Project no. Fp6-018505 Project Acronym fire paradox
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- 4Inquiry results and discussion
- 4.1France Case study
- 4.1.2Fire danger rating system
- 4.1.3Fire detection systems
- 4.1.4Operational Guidelines
3MethodsThe main tool to obtain the required information for the identification and classification of wildfire detection techniques within the framework of Forest Plans was an inquiry enclosed in a questionnaire formulated by the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM team) with the cooperation of all the partners in Module 7. The questionnaire provided us data about the key issues of legislation, policies, practices, detection, cooperation and other territorial policies influencing wildfires at the national and regional level, which is going to be used for the different deliverables belonging to the Module 71. The present report considered only the section on detection (see Annex 1). The Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA/CEABN team), through the European Commission (EC), officially sent the questionnaire in November 2006 to the members of the Forest Fire Prevention Expert Group (WGFFP), a working group associated with the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) established by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the Commission. Experts from the national authorities nominated by the EU Member States and the EC compose this expert group, as they deal with operational issues related to wildfire prevention and fighting, have a complete and exhaustive knowledge about wildfires in their countries and have privileged access to information sources on these issues. For the North African countries (Morocco and Tunisia) and other Member States without any representative member in the WGFFP, the questionnaire was sent through the partners involved in the Module 7 to the respective policy-maker. The questionnaire replies received until the deliverable deadline of the report (April 2008) includes 16 countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Tunisia. For the different study cases elaborated by each partner, the methodology used was documental analysis and interviews with national fire detection experts. Concerning the analysis of the fire detection systems, we selected the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) to be the case study. For these two countries, we gathered, processed and analysed the official wildfire databases corresponding to the period from 2001 to 2007. That information was than integrated in a Geographic Information System (GIS), in order to enable performing a spatio-temporal analysis.
At the end of this chapter a discussion is presented together with the results of the inquiry, integrating the data collected by the questionnaire and the data from the different study cases. 4.1France Case study4.1.1Legal frameworkFrance is divided into 100 administrative units called departments (including 4 overseas departments). These are grouped into 26 regions. Civil defence (including forest fire prevention and fire fighting) is managed at a dedicated administrative level called “Zone”. France is divided into 7 civil defence zones. The southern half of France is considered as the only part affected by forest fires. 32 departments are concerned, belonging to the South Zone and the South West Zone. The two departments belonging to the South East zone that are concerned by forest fire are treated with the South Zone. In these 32 departments, law n°2001-602 of July 9th 2001 prescribes local or regional plans for forest fire prevention. The State representative in the department, called the “Préfet”, must elaborate these plans. These plans define the fire prevention policy, including surveillance, fire detection and fire fighting. Figure 7 - French departments with a potential forest fire danger a) National level Surveillance and fire detection involves several ministries and organisms with local structures. Organisation of fire detection varies from one department to another. The most involved ministries and organisms are listed below, but some secondary actors may be implied punctually. Communication and cooperation between those numerous actors is therefore essential. Several ministries are involved: The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of fire prevention. On the field, 2 organisms are involved: the National Forest Office (ONF°- Office National des Forêts) and the local representative of the ministry in each department: Departmental Directorate of Agriculture (DDAF – Direction Départementale de l’Agriculture). The DDAF is unequally active in fire prevention, depending on the department. In some departments, the ONF plays a central part in fire detection, organising patrols and/or the lookout towers network. The Home Office (Directorate for Civil Protection) is responsible for fire fighting, managing aerial means and therefore is involved in aerial detection. In each department, the local structure managing fire fighting means is the SDIS (Service Departemental d’Incendie et de Secours). Their operational centre is called CODIS (Centre Opérationnel Départemental d’Incendie et de Secours). Within the territory of the department, they centralise alerts and dispatch the means. They also decide when and how fire detection has to be organised. In some departments, they are responsible for local aerial fire detection. The SDIS is under the authority of the “Préfet”. The Ministry of Public Works includes meteorology and the fire danger rating system. In each department, a local meteorological centre (CDM - Centre Départemental de Météo-France) centralises meteorological data and provides information for the fire danger rating system. The Ministry of Defence provides additional fire fighting or fire detection teams.
At the level of civil defence zones, one operational centre (Etat-major de Zone – EMZ) is located in Bordeaux for the South West Zone and another one near Marseilles (Valabre), for the South zone. One additional centre is located in Ajaccio, Corsica . In the South Zone, the EMZ centralises data (meteo, vegetation index, …) and creates the corresponding maps. Routes for aerial patrols are designed from these maps. Department councils are financially involved in fire detection. They contract specific staff “Forestiers-Sapeurs” involved in surveillance in summer and in maintenance works for fire fighting equipment (tracks, water reserves) during the rest of the year. These teams were created in 1973 but do not exist in every department.
