Mapping fires and American Red Cross aid using demographic indicators of vulnerability

Social vulnerability indicators can assist with informing disaster relief preparation. Certain demographic segments of a population may suffer disproportionately during disaster events, and a geographical understanding of them can help to determine where to place strategically logistical assets and to target disaster‐awareness outreach endeavours. Records of house fire events and American Red Cross aid provision over a five‐year period were mapped for the County of Los Angeles, California, United States, to examine the congruence between actual events and expectations of risk based on vulnerability theory. The geographical context provided by the data was compared with spatially‐explicit indicators of vulnerability, such as age, race, and wealth. Fire events were found to occur more frequently in more vulnerable areas, and Red Cross aid was found to have an even stronger relationship to those places. The findings suggest that these indicators speak beyond vulnerability and relate to patterns of fire risk.     

Influence of thermal environment on metallographic structure characteristics of the electric arc bead pattern

Electrical apparatuses are prone to arc, which generally causes a fire, even an explosion hazard, when a flammable gas mixture is present, especially during industrial processes. Terrible fire scenes are challenging for fire investigations. In this work, by performing a simultaneous thermal analysis test we simulated a fire environment and found that as the oxygen concentration decreased, the oxidation/exothermic peak temperature of ‘cause’ bead became higher, but the melting temperature was unaffected. Results indicated that the bead pattern underwent oxidation at approximately 831 °C, melting initiated at approximately 1060 °C, and the pattern then disappeared. The melted pattern grain changes were divided into three critical temperature stages: Approximately 600 °C, the onset temperature at which the melted pattern grains began to be equiaxed; approximately 831 °C, at which the grains were interspersed with oxygen-containing material; and 831–1060 °C, when the grains disappeared, which is a criterion for identifying electrical fires. However, the boundaries remained throughout the thermal environment process. Moreover, the bead pattern demonstrated three metallographic regions: Deep layer (Region I), the intermediate layer (Region Ⅱ), and surface layer (Region Ⅲ). Region I was the most thermally sensitive, in which equiaxed crystals first appeared. Region Ⅲ was the thermal reaction lag zone, in which the typical branching crystals finally disappeared, and Region Ⅱ was intermediate between Regions I and Ⅲ. The results may help fire investigators determine the fire scene temperature stages and provide support for fire evidence extraction.     

Performance of water mist system with base injection in extinguishing small container fires

The purpose of the present work is the experimental investigation on the extinguishment of diesel container fires by a water-mist system with base injection through multiple nozzles placed symmetrically at various positions around the rim of the container. Experimental parameters selected are the orifice diameter of the nozzle, the number of nozzles, position of nozzles (angle of orientation, radial and vertical distance of the nozzle from the edge of the container), and injection pressure. Nozzles used in the present work are pressure-swirl nozzles with Z-type swirl-insert with solid-cone spray. Desirable properties of the system such as the non-clogging operation of the nozzle and uniform mass flux density in the spray are tested for the nozzles. The optimized solution is provided considering water consumption and the physical stability of the fuel surface in the container. Displacement of oxygen is observed as a predominant extinction mechanism due to the effective application of spray in the base region of the fire. The present work provides the parametric study of the extinction establishing the feasibility of the water mist system with a base injection for extinguishing tank fires. This may serve as guidelines for the preliminary design of the system with the extension for larger tank fires.     

煤田火区温室气体通量测量方法研究进展

为提高煤田火区温室气体通量测量的准确性,科学制定温室气区减排措施,笔者对国内外煤田火区温室气体测量方法进行梳理,对比分析各种测量方法的原理、优缺点和适用范围等,提出测量方法存在的问题及以后的研究方向。研究表明:目前所用的测量方法存在测量精度低、连续性差、假设理想化等缺陷,检测设备的改进应朝着能适应当地地表高温环境并能实现连续监测的方向发展,测量方法应更注重和新技术的结合。     

