Safety, planning, & analysis section fire environment branch

1. Tim Howell, Fire Environment Branch Head Haw River State Park February 17, 2012 Safety, planning, & analysis sectionfire environment branch

2. Atmospheric Dispersion Model (ADM) Training • 3, week long trainings teaching field personnel how to collect the field information needed to plug into the models (fuel types, fuel loads, etc), running the models (V Smoke, Fire Emission Production Simulator, HySplit, PB Piedmont,etc), and how to interpret the models • All these trainings have been interagency – NCFS, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish & Wildlife, Department of Defense, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC State Parks • These trainings have allowed NC’s fire agencies to burn 1000’s of acres that under the ventilation index system (burning category), they would not have been able to! • The cadre has been interagency too – Roger Ottmar – USFS, Fire & Environmental Research Applications Team, Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, Gary Achtemeier – USFS, Research Meteorologist, US Southern Research Station, Bill Jackson – USFS, Air Resource Specialist, US Southern Research Station, Vince Carver – USFWS, Regional Fire Ecologist, Southeast Region Fire environment projects

3. Example hysplit (an adm) run

4. Since 2004, there has been 95 burns for a total of 53,840 acres that have been completed because of the ADM training. Without this tool these burns would not have taken place because the current smoke management system, the ventilation index system, showed these burns as “no go’s” day of the burn. Why ADM is important to Nc

5. Smoke impacts – fire fighter health & fire fighter/public safety on roads • Fire Environment Branch has purchased 3 E-BAM units for measuring real time particulate matter caused from wildfire smoke. These units were deployed during the Pains Bay Fire in 2011, the data is still being analyzed. This data will allow NCFS to know how long fire fighters should be exposed to smoke safely. • NCFS invited USFS researchers from California to the Pains Bay & Simmons Road wildfires. The researchers put portable particulate matter devices onto the firefighters. Their data is still being analyzed. • The Fire Environment Branch along with several collaborations with Gary Achtemeir, and several others, has developed a “super fog” matrix that allows the “every day” burn boss/or IC of a large incident to know if the likely hood of a smoke induced fog event Fire environment projects (cont)

6. “super fog” matrix

7. As a “side” project, Fire Environment Branch has been working with the NWS on producing fog/smoke specific items that will help field personnel predict fog/smoke events. NWS office out of Greenville/Spartenburg SC have now started producing a fire weather point forecast that incorporates all the needed variables to run the “super fog” matrix. Other NWS offices will be producing this same forecast soon. National weather service products

8. Example fire weather point forecast Air Temp Relative Humidity Wind Speed Cloud Cover ADI LVORI Turner Stability

9. Estimated Smoldering Potential (ESP) • 27 counties in eastern NC are considered “high hazard” due to the organic (peat) soils. The peat soil in these areas can sometimes be 4-8 feet deep, and will burn down that deep if it doesn’t find moisture. Peat soil fires are different from a duff layer fire, because of the depth of the peat that you are dealing with. • With funding through the Joint Fire Science Program, USFS, the Fire Environment Branch along with USFS Research Forester Jim Reardon, Missoula, MT, have developed deep organic “fire danger” stations and a matrix to show when deep organics will sustain combustion. • Several research burns have been conducted on deep organic Fire environment projects (cont)

10. estimated smoldering potential research ESP Fire Danger Station ESP Matrix

11. Several ESP research burns have been conducted on The Nature Conservancy & Department of Defense lands. The research burns were all on deep organic tracts. ESP stations showed that on the day of these burns, no organics would sustain ignition. The tracts were burnt, no organics ignited. Esp

12. Fire Activity & Emissions Tracking System (FEATS) • The Fire Activity and Emissions Tracking System (FAETS) Project is a database effort that is being undertaken in order to enhance natural resource management as well as the functionality to collaborate with other resource databases. • Wildland fire and emissions from planned or unplanned ignitions is a contributor to air quality. FAETS is designed as a flexible, adaptable framework with customized components for states to manage prescribed fire and wildfire programs. It utilizes and builds upon existing systems. • The states of Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, & Tennessee are all partners in this project. Fire environment projects (cont)

13. This project is still in the grant distributing /contracting phase. Fire season of 2011 & the retirement of Gary Curcio (original project lead) has slowed the progress of this project. Efforts are underway to bring the cooperating States “back to the table” and moving forward with this project FEATS