REMEMBERING 2O10’S
WILDFIRES
Walter Hays, Global Alliance for
Disaster Reduction, University of
North Carolina, USA
2010
THE YEAR OF “RECORD
AND NEAR-RECORD”
NATURAL DISASTERS
Natural Phenomena that Cause
Disasters
Planet Earth’s
atmosphericlithospheric
interactions
cause:
Wildfires
WILDFIRES
are conflagrations caused by
lightning discharges (or acts of
man) in wilderness areas close
enough to one or more urban
interfaces that they threaten
people, property, infrastructure,
and business enterprise.
THE WILDERNESS AREAS
typically contain national
forests, national parks, or
resorts and the adjacent
urban areas typically contain
large, expensive homes.
SCIENCE OF WILDFIRES
WILDFIRE HAZARDS
(AKA POTENTIAL DISASTER AGENTS)
•
•
•
•
FIRE
HOT GASES AND SMOKE
HOT SPOTS
BURNED OUT SLOPES (with
increased susceptibility to insect
infestation, erosion, and
landslides)
WILDFIRE HAZARDS
(AKA POTENTIAL DISASTER AGENTS)
• SUNDOWNER WINDS
• SANTA ANNA WINDS
• LOCAL CHANGES IN AIR
QUALITY
• LOCAL CHANGES IN WEATHER
WILDFIRES CAN CAUSE HIGH-RISK
SITUATIONS
Any wildfire, whatever the
cause, can be devastating to
people, property, infrastructure, business enterprise,
individual livelihoods, wildlife,
and the environment.
RISK ASSESSMENT
•HAZARD MAPS
•INVENTORY
•VULNERABILITY
•LOCATION
ACCEPTABLE RISK
RISK
UNACCEPTABLE RISK
WILDFIRE DISASTER
RISK REDUCTION
DATA BASES
AND INFORMATION
COMMUNITY
POLICY OPTIONS
HAZARDS:
GROUND SHAKING
GROUND FAILURE
SURFACE FAULTING
TECTONIC DEFORMATION
TSUNAMI RUN UP
AFTERSHOCKS
•PREVENTION/MITIGATION
•PREPAREDNESS
•INTERVENTION/ RESPONSE
•RECOVERY and
RECONSTRUCTION
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR
FIGHTING WILDFIRES
• FORECASTS OF
WEATHER
CONDITIONS
• MONITORING
TECHNOLOGIES (E.G.,
REMOTE SENSING,
TEMPER-ATURE,
HUMIDITY, WINDS)
• WARNING SYSTEMS
• INTERVENTION
STRATEGIES
• DATABASES FOR
EACH WILDFIRE
• COMPUTER MODELS
OF WILDFIRES
• MAPS; ZONING
• DISASTER
SCENARIOS
• HAZARD AND RISK
ASSESSMENTS
2010: IMPACTED NATIONS
• Russia (7 regions) USA
(Arizona, California, Colorado;
Utah), Bolivia, Israel…
SOCIETAL IMPACTS DURING
2010
• 600 Wildfires
• 300 firefighters and
affected 7 regions in aircraft fought
Russia (including
wildfires in Arizona
Moscow), killed 34,
• 1,700 firefighters,
burned 309,000
planes, and
acres, and affected
helicopters fought 3
tens of thousands.
wildfires near Los
Angeles; thousands
were evacuated
SOCIETAL IMPACTS DURING
2010
• A wildfire that
started after an auto
accident in Fourmile
Canyon near
Boulder, Colorado,
burned 7,120 acres,
destroyed 100
homes, and
displaced 3,500.
• Wildfires started
by farmers in
Bolivia burned 1.5
million hectares of
land.
WILDFIRES
•FLAGSTAFF, AZ
• SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
• RUSSIA
•BOLIVIA
•BOULDER, COLORADO
THREE WILFIRES RAGE
NEAR FLAGSTAFF,
ARIZONA
300 FIREFIGHTERS AND AIRCRAFT
FIGHT BLAZES
JUNE 20-23, 2010
BRINS FIRE NEAR
FLAGSTAFF, AZ: JUNE 20
SCHULTZ FIRE NEAR
FLAGSTAFF, AZ: JUNE 21
The communities of
Fernwood, Timberline and
Wupatki were evacuated
because of the Shultz Fire, a
massive blaze.
To keep the fires from
spreading towards
communities, firefighters
built containment lines, dug
trenches, cleared out brush,
and sprayed hot spots with
water.
