ARTÍCULO
TITULO

Determining response times for the deployment of terrestrial resources for fighting forest fires. A case study: Mediterranean ? Chile

Miguel E. Castillo    
Francisco Rodriguez y Silva    

Resumen

A study of response times for the arrival of terrestrial forest fire fighting resources was undertaken. The advantage of the method proposed here is that it may be exactly replicated in different countries and under different environmental conditions, budgets and infrastructures for wildfire combat. This is an international-level support offering better reference material for optimizing terrestrial resources. In the combat of forest fires, fire fighting resource response times are of particular importance when evaluating fire advance speed and fire damage potential against time. Due to the importance of speed in fire containment and the economic consequences of a fire, a fire combat response time curve was constructed using fire fighting operation data from 1,006 fires that occurred in a Mediterranean region of Chile. Five categories were established according to fire size and fire behavior and were based on the conditions of the perimeter fire control strategies. The results show different fire evolution curves for affected areas. In fires less than 1 ha in size, the first fire fighting attack lasted on average 25 min, compared with up to 69? for fires approximately 20 ha in size. The affected surface area ranged from 0.97 to 11.43 ha over these size ranges. The response time decreased for fires greater than 20 ha, mainly due to the predominance of aerial resources that accelerate the first fire fighting attack. The average burnt area ranged from 11.43 to 31.92 ha, which suggests good combat efficiency, given that these fires present very aggressive behavior. Mathematical functions were derived from this analysis, which describe fire fighting tasks in terms of fire advance time. This innovative study, for which there are no other references in scientific literature, will allow cost and efficiency functions to be derived for forest fire combat, among other benefits. As indicated earlier, the advantage of this research is that the methods may be perfectly adapted to the operative conditions faced by an organization during the wildfire season. Knowledge of response curves enables optimization of financial resources to increase terrestrial coverage of the protected area.En el combate de incendios forestales, los tiempos de respuesta de los recursos de extinción adquieren especial relevancia cuando se evalúa la velocidad de avance del fuego y los daños potenciales que se producen a medida que transcurre el tiempo. Por la importancia que adquiere la rapidez en la contención del fuego y sus consecuencias económicas, se efectuó un estudio de curvas de respuesta de los medios de extinción, basados en una base de datos de operaciones de combate de 1.006 incendios localizados en un área mediterránea de Chile. Se establecieron cinco categorías de tamaño y sus relaciones con la evolución del comportamiento del fuego en condiciones de aplicación de labores de control perimetral. Los resultados muestran distintas curvas de evolución en avance de la superficie afectada. En incendios menores a 1 ha, el primer ataque se produce en promedio a los 25 minutos, llegando hasta 69? para incendios cercanos a 20 ha. La superficie afectada oscila entre 0,97 y 11,43 ha para este rango. Los tiempos de respuesta disminuyen a partir de clases de tamaño mayores a 20 ha, principalmente por el predominio de medios aéreos que aceleran el primer ataque al incendio. Las superficies medias ascienden de 11,43 a 31,92 ha en área quemada, lo cual supone una buena eficiencia en el combate dado que se trata de incendios de alta conflictividad en el comportamiento del fuego. De este análisis se construyeron funciones matemáticas que permiten describir el desarrollo de las labores de extinción en función del tiempo de avance del fuego. Es un estudio innovador, y del cual no existen otras referencias en la literatura científica. Permite entre otros beneficios, establecer funciones de gasto y eficiencia en el combate de incendios forestales.

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