Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

In this paper, through analysis of an ideal fire area, an attemp was made to develop a theoretical model to obtain optimum fireman numbers with minimal damage and cost at putting out a forest fire, under such a supposed case as follows: homogeneous vegetation type, unchanged wind direction and velocity, smooth terrain, and in the meanwhile with a prerequisite which one fireman is a basic unit and one should fight fire head during extinguishments. The model can be expressed as the following transcendental equation : aT'[(N - 2) • JinAN _ 1 • Jin(~) N· sinAN • Sin(N)] sin(AN _ 1 + N ~ 2) sin(AN + N) rb{N. [sinAN - sin(AN + N) ] (N - 2) • [sinA N _ 1 .: sin(AN _ . + N ~ 2) ]r =- - 2C V, sin(AN + N) sin(AN _ 1 + N ~ 2) Optimum fireman numbers and maximal benefits can be obtained by using the method of item-by-item iterative loop. If the efficiency of various fire extinguishers and fire behaviors under various fuel types and topography conditions are quantified, the model can be applied to determine optimum benefit of fire extinguishing in various fire areas and with various measures during extinguishing procedures.