Controlled burning or “prescribed burning” is a fuel management technique used to help prevent out-of-control wildfires by intentionally burning off areas of dry, flammable natural materials in a controlled manner. Controlled burns can also be used to prepare an area for tree planting or to enhance a specific habitat. Types of Controlled Burning Intentionally-Set Burn […]
This spring sees the coronavirus pandemic and the need to shelter in place and social distance in order to preserve the health of vulnerable people at the same time as the annual wildfire season begins. This means that firefighters will need to rethink the way that fire suppression is carried out, and the decrease in […]
AI technology is currently changing the way many things are done across industries, and now it is being implemented by the California Air National Guard (CA ANG) to help with monitoring and responding to forest fires. How Does Artificial Intelligence Fight Wildfire? The current process for identifying and mapping new wildfires entails people manually watching […]
An innovative new wildfire prevention treatment has been developed by researchers at Stanford University. The project leader is Eric Appel, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the university. The new treatment is a fire-retardant hydrogel called Fortify that lasts for a significant amount of time on vegetation after it has been applied. […]
Australia is currently experiencing massive wildfires that are causing massive damages, environmental impact, and worldwide concern. There have been 27 fatalities to date. The fires in Australia have burned 63,000 square kilometres so far. To put this into perspective, the Amazon rainforest fires in the summer of 2019 covered 9,060 square kilometres. The fires are […]
Sometimes a wildland fire produces a vertical twister of flame called a fire whirl or fire tornado (sometimes called a firenado). A well-known recent example of this was the devastating Carr fire in California in 2018, which produced a highly destructive fire tornado. One wildfire can produce multiple fire whirls and fire tornadoes of varying […]