Wildfire trend worries retired Fort McMurray fire chief Darb

[maryjane48]

http://globalnews.ca/news/3591022/wildf ... m=Facebook



Well this is a one-in-100-year event, but they seem to be happening fairly regularly all of a sudden.”

“There’s something weird going on, and it kind of worries me a little bit.”

[hobbyguy]

Darby Allen is not alone in his assessment.

Right now in BC we have a nexus of circumstances that make fighting the wildfires extremely difficult, if not impossible. A wet spring growing copious amounts of now dried out brush, beetle killed trees that have hit the ground throughout many regions in large numbers, and a prolonged hot dry period.

Other countries/areas have experienced similar scenarios, and unfortunately the prospects of fighting the fires is poor. Australia. California. Portugal. Climate change induced wild fires are are real bear-cats!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/as-bc-blaze-continues-to-burn-researchers-ask-will-wildfires-get-too-intense-tofight/article35699915/

"New research suggests climate change will dramatically hamper our ability to stop future fires from destroying communities"

"Canada, among the countries with the most trees in the world, has been very successful managing wildfires, but the number of fires too intense for even large water tankers to suppress is predicted to double by the end of this century, according to a new study in Environmental Review Letters."

"Climate change will make Canada hotter and drier, which will lead to less moisture in the forests, creating more fuel and ratcheting up the intensity of fires, Dr. Flannigan said.

It’s hard to predict, Dr. Flannigan says, but research shows that a 10-per-cent increase in the intensity of a fire could lead to a doubling or tripling of the overall territory consumed by flames. "

"The three most catastrophic fires in modern Canadian history – Slave Lake, Kelowna and Fort McMurray – have all come in the past two decades and more communities will surely burn in the coming decades, according to Glen McGillivray, managing director of the Toronto-based Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. "

"Because of these recent blazes, B.C. and Alberta have invested more in prevention and are better prepared than their counterparts further east, he says. "

"Over the past two years, B.C. has approved almost $900,000 in FireSmart grants and invested $78-million through its own plan to help local governments and First Nations reduce their risk. The B.C. plan was set up after the 2003 Kelowna fire. "

I quoted just a few key paragraphs from that article for those not past the paywall.

The indications from what these experts are saying is, unfortunately, that with the effects of climate change, by the time we get to the stage of fighting wild fires, it is more and more going to be a case of fighting monsters that we have few tools, if any, to effectively combat.

[maryjane48]

i wonder if concussion bombs would work ? like they use on oil fires . and one thing that should be done is clearing trees from around your house and towns. need buffer zones .

[hobbyguy]

Concussion would just blow flaming embers every which way. Plus knock down trees to become more fuel on the ground.

Even the Mars water bomber creates those effects - which is one of the reasons they stopped using it.

You are correct though, buffer zones are needed. Two problems though.

Firstly the best way to create the buffer zones is controlled burns - and controlled burns freak out the public. Everyone from those who have Asthma to tree huggers who see the burn area as "destroying virgin forest" and folks who are afraid bambi or thumper will get caught in the fire start yacking up a storm.

Secondly, a lot of folks love the idea of "a cabin in the woods" for their homes. Somehow the prospect of wild fires never enters their consciousness. Yup, you can do that on Haida Gwaii or in Tofino and get away with it, but not throughout much of the rest of the province. There is a reason that trees grow very large and very old in places like Prince Rupert, and not in the interior. Fire ecology.

[maryjane48]

yea concussion wouldnt work but if you could suck oxegen out somehow there be no burning .

[vegas1500]

yea concussion wouldnt work but if you could suck oxegen out somehow there be no burning .

You should present your theory to BC fire services!

[maryjane48]

they use bombs to put out rig blowouts . we are going to need to do something different . with longer dry spells what we are doing now is clearly not working .

[hobbyguy]

MJ - there are ways to displace oxygen and put fires out by eliminating oxygen supply (in essence that's what water does).

Halon is one such method. It used to be common to use Halon bomb type extinguishers in sailboat engine compartments. Not so much anymore as the safer chemicals used now are quite expensive.

CO2 fire extinguishers do that as well, displacing the oxygen. But they only work well in confined spaces like a boat's engine compartment (smart boaters will consider "fire ports" - small breakable windows into their engine compartment and a CO2 fire extinguisher mounted beside it - break the window, poke the CO2 nozzle through - presto, no more engine fire).

But you have to consider the folks fighting the fire - no oxygen, no firefighters. Given the scale of wildfires pretty impractical to use such things as Halon or CO2 (plus the wind blows them away).

In terms of consuming the oxygen - well that's what fuels do. So that is entirely impossible. (That, by the way, is partly why explosives work for snuffing oil fires, the explosive consumes and displaces the oxygen very rapidly.)