Description

A workshop was held at the Provincial Forest Fire Centre in Edmonton on September 23, 2004 where wildland fire research and fire operations personnel (T. Van Nest, D. Quintilio, J. Beverly, D. Cousin, G. Baxter and authors) reviewed and discussed the currently available knowledge with respect to incorporating spotting and other breaching considerations into PROMETHEUS. The following conclusions were reached: 1) the simple rule of thumb for firebreak breaching should be incorporated immediately (that in the absence of severe spotting, a firebreak needs to be 1.5 times the expected flame length); 2) Albini's maximum spot fire distance models could possibly be implemented, with appropriate Canadian modifications, in the form of an auxiliary calculator or as tabulated output, thereby allowing the user the option to add new ignition points when and where appropriate; 3) additional research is needed in order to derive the rules of thumb based on an analysis of existing wildfire case studies and/or an expert opinion for determining barrier or firebreak breaching by massive spotting (i.e.,'area ignition') for those situations not covered by the simple rule of thumb.

[This publication is referenced in the "Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume I for fire managers" (Werth et al 2011).]