Forest Fire Detection in Ontario

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Forest Fire Detection in Ontario

• Rob McAlpine
• Program Leader, Forest Fire Science and
  Technology
• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
• Aviation and Forest Fire Management Branch

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Talk Outline

• Outline of Fire Management in Ontario
• History of Fire Detection
• Current Detection operations
• Detection Results
• Challenges

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Ontarios Fire Management Program
Forests cover 85 of Ontarios land area and
forest fires have shaped much of this
environment. Land cover composed primarily
of Boreal and Mixedwood Forests. Ontario
averages roughly 1,300 fires
annually. 94 million spent annually to protect
communities and natural resources. 4.1 billion
in Gross Provincial Income annually attributed to
forest fire protection.
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Policy Fire Management Strategies

• 6 Fire Management Zones
• Southern Ontario
• Parks
• Great Lakes/St. Lawrence
• Boreal
• Northern Boreal
• Hudson Bay
• Ecoregion-based planning rather than zones based
  on geographically or politically based

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Policy Fire Management Strategy

• Emphasizes the need to balance fire response and
  fire use
• Performance targets are aligned to policy
  objectives
• Balancing fire response against risk and
  ecological benefits.
• New performance measures have been developed
• Forest Depletion Area Burned
• Hazard Reduction Area Burned
• Ecosystem Renewal Area Burned
• A flexible response to fires through the concept
  of Managed Fire.

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Performance

• The key performance measure is
  Initial Attack Success
• Target is 96 IA Success

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Annual Number of Fires
10 year average - 1,283
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Annual Hectares Burned
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Forest Fire Management

• Objectives
• To prevent personal injury, value loss and social
  disruption.
• To promote understanding of the ecological role
  of fire and
• to utilize its beneficial effects in resource
  management.

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Organization

• District Office
• Response Centre

• Two Regional Fires Centers direct day-to day
  operations
• A Provincial Fire Centre oversees two Fire
  Region Centres
• 29 Attack bases
• 225 Permanent staff and 760 seasonal positions

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Detection in Ontario

• At the turn of the century Ontario began to build
  towers
• Most towers were erected between 1920 and 1950
• At the peak there were 320 active towers
• During the late 1960s and early 1970s most
  towers were decommissioned replaced with Aerial
  detection

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Current Fire Detection Program

• Aerial - Fleet of 15 Contract Aircraft
• Public - Common reporting system
• Reports direct to Fire Centres

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Detection Planning

• Aerial Detection advantage is flexibility
• Detection planning is based on risk, expected
  fire starts, and expected fire behavior

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Detection Costs

• Basing fees 675,000 for 15 contract aircraft
• Positioning Fees 225,000
• Flying costs 325 to 635 /hour/aircraft.
  Average 270 hours per aircraft for approximate
  flying costs 2,000,000
• Spend around 3.0 million annually on organized
  detection

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Results

• Or
• What did we buy with that 3,000,000?
• Or
• Some Embarrassing Statistics

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Sources of Fire Reports
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Percent Discovery By Type
FWI Class
Lightning Fires Only
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Discovery Size (ha)
FWI Class
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Challenges

• Performance measures
• Investment level
• Integration of new technology

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Performance Measures

• Audit Results
• Working towards A robust performance measure
• Recognize Detection as Part of a larger system

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Life Cycle of a Forest Fire
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Detection Performance

• Goal of Forest Fire Detection
• Deliver Fires to Suppression Organization at a
  state that guarantees a high probability of IA
  success at a minimum cost.

Draft Goal
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Detection Performance

• Goal of Organized Forest Fire Detection
• Deliver Fires to Suppression Organization at a
  state that guarantees a high probability of IA
  success without competing with other detection
  sources

Draft Goal
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Conceptual Detection Target
96 likely successful Initial Attack
Expected Fire Behavior
Detection Size
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Detection Performance Complicating Factors

• Cost Trade Offs
• Suppression weight vs additional detection
• Build in Random Detection into system
• do not want to compete

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Summary

• Ontarios Fire Management Strategy allows for
  Managed Fire
• Fire load and area burned is highly variable
• Ontario uses a fleet of contract aircraft for
  fire detection
• Most fires are detected by random sources
• Working towards a robust performance measure

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Thank You