King’s College London designing better methods to mitigate wildfire

by Featured NewsIndustry SectorsWildland Fire

As parts of Europe face their worst ever wildfire season, experts at King’s College London are working with partners across the continent to design and implement better methods for mitigating this threat.

King’s experts from the Department of Geography and the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society are working on improved detection and monitoring of fires as well as helping estimate the effect of the smoke on air quality and people’s health.

The work falls under FirEUrisk, a European-funded project that fosters knowledge transfer between European countries, with the aim of preventing and managing the threat posed by major wildfires. The project is a multi-million Euro project made up of 39 expert partners which aims to develop guidelines, directives and recommendations that can be adopted by all European countries.

Professor Martin Wooster said: “This project aims to deliver a step-change in how wildfires are managed across Europe. Particularly bad fires are unfortunately quite frequent in parts of southern Europe such as Portugal and Spain, but hotter, drier conditions in the UK and Northern Europe may see more fires in those environments as well.

“With the wealth of expertise at King’s in this area, we’re able to contribute vital capabilities such as how to use satellites for the early detection and ongoing monitoring of wildfire events. Working with others, we can also better understand how the smoke from these fires affects the health of the location population, which can be quite significant even hundreds of kilometres downwind.”

Aided by European satellites, the King’s team use algorithms to translate the raw satellite data into digestible information and support the early detection and ongoing monitoring of fires across Europe.

They are also able to use the satellite data to estimate the amount of smoke released by the fires the impact this has on the quality of the air people breathe and how this air pollution affects people’s health.

Community Wildfire Defense Grant launched by US Department of Agriculture

by Featured News

The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service has announced the availability of up to $1bn in grant funding, appropriated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, for the establishment of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CDWG) Program.

As authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs funds will be made available and distributed to eligible applicants within the footprints of the Western States, Northeast-Midwest States, Southern States, and Indian Tribes/Alaska Native Corporations.

There are two primary project types for which the CDWG provides funding: the development and revising of Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and the implementation of projects described in a CWPP that is less than ten years old.

The Act prioritizes at-risk communities that are in an area identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, and/or have been impacted by a severe disaster.

The CWDG will help communities in the wildland urban interface (WUI) implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy):

  • Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances, in accordance with management objectives. 
  • Create Fire Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure can better withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property. 
  • Improve Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions. 

The grants are funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Applications are now available.

Southern Colorado establishes Interagency Wildland Fire Team

by Featured News

In response to the increase in fire activity a group called the Southern Colorado Interagency Wildland Fire Team has been established led by Superintendent Shane Coyne.

The ‘South Group’ is made up of people from Security Fire Protection District, Hanover Fire Protection District, Fountain Fire Department, Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District, Fort Carson Fire and Emergency Services, and Southwest Highway 115 Fire Protection District.

This newly formed team will consist of highly trained, motivated, and experienced wildland firefighters from across the region.

“I am sober to the work that continues ahead but honoured and excited by this opportunity to create a new wildland fire team,” said superintendent Shane Coyne of the Southern Colorado Interagency Wildland Fire Team.

“On these red flag days were actually manning extra apparatus or combining it with apparatus that are already down here. So that when the fire call does come out, we’re on scene way quicker and we’re not trying to respond from various locations throughout the county to get here.”

Chief Robert Fisher, Fort Carson Fire and Emergency Services said the formalising the partnership will allow them to cut the number of calls they will need to make to agencies to source available emergency responders.

Coyne continued: “In the big picture we just have to realise that fire season is all year long and that we can get a big fire anytime of the year. We can’t let our guard down, there’s no time to rest really. We always have to think that even if it’s December and we think there’s snow on the ground, we think it’s cold that fire could get up and move.

“Every time we’ve had a challenge or something to work through, we’ve made it through that and it has come together actually very quickly.” He added: “This team’s journey will always be a mountain with no top but we are driven by the desire to serve others.”