CONTAINING THE SCHULTZ
FIRE: JUNE 21
FIGHTING SCHULTZ FIRE:
JUNE 21
WILFIRES IN SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA: LEONA
VALLEY AND KERN
COUNTY
NO DEATHS AS THOUSANDS
EVACUATED
JULY 27 – AUGUST 3, 2010
Wildfires happen every year
in California, so most
homes of recent
construction have fire
resistant roofs, stucco
walls, boxed eaves, and
landscapes with fireresistant vegetation.
LEONA VALLEY, CA
• Two jumbo planes, three waterdropping helicopters, and 1,700
firefighters worked to get
ahead of the blaze that broke
out around 3 p.m. on Tuesday
(July 27th) in Leona Valley,
southwest of Palmdale.
LEONA VALLEY, CA
LEONA VALLEY, CA
The winds generated by the fire
pushed the flames north and east
toward the suburbs of Los Angeles
County's inland desert, causing
orange flames to explode through
the dry grasses, jump roads and
viaducts, and speed across the rural
foothills that connect Los Angeles
and the high desert.
.
15 M (50 FT) FLAMES: LEONA
VALLEY, CA
LEONA VALLEY, CA
LEONA VALLEY, CA
LEONA VALLEY, CA
DC-10 DROPPING FLAME
RETARDANT: PALMDALE CA
On Friday (July 30th), when five
high-voltage transmission lines and
2,300 homes were threatened,
contingency plans were triggered,
leading to the evacuation of homes
in the communities of Leona Valley
and parts of Palmdale.
As of Friday (July 30), there was
zero containment of the Leona
Valley wildfire.
Further north in Kern
County, good weather
helped firefighters achieve
44 % containment for two
wildfires burning in remote
mountain communities near
Tehachapi, on the western
edge of the Mojave Desert.
Vegetation that hadn't
burned in more than a
century was fuel for the
2010 Kern County fire.
KERN COUNTY WILDFIRE:
JULY 28
FIREFIGHTERS: KERN
COUNTY WILDFIRE
KERN COUNTY WILDFIRE
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
MEDVEDEV DECLARES STATE
OF EMERGENCY
600 WILDFIRES KILL 34 AND BURN
309,000 ACRES IN 7 REGIONS
JULY 29 – AUGUST 13, 2010
Wildfires happen in Russia
about once every 30 to 40
years, so communities
generally lack capability for
fire fighting.
The hottest temperatures in
130 years across much of
western and central Russia
topped 35 degrees C (95 F)
during a 5-week period,
causing 19 peat bog fires and
creating conditions that
exacerbated wildfires and
drought.
On July 29, forests in the
Moscow region's Kolomna
district caught fire.
600 WILDFIRES WERE
BURNING IN 7 REGIONS
14 regions were declared an
emergency situation and
nearly 86,000 people were
evacuated.
The fires destroyed more
than 1,800 homes, leaving
nearly 5,000 people
homeless.
Several villages in the
Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh
and Ryazan regions were
reduced to ashes.
PRIME MINISTER PUTIN: “VILLAGES
TO BE REBUILT BEFORE WINTER”
Russia deployed nearly a
quarter of a million people
(comprised of the military,
professionals, and volunteers)
and 25,000 pieces of equipment
(including planes and
helicopters) to fight the fires.
STRONG WINDS AND 32 C – 42 C
TEMPERATURES HINDERED FIREFIGHTING
VORONEZH WILDFIRE
ONE OF 14,000 FIREFIGHTERS:
VORONEZH FIRE
MOSCOW IN SMOKE:
AUGUST 6
Moscow was veiled in acrid
smoke from the fires,
causing landmarks to
disappear from view and
commuters to hold
handkerchiefs to their faces
Russia received help from the
following countries: France,
Germany, Italy, Poland,
Turkey, and the USA, as well
as from former Soviet
Republics: Belarus, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine.
The USA
delivered firefighting
equipment (valued at $2.5
million (euro 2 million)) and
the State of California
contributed fire-protective
clothing.
WILDFIRES IN BOLIVA
AUGUST 19- ?, 2010
LOCATION OF BOLIVIA
25,000 fire hotspots were
burning in five of the country's
nine regions on Friday, August
20, engulfing as much as 1.5
million hectares of land.
The fires were started illegally by
farmers who burn forests and
grasslands in the summer to renew
and expand their agricultural lands.