Several other structures are involved in fire detection. Their members are volunteers. Some communities have created committees for forest fire prevention (CCFF- Comités Communaux Feux de Forêts). Namely, they are involved in fire detection through ground patrols and in lookout towers. The equipment available for the CCFF varies a lot from one to another. These teams are usually activated by the town hall. These structures do not exist in the South West Zone, but this area has specific associations dedicated to fire prevention (ASA – Associations Syndicales Autorisées) gathering forest owners. 4.1.2Fire danger rating systemSurveillance and fire detection are activated only when a fire danger exists. So, it is important, to understand the fire detection systems, to know how fire danger is rated. Fire danger is rated for the whole South of France, divided into 116 meteorological zones. Meteorologists provide the index twice a day. It is based on 3 indices but the final result includes expert knowledge. The final danger rating scale has 6 levels (Table 1): Table 1 - Fire danger scale
The fire danger rate is available for the various organisms involved in fire prevention through a dedicated Web Site. Besides the fire danger rating, additional explanations are also provided. 4.1.3Fire detection systemsTerrestrial fixed lookout posts are either:
Figure 8 - Watch tower - light structure - SW France a) National Network of Lookout Towers (NNLT) Lookout towers are to detect smokes and to inform the CODIS about the precise location of the fire, the areas potentially threatened by the fire and the development of fires. Lookout workers are in charge with:
The lookout workers use binoculars, maps and radio stations connected to the surveillance communication network. In some lookout towers compass or alidade are also available. Lookout towers workers are firefighters, students or people with a good knowledge of the field. These people only need a pair of binoculars to identify the location of the smoke they detect. In other cases, compass or alidade is used. The number of lookout towers varies a lot from one department to another, depending on the size of forest areas and on the characteristics of the relief. Besides, each forested area should be visible from 2 or 3 lookout simultaneously, to allow a precise localisation of fires. Lookout towers are operated during the fire season (roughly 2 months in summer in the South of France, and 7 months in the South West of France). The exact period is defined by the local CODIS according to the fire danger rate and may vary from one year to another and from one department to another. The daily surveillance period is adjusted according to the distribution of fires during the day. It also depends on the availability of staff and financial means. Table 2 shows the number of lookout posts in each region, the staff and the period they are used. Table 2 - Number of lookout posts in each region, period and time of activation
In spite of the efforts made for a judicious distribution of lookout towers, some shadow areas remain and mobile brigades must complement this system. b) Mobile Brigades Two types of mobile brigades perform surveillance and detection, in addition to the look out towers network:
Besides surveillance itself, mobile brigades also play a part in dissuasion, public informing and guiding fire suppression means arriving to the fire location. In 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture financed 4 334 patrolling days, for the whole country. i) “First attack” mobile brigades include 2 persons and a 4X4 vehicle (called “Dangel”) with a 600-liter water reserve and a pump. They are distributed on the field so as to be able to be on the spot of a fire within 10 minutes. They should be able to perform first attack and extinguish the fire or at least master the fire. The teams belong to the Forest Fire Service (firemen), Forest Service (ONF, DDAF), Departmental Service (“Forestiers-Sapeurs”) and volunteers from local fire prevention teams (CCFF). Some teams mix members of the various services, namely a fireman and a forester. This kind of team is very efficient because the fireman has the knowledge of fire behaviour and the forester knows the field well. The field is divided in sectors for each brigade. Each brigade covers an area from 2 500 to 3 000 hectares, following a predefined route or patrolling freely within its sector. In some cases, the brigade has to stop at given high spots to watch shadow areas not visible from the lookout towers. The number of brigades in each region is presented in Table 3. Table 3 - Number of mobile brigades in each region, period and time of activation
ii) Other mobile brigades have the same duties as the previous ones, except fire extinction. They usually include one vehicle and one person, from the same services as above, plus Natural or Regional Parks. They cover an area between 40 000 and 50 000 ha. A few departments use horse brigades or motorbikes brigades. iii) Armed Forces can take part in ground surveillance when the fire risk is high.
