Fire development in surface fuels of calabrian pine (Pinus brutia ten.) stands

Forest fires generally start in the surface fuels. Spread of surface fire depends on the surface fuel conditions, other environmental conditions, Knowledge of fire growth and development is extremely useful in developing fire management decisions concerning presuppression and suppression planning and prescribed burning. The main objective of this study was to investigate line and point surface fire development in calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) plantation stand. A total of thirty five line and eleven point-source fires were burned under varying weather, topography and fuel loading conditions in calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.). it was also investigated rates of point source fire spread depend on time (1 min, 3 min, 5 min, 10 min and 15 min.)Relationships between rate of fire spread, and fuel, weather and topographical conditions were determined with correlation and regression analyses. Rate of fire spread ranged from 0.3 to 3.4 m min-1 in line fires. In 1 min, 3 min, 5 min, 10 min and 15 min of point-source fires, rate of fire spread ranged from 0.6 to 2.6 m min-1, from 0.9 to 2.0 m min-1, from 0.8 to 2.02 m min-1, from 0.9 to 2.1 m min-1 and from 0.7 to 1.6 m min-1 respectively. Surface fuel loading ranged from 0.190 to 0.690 kg m-2 for line fire and from 0.300 to 0.472 kg m-2 for point-source fire. Results showed that rate of fire spread was closely related to the wind speed for line and point-source fires. This study provides useful data to characterize the variation in surface fire characteristics in this fuel type. The results of this study will make important contributions to fire behavior prediction system, planning of prescribed burning and decreasing of fire hazard.