The effect of aerial suppression on the containment time of Australian wildfires estimated by fire management personnel
M. P. Plucinski A B G , G. J. McCarthy C B D , J. J. Hollis E A B F and J. S. Gould A BA CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and CSIRO Climate Adaption Flagship, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, Level 5, 340 Albert Street, East Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia.
C School of Forest and Ecosystems Science, University of Melbourne, PO Box 260, Orbost, VIC 3888, Australia.
D Present address: Department of Sustainability and Environment, PO Box 260, Orbost, VIC 3888, Australia.
E Department of Environment and Conservation, Manjimup, WA 6258, Australia.
F Present address: School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, University of New South Wales@ADFA, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
G Corresponding author. Email: matt.plucinski@csiro.au
International Journal of Wildland Fire 21(3) 219-229 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF11063
Submitted: 6 May 2011 Accepted: 13 July 2011 Published: 14 December 2011
Abstract
The addition of aerial firefighting resources to wildfire suppression operations does not always result in faster fire containment. In this paper, containment times of fires with aerial suppression are compared with estimated containment times for the same fires without aerial suppression. Senior firefighting personnel who had worked on each fire estimated whether fires could have been contained within a time class if aircraft were not available. Data from 251 wildfires were analysed based on four fire-containment time classes: ≤2, 2–4, 4–8 and 8–24 h from the start of initial attack. Aircraft were perceived to reduce time to containment when firefighting conditions were more challenging owing to fuel hazard rating, weather conditions, slope, resource response times and area burning at initial attack. Comparisons of containment time with and without aircraft can be used to develop operational tools to help dispatchers decide when aircraft should be deployed to newly detected fires.
Additional keywords: fire management, initial attack, operational data, suppression resourcing.
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