Efficient method of extinguishing peat fires in winter

Abstract

In the territory of the Sverdlovsk region increasing the number of plat fires in recent years is established. It has been experimentally proved that it is advisable to extinguish plat fires that are not extinguished in the summer autumn period in the winter period. The optimal extinguishing period is the end of February-March. With the development of peat fires, as a rule, multifocal forest fires are formed. The extinguishing of such fires should begin with aeroreconnaissance using unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with thermal imagers. Exploration work should be carried out in cloud weather and temperatures down to minus 10 degrees. It has been established that extinguishing should begin with uprooting trees in the fire center, if any, and moving them to the burned area. Uprooting of trees and subsequent pushing of burning plat is carried out by a 13-10 m bulldozer. When moving the bulldozer is pushing the burning plat with a layer up to 19 cm mixing it with snow and nonburning layers of plat. In reverse movement of the bulldozer, the smoldering plat is compacted in order to cool it better. In on shift, using a bulldozer it is possible to extinguish from 0.5 to 2.0 ha active forest plat fires. This method allowed to put out 28 plat fires in the winter of 2021–2022. Cases of re-ignition of plat in extinguished areas were not recorded.