighting fires was not always the science it is today, but due to the use of new technologies and the fundamental understanding of what fire is, how it spreads, how it can kill, and how it is stopped, our protocol when dealing with fires has increased our success rate and continues to grow with applications of engineering, chemistry, and meteorology.

“Poems are written with the feelings and emotions, with the intuition and the instincts, that make each of us who we are” (Charters 669). Dana Gioia, the author of “Summer Storm 2000” expresses an emotional works to an event dated back 20 years ago. Gioia uses dictions such as, imagery, figures of speech, setting, tone, and ballad to help readers not only comprehend the poem but to help them envision and feel it as if they were the ones experiencing the story. Gioia uses these means as a way of expressing his feelings and thoughts while explain to readers the deeper meaning of what “Summer Storm” really entails.

LiDAR is a remote sensing survey method that improved upon the advances of laser altimeter data by being able to model fuel parameters. Models depicting forest fire behavior are invaluable to resource managers. There are several forest canopy structures that are particularly effective at modeling fire behavior (Peterson, 2013). These canopy metrics include height, fuel weight, base height and bulk density (Andersen et al, 2005). High resolution LiDAR technology enabled large areas of forest to be measured three-dimensionally (Sima et al, 2014). After the LiDAR data were collected from either a stationary platform or mounted to an aircraft, statistical regressions could develop numerous predictive models that mapped fuel parameters.

Kułakowski, P., Calle, E., & Marzo, J. L. (2013). Performance study of wireless sensor and actuator networks in forest fire scenarios. International journal of communication systems, 26(4), 515-529.