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In southern California, many fires start and burn under conditions that permit their control with little burned acreage and fire damage. In contrast, under other conditions of weather and topography, on a small group of fires, control effort is relatively ineffective; they become large and destructive. A major reason for these 'conflagration fires' is the extreme difficulty of stopping the head of a hot, fast-running fire in dry fuels and strong winds. No radically new concept of suppression can be anticipated. The best prospect for alleviation of the problem is modification of the vegetation to reduce fuel energy output. In a fuel-type mosaic containing large areas of light fuels, where conventional suppression will be effective, potential conflagrations could be brought under control while relatively small. Creation of the fuel-type mosaic will require coordinated area-by-area planning and a variety of techniques.
Cataloging Information
- age classes
- burning intervals
- catastrophic fires
- chaparral
- chaparral fires
- cover type conversion
- energy
- fine fuels
- fire intensity
- fire management
- fire management planning
- fire regimes
- fire suppression
- fire weather
- firebreak
- flash fuels
- fuel modification
- fuel moisture
- fuel types
- high intensity fires
- human caused fires
- light
- Mediterranean habitats
- mosaic
- post-fire recovery
- regeneration
- site treatments
- southern California
- topography
- wilderness fire management
- wildfires
- wind
This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.