Forest Fires

• Classification of Fires
  • Rate of Spread
  • Level
  • Fuel Consumption
  • Head Fire Instensity
  • Source
  • Weather Forcing
  • Growth and Propagation
• Pyrocumulus Development
• Smoke Spread within a Temperature Inversion
• Summary and Exercises

Level

Fires may occur at different levels. You are probably familiar with fires that burn the surface litter (surface fire) and fires that burn the tree crowns (crown fire).

The crowning (the stage of a fire in which the crowns start to be involved) depends on the height of the crowns, on the foliar moisture content, on the rate of spread of a fire and on the consumption of fuel at the surface.

There is a third type of fire, of which you may not have been aware - the ground fire. It may be invisible to the human eye as it takes place in the humus layer.

(Forestry Canada, 1992, p34-p36)