Aerial detection is organised at the national level with planes equipped with fire suppression means. In addition, some departments organise their own local aerial detection. i) National level Aerial means dedicated to aerial detection are the following:
Figure 9 - Canadair Helicopters are not used for aerial detection, but only for fire suppression, because of their high cost. Planes are located at the airport of Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône department), in the south East of France. During the fire season, Trackers are dispatched by pairs in temporary air bases in Cannes (Alpes-Maritime), Carcasonne (Aude), Bastia (Corsica). Besides, 2 Canadairs are based in Ajaccio (Corsica). Occasionally, other air bases may host 2 trackers: Figari (Corsica), Nimes (Gard), Hyères (Var) and Cahors (Lot). Staff includes 21 pilots for Trackers, 40 pilots for Canadairs, 10 pilots for Dash8. 95 % of the pilots are former military staff. Pilots for trackers have been trained as firefighters. Pilots may fly a maximum of 800 hours a month, 35 hours a week and 8 hours a day. The number of hours spent on aerial fire detection varies every year. ii) Department level About 10 departments set up local aerial detection, in addition to the national aerial detection. They use smaller planes (such as CESSNA, Figure 10), generally without any suppression means (except in Hérault department). These planes usually belong to private companies, and are hired by the Fire Fighting Service. The crew includes a professional pilot and a fireman as an observer. Still, some departments own their own plane and the pilots themselves are fire fighters. 
Figure 10 - Plane used for fire detection - CESSNA The CODIS orders the aerial patrol, depending on fire danger level. Pilots inform the CODIS when they detect a fire, guide the fire fighting teams and support the Field Commander. They return to their surveillance mission as soon as aerial suppression means arrive on the spot. Table 4 - Number of planes and flying hours in each department for local aerial surveillance
d) New technologies for fire detection The use of new technologies for fire detection is not very wide-spread in France. Some technologies are being tested in a few departments.
4.1.4Operational GuidelinesGeneral operational guidelines for ground detection Lookout towers and mobile brigades are operated during the fire season (roughly 2 months in summer in the South of France, and 7 months in the South West of France). The exact period is defined by the local CODIS according to the fire danger rate and may vary form one year to another and from one department to another. (see Table 3 and Table 4 above). The daily surveillance period is adjusted according to the distribution of fires during the day. It also depends on the availability of staff and financial means.
Aerial detection is activated by the Zonal Operational Coordination Centre (Centre Opérationnel de Zone – COZ), in accordance with the Departmental Operational Fire Centre (Centre Opérationnel Départemental d’Incendie et de Secours – CODIS). It is activated when the fire danger level is very severe or exceptional. When fire danger is severe, pilots are on alert. Planes operate by pairs. One aerial detection mission for one plane lasts 2 and a half hours and one pilot performs 3 missions a day. One team flies back to the base only when the next team is on the spot. The COZ defines the guidelines for the aerial patrol. Pilots define their route in order to be able to fly to any place within their surveillance area (defined by the COZ) within 10 minutes maximum. One of the two pilots is the head of the patrol and is responsible for decision making if fire suppression is required. Their main duty remains detection and if they detect a fire, their goal is to alert ground means and go back to their detection mission as soon as possible. When detecting a fire, the pilot informs directly the CODIS and, if necessary, requires the authorisation of dropping. He is allowed to drop only once the safety of ground means is guaranteed. Dropping is not systematic, since while the plane refills, no aerial detection is performed. The CODIS also sends an alert message to the COZ. If fire-fighting planes are sent on the fire spot, the aerial detection planes return to their detection mission after refilling, as other plane arrive on the spot.
When the fire risk is exceptional, specific guidelines must be applied. i) the “ALARME” plan (Alerte Liée Aux Dangers Météorologiques Exceptionnels) plans a reinforcement of fire detection and of transmission. Additional patrols are sent on the field. This plan is activated by the CODIS and set up by the head of the administration in the department (Préfet). ii) The “ALADIN” plan (Alerte Liée Aux Départs d’Incendies de Nuit) consists of a set of measures to extend the fire detection device (lookout towers and mobile brigades) after sunset when meteorological conditions justify it (strong wind remaining or increasing during the night). It is set up like the ALARME plan. It may last until dawn or be interrupted during the night. Local volunteers brigade may also be asked to intensify their actions in their sector. iii) The “HEPHAISTOS” plan manages the use of the armed forces from the marine, consisting of units of 15 persons in charge with surveillance and watching burnt areas to avoid reignition. These units are called Adapted Surveillance Modules (Modules Adaptés de Surveillance-MAS). A firefighter must always go with them but the staff remains under the authority of the military head of the MAS. MAS are used in the Provence area only, covering the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Var Alpes-Maritimes, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse, Drome and Ardèche.
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