Dead Man Zone
Encyclopedia
The Dead Man Zone is defined as the area directly around a bushfire that is likely to burn within five minutes given the current wind conditions or an anticipated change in wind direction. The distance this zone extends from the firefront is highly dependent on terrain, windspeed, fuel type and composition, relative humidity and ambient temperature, and can range from under 100 m to well over 1 km.
Project Vesta's research into bushfire behaviour makes up the majority of what we know about bushfire today.
The initial results are of critical practical importance. They include:
Quoted from the CSIRO website: http://www.ffp.csiro.au/RC-BushfireBehaviour.asp
Firefighter
s will try to stay out of the dead man zone at all times, working from safe points such as burnt ground or a large area of non-burnable ground, i.e. an oval or large car park. This is achieved by attacking the fire from the flanks, or the rear, so that burnt ground is always nearby, and the fire is always in front of the firefighters. (Were they to attack fires at the head of the fire, they risk having spot fires start behind them. They would also risk changes in wind behaviour accelerating the spread of the fire.)
The result of several inquiries into firefighter death in Australia
n Bushfires found that fire fighters should stay out of the Dead Man Zone, and that they should always keep 250 litres of water in their truck for personal safety. This is now a standard operating procedure in the Country Fire Service
and Country Fire Authority
.
Project Vesta
The term "Dead Man Zone" was coined by members of the CSIRO research team in Australia who were investigating the spread of bushfires (Project Vesta). Project Vesta, headed by scientist Phil Cheney, found that when the wind changes direction, the line of fire will move out at its maximum rate of spread almost immediately, and that that speed was nearly 3 times what was previously thought.Project Vesta's research into bushfire behaviour makes up the majority of what we know about bushfire today.
The initial results are of critical practical importance. They include:
- Traditional tables of forest fire behaviour, which have been in use for guiding fire management decisions since the mid 1960, were found to under-predict the potential rate of fire spread in dry forests at higher wind speeds by a factor of up to 3-fold. This information is critical to decision-making during situations of high fire danger.
- Lines of fire longer than 100 m and aligned perpendicular to the prevailing wind, while taking time to build up flame dimensions, reach the potential rate of spread immediately. This finding has important implications for fire-fighter safety (inasmuch as the so-called Dead Man Zone then manifests), and has already been incorporated into national training programs.
- A new relationship between the wind speed and the rate of fire spread has been described and this will provide more reliable extrapolation to the very high wind speeds experienced during extreme weather.
- A method has been developed for describing fuel structure that is robust and easy for field operators to apply to a range of different fuel types, and which is effective for predicting fire behaviour and relative suppression difficulty.
- The temperature structure of a flame front, an important variable for fire prediction purposes, has been analysed and described.
- A statistical measure of the variation of the wind structure within a forest, describing the error associated with a prediction of fire spread that is caused by wind variability alone, has been developed. Such error determinations are crucial for risk assessment during decision-making.
Quoted from the CSIRO website: http://www.ffp.csiro.au/RC-BushfireBehaviour.asp
Outcomes
Outcomes from project Vesta have been integrated into fire fighter training in Australia, and are beginning to appear in the U.S.A. as well.Firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s will try to stay out of the dead man zone at all times, working from safe points such as burnt ground or a large area of non-burnable ground, i.e. an oval or large car park. This is achieved by attacking the fire from the flanks, or the rear, so that burnt ground is always nearby, and the fire is always in front of the firefighters. (Were they to attack fires at the head of the fire, they risk having spot fires start behind them. They would also risk changes in wind behaviour accelerating the spread of the fire.)
The result of several inquiries into firefighter death in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Bushfires found that fire fighters should stay out of the Dead Man Zone, and that they should always keep 250 litres of water in their truck for personal safety. This is now a standard operating procedure in the Country Fire Service
Country Fire Service
The SA Country Fire Service is a volunteer based fire service in the state of South Australia in Australia. Many parts of Australia are sparsely populated whilst at the same time they are under significant risk of bushfire. Due to economics, it is prohibitively expensive for each Australian town...
and Country Fire Authority
Country Fire Authority
Country Fire Authority, or CFA, is the name of the fire service that provides firefighting and other emergency services to all of the country areas and regional townships within the state of Victoria, Australia, as well as large portions of the outer suburban areas and growth corridors of Melbourne...
.
See also
- FirefighterFirefighterFirefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
- Bushfire
- Country Fire ServiceCountry Fire ServiceThe SA Country Fire Service is a volunteer based fire service in the state of South Australia in Australia. Many parts of Australia are sparsely populated whilst at the same time they are under significant risk of bushfire. Due to economics, it is prohibitively expensive for each Australian town...
(South Australia) - Country Fire AuthorityCountry Fire AuthorityCountry Fire Authority, or CFA, is the name of the fire service that provides firefighting and other emergency services to all of the country areas and regional townships within the state of Victoria, Australia, as well as large portions of the outer suburban areas and growth corridors of Melbourne...
(Victoria, Australia) - New South Wales Rural Fire ServiceNew South Wales Rural Fire ServiceThe New South Wales Rural Fire Service is a volunteer-based firefighting agency and statutory body of the NSW Government. The NSW RFS is responsible for the general administration of rural fire management affairs including administration of the Rural Fire Fighting Fund, co-ordination with local...
(Australia) - Ash Wednesday firesAsh Wednesday firesThe Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of up to 110 km per hour caused widespread destruction across the states...
- List of disasters in Australia by death toll