Assessing wildland fire suppression effectiveness with infrared imaging on experimental fires

Melanie Wheatley; Joshua M. Johnston; B. Mike Wotton; Douglas G. Woolford; David L. Martell

doi:10.1071/WF24161

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Assessing wildland fire suppression effectiveness with infrared imaging on experimental fires

Melanie Wheatley ^A ^§ ^* , Joshua M. Johnston ^B , B. Mike Wotton ^A ^B , Douglas G. Woolford ^C and David L. Martell ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Institute of Forestry and Conservation, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B3, Canada.

^B Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 2E5, Canada.

^C Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.

^* Correspondence to: melanie.wheatley@ontario.ca

^§ This research was carried out while MW was a PhD student at the University of Toronto. MW is currently employed with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Aviation Forest Fire Emergency Services and all correspondence should be directed to .

International Journal of Wildland Fire 34, WF24161 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF24161

Submitted: 25 September 2024 Accepted: 7 January 2025 Published: 23 January 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).

Abstract

Background

Suppression effectiveness is often evaluated by measuring the extent to which it slows fire spread and reduces fireline intensity. Although studies have used infrared (IR) imaging methods to explore suppression effectiveness, most do not measure or assess the influence of water application on energy release.

Aims

This preliminary analysis uses IR imagery to quantify the impact of suppression on fire behaviour and the reduction in energy released from a flaming fire.

Methods

We conducted a series of small-scale experimental burns representative of pine and grass surface litter in the Canadian boreal forest and suppressed these fires while actively monitoring fire behaviour with overhead IR imagery. We used detailed measurements of fire radiative power to estimate fire radiative energy density, forward rate of spread and fireline intensity.

Key results

We observed changes in fire behaviour due to suppression, quantified the duration of those reductions and detected a suppression signal through an analysis of radiative energy during the flaming combustion phase.

Conclusions

IR methodology is able to capture the changes in energy released from a fire due to known aspects of water application.

Implications

Our findings can inform methodologies for field studies on suppression effectiveness, where ground sampling techniques are impractical but airborne IR methods can be employed.

Keywords: Byram’s fireline intensity, experimental burning, fire management, fire radiative energy density, fire radiative power, fire suppression, infrared imaging, rate of spread, remote sensing, suppression effectiveness, wildfire.

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