Assessment of the effectiveness of the forest fire fighting ground forces in Greece

Abstract

Efficient dispatching of firefighting forces to a forest fire and effective management of those requires good knowledge of their capabilities and limitations. The study presented here tries to develop knowledge and equations for evaluating the performance and limitations of the ground forces attacking fires in Greece taking into consideration the firefighting methods used in the country. It is based on a questionnaire with photos of fires that was answered by 67 individuals with varying firefighting experience and involvement in firefighting. Among the results reported here are equations for selecting “direct attack on all points” of a fire as a function of flame length and of rate of spread and equations for estimating the probability that a fire will be considered as being beyond the capacity of any of a series of suggested firefighting resources combinations. Also, equations were developed for estimating the length of fire front and of fire flank that can be extinguished by a light fire truck with a water capacity of 600 liters and a fire truck with a capacity of 2500 liters, as a function of flame length. The results of the study provide useful input for understanding and modelling forest fire suppression in Greece and can probably be useful for other Mediterranean countries as well.