Author
Wang Mingyu, Shu Lifu, Wang Qiuhua, et al
Journal
SCIENTIA SILVAE SINICAE
Paper Keyword
rain and snow damage ;fire occurrence ;fire fighting safety
Abstract
Freaky snow and ice storms had plagued southern China since mid-January to mid-February 2008.This long time snow and ice weather severely damaged forest ecosystem , and also greatly impacted forest fire occurrence and firefighters' safety. This paper analyzed forest fire hotpot distribution from satellite image , forest fire occurrence , firefighters injured and dead number , and influence of weather on fire occurrence , to assessed the impact of the snow and ice damage on fire occurrence and firefighting safety in Hunan Province .The result showed :Up to 61.00% hotspots distributed in the area damaged by the snow and ice .Fire number and burned area were extremely high in March 2008.Fire number was 3 097 , and burned area was 23 227.68 hm2.Fire number exceeded the total fires happened in allMarches from 1999 to 2007 , accounted for 120.65 % of the total fire number in Marches of 1999 -2007 , and was 10.86 times more than the average fire number in Marches of 1999 - 2007.The burned area accounted for 88.40 %of the total burned area inMarches of 1999 -2007, and was 4.69 times more than the average burned area in Marches of 1999-2007.The number of injured and dead fighters was 40 , and was 72.73% of the total number in Marches of 1999-2007 , and was 6.56 times of the average number of injured and dead in Marches of 1999 - 2007.The abnormal increase of fire number , burned area and the number of injured and dead go beyond the limit of weather change impact on forest fire occurrence .The number of injured and dead has significant correlation with fire number and burned area .Air temperature and rainfall does not have significant impact on fire number and burned area .The extreme increase of fire number , burned area and the number of injured and dead firefighters were impacted by weather , human activities under the background of great change of fuel accumulation , flammability , and fuel structure .
