Extinguishing a Ground Forest Fire by Spraying Water Over its Edge

An experimental investigation of the physiochemical processes occurring in the localization of a ground forest fire by spraying of water over its edge has been performed. Several schemes of formation of a barrage, comprising a moistened forest combustible material and an aerosol curtain, for such a fire are presented. It is proposed to spray water in the region upstream of the combustion front, in the region of the combustion front, and simultaneously in these regions. The conditions of extinguishing of a model ground forest fire by spraying of water over its edge were determined depending on the velocity of movement of the combustion front, the density of spraying of the fire hotbed, the dispersivity of the water used for the spraying, and the width of the fire barrage. The times of termination of the movement of the front of flame combustion of a forest combustible material, complete burn-out of this material, and cessation of its thermal decompositions in the case of formation of a fire barrage around it were estimated. The parameters of the spraying of water over the edge of a ground forest fire, providing its localization and suppression, were determined. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.