Use of a smoke generator and smoke plots to aid fire lookout personnel

Introduction Alberta has an extensive system in place for detecting wildfires, including a network of over 130 lookout sites strategically placed throughout the forest protection area (SRD 2001). The lookout personnel undergo training when hired and are tested annually. Simulated wildfires must be used to test and train personnel. These mock wildfires have been produced in the past by igniting debris piles, material in burn barrels, and small patches of standing timber. However, these resources are not always available, and the forest industry is reluctant to allow any burning of standing timber. Therefore, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) asked FERIC to research alternative means to produce smoke. FERIC tested smoke grenades, airtight stoves, and burn pans as methods of generating smoke for an evaluation of video-based wildfire smoke detection systems (Schroeder 2004). However, it was obvious that none of these methods would generate a sufficient smoke column to mimic the smoke produced from a 0.1 ha wildfire. Also, some were not feasible due to environmental and safety concerns, e.g., burning petrochemicals in a burn pan raises environmental and safety issues. Based on this experience, FERIC decided to investigate mechanical means of generating smoke. Because SRD’s goal is to detect wildfires before they exceed 0.1 ha in size, a suitable smoke generator would have to produce enough smoke to simulate a 0.1 ha fire. However, observations of smoke generated from a fire of this size have not been documented. Therefore, FERIC in cooperation with Alberta SRD and the Northwest Territories government conducted two 0.1 ha test burns in the Northwest Territories and documented the smoke as seen from the ground and a lookout tower. This information was intended to help determine the amount of smoke needed to simulate a 0.1 ha fire under various conditions. As well, this information, which would provide documented characteristics of small fires as observed from a lookout tower and from the ground under various conditions such as fuel and weather, would be assessed for usefulness in training lookout personnel. This report presents the results of the investigation into alternative methods to produce smoke, and documents observations made of the small test burns.