Summary and Exercises
As
you have seen, there are a few specific concepts related to fire
behaviour. Let's see if you have learned enough about fires to solve
the following quiz!
Question
Connect the concept with its description.
Is defined as the rate of heat energy release per unit time per unit length of fire front. Also known as frontal fire intensity or line fire intensity.
Fire which is mainly driven by local wind that is generated in response to strong convection above the fire. It depends strongly on the stability of the air column. Also known as plume dominated fire or blowup fire.
A forest fire that advances with great speed jumping from crown to crown ahead of the ground fire. Fire with a minimum rate of spread, in which crowns start to be involved. Its initiation 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.
Fire in which the wind plays the major role on the development.
Method of fire growth, in which firebrands (or burning embers) are lofted by the smoke column outsite the fire perimeter.
A forest fire that burns the humus; may not appear on the surface.
Amount of forest floor, surface woody fuel and crown foliage to be consumed.
Curve or surface determined by a temperature that equals an ignition temeprature. It can be characterized by leading and rear edges. Also known as fire line or fireline.
Forward movement of the fire front per unit time after having reached an equilibrium state. It can be measured in metres/minute and may range up to around 30 metres/minute.
What this final game illustrated was that fires may be classified according to different criteria depending on the purpose.
For
instance, for fire combat purposes one may be interested in classifying
the fire according to the level (crown, surface or ground), but it may
be also relevant to evaluate the rate of spread or the forcing
mechanism (wind or convection).
You also learned that pyrocumulus clouds may form and smoke may be retained within temperature inversion layers.