丙烷扩散火焰燃烧光谱特性研究

为实现烃类火灾事故的光谱辨识,对丙烷火焰燃烧初期过程中的光谱特性进行实验研究,利用拉曼光谱仪等设备采集、提取丙烷扩散火焰光谱数据。分析燃烧初期OH~*,C₂~*,CH~*,H₂O分子谱带范围及特征峰值分布特性,揭示谱带光谱特征强弱的主要原因,阐述沿火焰轴向与径向C₂~*,CH~*以及H₂O分子光谱峰值强度的分布特性。研究结果表明：丙烷火焰特征光谱主要分布在可见光与近红外波段,250～380 nm的近紫外波段光谱强度较弱。C₂~*的509.4,512.8,810.5 nm特征谱带,CH~*的431.4 nm谱带以及H₂O分子的586.2,652.2 nm处振动-转动谱带可作为丙烷火焰燃烧的关键特征光谱,为烃类火灾的早期识别与防控提供光谱实验依据。     

Environmental impact of the Gulf War: An integrated preliminary assessment

This article provides an objective integrated environmental impact assessment of the Gulf War consequences. The environmental damage was evaluated and found to be significantly exaggerated by the media and speculators. The total amount of burned crude oil was calculated to be 52.5 million metric tons. Most air pollution field measurements were comparable to those found in Western cities. The health impact associated with such exposure was found to be minimal. The total amount of oil released into the marine environment ranged between 2 and 4 million barrels, much less than the early estimation of 12–14 million barrels. The marine environment is expected to recover much faster than earlier anticipations. Unlike water and air, soil pollution is likely to persist for some years to come.     

Human-caused wildfire risk rating for prevention planning in Spain

This paper identifies human factors associated with high forest fire risk in Spain and analyses the spatial distribution of fire occurrence in the country. The spatial units were 6,066 municipalities of the Spanish peninsular territory and Balearic Islands. The study covered a 13-year series of fire occurrence data. One hundred and eight variables were generated and input to a dedicated Geographic Information System (GIS) to model different factors related to fire ignition. After exploratory analysis, 29 were selected to build a predictive model of human fire ignition using logistic regression analysis. The binary model estimated the probability of high or low occurrence of forest fires, as defined by an ignition danger index that is currently used by the Spanish forest service (number of fires divided by forest area in each municipality). Thirteen explanatory variables were identified by the model. They were related to agricultural landscape fragmentation, agricultural abandonment and development processes. The prediction agreement found between the model binary outputs and the historical fire data was 85.3% for the model building dataset (60% of municipalities). A slightly lower predictive power (76.2%) was found for the validation data (the remaining 40%). The probabilistic output of the logistic was significantly related to the raw ignition index (Spearman correlation of 0.710) used by the Spanish Forest Service. Therefore, the model can be considered a good predictor of human-caused fire risk, aiding spatial decisions related to prevention planning in Spanish municipalities.     

Analysis of dioxin-like compounds in vegetation and soil samples burned in Catalan forest fires. Comparison with the corresponding unburned material

Only a few data are reported about the formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and dibenzofurans (PCDF) in forest fires. However, the inventories of sources undertaken by several European and American countries consider natural fires as a possible source of PCDD/F and, in some cases, as one of the most important. In our work we have analysed vegetation and soil samples burned in four forest fires which happened in Catalonia in the summer of 1998. The concentration of dioxin-like compounds (PCDD/F, non-ortho polychlorinated bi-phenyls (PCB) and mono-ortho PCB) has been compared to the concentration present in the corresponding unburned material collected in places near the fires but not affected. The results of this preliminary study show very low concentrations in all the samples, both burned and unburned. Although a change in the profile (proportional increase of tetrachlorinated congeners in PCDD/F) is observed in burned samples compared to unburned ones, the absolute values of concentration decrease in most samples. Therefore, natural fires seem not to be an important source of dioxin-like compounds. These results will be confirmed with air emissions measurements in future studies.     

Preliminary report: Dioxins and furans in prescribed burns

The Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) recently participated in a joint Canadian/U.S. program to monitor the behavior and environmental impact of prescribed fires. Air, soil and ash samples were collected at the burn sites and analyzed for chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (CDD) and dibenzofurans (CDF). Preliminary results indicated that larger air sample volumes were required.     

黑龙江省森林火灾灾情年际变化与地球自转异常的遥联关系

根据天地生相互作用原理,针对地球自转因子的多年变化情况以及与在此期间森林火为灾情的关系的研究,揭示了森林火灾和地球自转有密切的联系,为林火预测提供了新的思路。