For the past 35 years, our dedicated team of researchers identified several “Critical Deficiencies” which have contributed to the inability and ineffectiveness of firefighting agencies and nations to properly manage our global wildfire crisis.
1. No True Global Committed to Combating Wildfires:
There is a lack of an understanding and global commitment to establish a true international organization to respond to the needs of all nations experiencing extreme and out-of-control wildfires. This lack of understanding and commitment is only fueling the doubts and confusion about whether anything can be done about bringing these fires under control when they occur.
2. Using Less Effective Vehicle’s:
Fire Trucks (or Pump Trucks), are contemporary fire engines that are typically designed to respond to structural fires. They are used in transporting men, equipment, a set amount of water (around 500 to 1,500 gals.), and are not really designed to directly engage the various strength of fires that are associated with extreme wildfires. Firefighters still have to engage the flames face to face in order to be effective at their work.
Wildland Fire Engines or Brush Trucks are the vehicles that typically respond to wildfires. The majority of these vehicles are typically used to transport men, equipment, a set amount of water (300 to 850 gals., depending on their type), and are not designed to directly engage the various fires that are associated with extreme wildfires. These types of vehicles are even less effective than pump trucks. Firefighters still have to engage the flames face to face in order to be effective at their work.
Bulldozers are powerful machines for pushing earth, rocks, and trees, used in road building, in farming, construction and used by firefighters' agencies in building fire containment lines to stop an approaching fire from spreading. Their current design is typically used to clear land at a slow but constant pace. This slow pace creates a disadvantage to firefighting. It requires quick planning and decision-making in order to make an effective fire containment line against any approaching fires.
Grass fires are a lot less intense than forest fires, but are considered extremely dangerous and can start and spread very quickly, up to 15.5 miles per hour. These fires can consume well over 100 acres or more in a short amount of time under ideal conditions of high dry temperatures and winds. The vehicles designed to handle these types of fires are still the basic woodland fire engines that generally carry a small amount of water and are still reliant on manual labor to do most of the work.
The design of these vehicles can have a profound outcome on how fast wildfires are suppressed or contained. The current design of today's Wildland Fire Engines and Pump Trucks dramatically restricts firefighters' mobility and ability to suppress or control extremely large and resilient fires commonly encountered when fighting wildfires. These designs also restrict the logistical abilities that are associated with moving from one location to another in a given amount of time. These restrictions decrease the effectiveness and productivity of the task at hand and increase the work load while decreasing safety for firefighters. All of these vehicles are far from having the performance that is required to fight today’s fast-moving, extreme and resilient wildfires.
3. Using No Vehicle’s At All:
Peat Fires are one of the least known fires that are burning around many parts of the world. These underground fires are hard to extinguish and can burn for months, causing the Air Quality Index in the area to fall below what is considered “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”. The only methods that are used today to extinguish these underground fires are by; dropping large amounts of water from helicopters, spraying massive amounts of water for hours and even days using agricultural irrigation systems, or, as a last resort, flooding the area with water.
As of this time, there are No vehicles that have been developed to fight these underground fires.
4. Using Manual Labor:
Fighting agencies have always been heavily reliant on Manual Labor to fight encroaching wildfires for centuries. The use of manual labor is a proud and long tradition that has been pasted down from generation to generation. It cannot be stressed enough, that it’s still one of the most important keys in the fight against wildfires, and can have a significant outcome in preventing the spread of wildfires.
Unfortunately, fire crew resources can be stretched thin; crews can typically pull long and exhausting 12-hour shifts or more, which increase the work load of firefights, decreasing the effectiveness and productivity of the work, decreasing safety for work crew and contributing to the mental exhaustion, fatigue, stress and PTSD that are found in many firefighters.
It is paramount that we start replacing as much of the brutal manual labor that is associated with fighting wildfire with a complete autonomous system.
5. Limitations of “Water”:
Water is an inexpensive, abundant in most areas, substance that is an asset in fighting wildfires. But the amount of water that is required to be transported to suppress a large area on fire is not possible with today’s vehicles.
