Rethinking firefighting for the XXI century: A new firefightermodel, fires of design, and fire ecology

摘要

Last century we saw the more efficient we were fighting fires, the larger and more intense this fires became. The need of changing firefighting was obvious, and work had to be done before, during and after the fire. The concept of the fire paradox is building up each year and society and fire services are disoriented in that aspect. More resources are needed for bigger and intense wildfires, but also fires are needed for the safety and ecology of our forest. Fire ecology is in the middle of the fire paradox, fire intensity is the tool we can learn how to manage and understanding it can be the beginning of a new way (Agee, 1993). Our fire tactics are changing in order to take advance to the fire spread and simulators are already on the field helping our operations in that purpose. Also logical analysis is doing its job. But fighting fires when they have an speed or an intensity higher that the one available by the fire-fighters (rate of spread>5km/h and flame length> 4 m) needs anticipation. Pre-extinction is a concept growing up. In fact the new way can be a change from firefighting to fire management. During the wildfire the main new concept will be time to observe the wildfire. In the line of fire the ability of analyzing wildfire behavior will be the main tool that allows safety and efficiency. Maybe, one of the most significant changes of fire for the next century is that wildfire will never be again only an ecological problem, but also a social and cultural one, it’s a global emergency that that need globally prepared firefighters. The social aspect is a new issue in that particular world. To train our society to understand what fire is, how forest and fire interact and how we can destroy it or help it is a big but needed goal. All this considerations, changes and applications are actually done over different kinds of fire service, mainly seasonals. We have to think different, think in fire management as a complete action and not separate any more prevention from fighting, winter from summer and of course, forest fuels from urban fuels. Fire regime is working and building new fires all year around, we have to be there also all year around. A global service is the last issue. We all spend a big amount of in the firefighting budget. We have all the fire regime knowledge and know now that each are burn under certain conditions. Usually when western Spain is on fire in Eastern Spain people is at base. The same with France, Greece or Italy. A more fire event budget planning will give us more efficiency and save money to improve materials and prevention operations. Should we go to a global fire service?. The answer is yes, is we look the fires as a mesoescale event and not as a our own country problem.