Used by : FRANCE To face the risks of its territory, France has defined a national strategy and a unicity of training. That is to say that the employment regulations are formalized at the central level and that all firefighters refer to them. The Civil Security Application School, an establishment within the Entente Valabre, offers to all French departments, a training for the officers in charge of fighting forest fires. To do so, Valabre decided to equip itself with a simulator that has placed it at the forefront of training centers. The objectives of using the simulator are multiple. First of all, it allows to offer a single training model. All firefighters become interoperable and can be integrated into reinforcement modules. They have the same decision support and operational management tools. Then, the simulator allows to reduce costs drastically no more trucks and personnel for training maneuvers. Finally, it allows the development of operational procedures: visualization of the propagation, visualization of the stakes and the alea. Thanks to its flexibility and ease of use, the trainees are confronted with a forest fire fighting situation as many times as necessary to assimilate the essential know-how in theaters of operations: development of a tactic adapted to the situation and the environment, management of human and technical means of fighting, repetition of safety measures, ... In the course of a day, the trainees are confronted with a large number of professional situations. Finally, this modern tool can be delocalized and support training in remote departments or foreign countries. It simply requires computers, an internet connection and adapted trainers. Link

It exists some natural caracteristics that enable to identify natural indicators about the dryness or weather conditions without technical tools. Soil desiccation is one natural indicator of the leak of water in the soil. The deeper the drought, the more important this marker is visible. In addition of the leak of water available for the plants, the soil increase in temperature leading the fire to cause severe damage in depth. If rain comes, the soil could be washed away and get eroded. Dust is a clear vision of the dryness of the soil. The more important the drought is, and the more dust will be put in the air after a vehicle, person, animal passage. Water withdrawal is a critical indicator of severe drought. It indicates that evaporation rate is superior to rainfall witch can lead, it the water resource is not managed, to hydrological crisis. The touch and cracking of the surface bedding indicates the dryness of the fine fuel, the one that will ignite first in case of a fire. The more dry is the material, the more it cracks under pressure. If you hear crackling under your shoes while walking in the forest, it might give you a clear indice that the material you are walking on is ready to burn. Of course, this litter fuel is more receptive to meteorological changez (humidity, rainfall) and can also charge rapidly in humidity as well as dry out fast. The russeting of pine needles as well as the wilting of the leaves indicate a state of slowing down of the tree's biological system. This may be due to the climate, with long periods of drought, or to insect or parasite attacks. Each species has a different response to these stresses, so it is important that you can visually determine what these signs mean. You don't have a device to know the wind direction. No problem, use a rubalise and point it north. The wind will guide you.This can help on the field. Clouds are natural indicators of the stability of the atmoshpere. Cumulus can indicate you unstable air while cirrus cloud, stable air. The more the clouds grow and tend to get higher, the more unstable the air mass is, which can lead to loss of fire control. Beaufort scale can also give you some visual details to estimate the wind force and anticipate consequences on the ground if a fire breaks out. Link

Campbell prediction system (CPS) is used to determine fire behavior strategies and tactics. It is about using fire behaviour observation to predict and anticipate danger points, opportunities for firefighting and threshold of control. CPS is used by most of the fireprone countries and can be coupled with polygon method. You can find more informations and ressources in http://cps.emxsys.com/

< Back WEATHER TOOL - Kestrel Kestrel is a tool that measure wind, humidity, temperature and more meteorological data in order to register and anticipate the weather pattern in an area. Kestrel measure : - Wind speed - The heat index - The maximum force of wind gusts - Dew point - The average wind speed - The evaporation point - Temperature (air, water, snow) - Barometric pressure - The freshness of the air - Altitude - Relative humidity - The time - pressure trend over 3 o'clock Previous Next

Ressources List of tools TACTICAL PLANNING Ressources Back Ressources Similarities and differences between EU Mediterranean Countries in forest fire fighting 2018 - Mefistos project List of tools List of tools Tactical and strategical training through simulation

A dvanced F ire A nalysis N etwork DATABASE AFAN DATABASE FIRE - ANALYST - NETWORK The AFAN DATABASE is the fire analyst database created during the AFAN project (2021-2022) involving experts from Spain, France, Italy and United Kingdom. Its goals is to allow the fire analyst community to share skills and knowledge on fire analysis accross Europe, to better understand the changing risk and adapt to it. ​ This project was funded by European Union Civil Protection. Search AFAN database Submit your contribution Contact us Home - categories Impact of meteorology on fire behaviour Meteorology/Climatology How the fire do it ? Fire spread patterns Fire position and opportunities Fire perimeter What do we want to achieve ? Tactical planning Fire intensity, rate of spread, spotting, crowning Fire behaviour What can we do ? Strategical scenario Existing fire expertise capacities accross Europe AFAN guidelines Fire analyst competences and skills guideline - 2022 Graf team, Catalan Fire and Rescue Service and Pau Costa Fundation Remote assessment teams guideline - 2022 DREAM Fie analyst competences Remote assessment AFAN guidelines Latest news in the database 24 mai 2022 Tactical and strategical training through simulation Used by : FRANCE To face the risks of its territory, France has defined a national strategy and a unicity of training. That is to say... 23 mai 2022 Natural indicators on ground operations It exists some natural caracteristics that enable to identify natural indicators about the dryness or weather conditions without... 30 mars 2022 Campbell Prediction System Campbell prediction system (CPS) is used to determine fire behavior strategies and tactics. It is about using fire behaviour observation...