Sicherheitsmaßnahmen gegen Waldbrände / Medidas de segurança para para prevenir e combater incêndios florestais / Misure di sicurezza contro gli incendi boschivi / Sekurecaj mezuroj kontraŭ arbaraj incendioj / 針對森林火災的安全措施 / 森林火災に対するセキュリティ対策 / जंगल की आग के खिलाफ सुरक्षा उपाय / تدابير أمنية ضد حرائق الغابات
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- Every year they occur in the world:
- About 400,000 forest fires, with about 500 million hectares burned
- In Spain:
- 20,000 forest fires, with 150,000 hectares burned, valued at about 2 million euros
- There are, in addition, environmental damage since forests originate and conserve biological diversity, provide oxygen, attract water and maintain moisture, thus preventing erosion (which affects 40-50% of the Spanish forest area)
After a fire a forest takes tens of years (sometimes more than 100) to recover
In recent years - August 2019 - numerous fires are occurring in the Amazon rainforest (more than 74,000) that extend not only to Brazil but also to Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia; many people think that most of these fires are caused by intentional human actions that try to deforest ancient forests to turn them into areas of cultivation and breeding of cattle. Year after year, the Amazon rainforest - the great "lung of Humanity", is reducing its space depriving the world of its healthy benefits and facilitating the climate change that threatens us
And now, in the summer of 2021, we are having equally important fires in several countries of the world: USA (California), Greece, Turkey, Spain, etc; The high temperatures of this summer are surely influenced by the progressive global warming of the planet.
(see links/videos at the end)
CAUSES OF FOREST FIRES.
- 90-95% of these fires fires are caused, intentionally or negligently; On the other hand, due to the rural exodus, the mountains lack sufficient care, which has a negative influence.
- For negligence:
- Smoking, throw matches or cigarette butts
- Burn stubble or thickets or ignite fire in periods and areas of risk or not extinguish them completely (incidence 15-20%)
- Bad isolation of recreational and camping areas
- Circulation of motor vehicles through forest tracks; the proximity of the exhaust pipes with dried herbs or vegetables can cause fire
- Leave garbage or flammable products in inappropriate places
- Abandonment of grazing and traditional collection of firewood
- Massive reforestation of conifers
- Industrial or agricultural work with machinery or flammable products without sufficient control
- Throwing rockets or carrying out pyrotechnic activities in places exposed to propagation
- For intentional causes:
- Urban speculations
- Timber market
- Insurance collection
- Vengeance or neighborhood disputes
- Obtaining contracts or hours of interim work for firefighting
- Agricultural or livestock interests to expand the areas of crops and pastures
- Pyromania
- For natural or fortuitous events:
- Storms, lightning (4-7%)
- Earthquakes
- Meteorites
- Accidents of vehicles, airplanes, etc.
- Sparks or falling power lines
And it is foreseeable that fires will increase year after year due to climate change that favors an increase in solar heat and a drought due to the decrease in rainfall.
MEASURES TO PREVENT AND COMBAT FOREST FIRE
Pre-fire measures:
- Prohibition of lighting fire, except in times and authorized areas
- Prohibit the movement of vehicles and people through risk areas
- Improve forest management throughout the year; alternate forests with crops or pastures (checkered), repopulate with fire-resistant species, access roads, firewalls, cleaning, etc.
- Increased surveillance, especially during the summer (observation watchtowers, use helicopters, airplanes and satellites, drones, motorcycle patrols, etc)
- Maintain fixed personnel teams throughout the year for prevention, surveillance and extinctions and not to hire interim personnel for hours when the fire arises, but to professional fire brigades
- Fight speculation by applying art. 355 of the C. Criminal so that the areas affected by a forest fire cannot be modified within thirty years, limiting or prohibiting the uses that were carried out in these areas and intervening in the use of wood
- If you observe people who perform acts of risk, try to reason so that they do not continue
- Report violations to the agents of the authority
- Increase penalties against intentional and repeat arsonists
- Keep a 50/100 m safety belt clean of dry vegetation. wide around the houses and villages adjacent to the forest
- Review the installations and power lines
- Keep the margins and ditches of roads and paths or access to forest areas clean of weeds
- Immediate reforestation after the fire, to avoid the degradation of the burned lands (plant 10 trees for each one burned)
- When the fire starts:
- If it is still incipient, try to turn it off by hitting with a green branch or pouring water or dirt on the base of the flames and its surroundings
- Once the fire is extinguished, verify its complete extinction, before leaving, to prevent hidden embers from restarting the fire later
- It is convenient to report what happened to the authorities
- If the fire is important, alert the extinguishing services, calling 112 and, upon arrival, collaborate with them
- Try to keep calm and cold blood and provide a way out, so as not to be surrounded by fire
- Do not leave roads, tracks or trails
- Move away from the fire in the opposite direction to the advance of the fire, if possible, downhill and against the wind (observe the smoke)
- Do not cross a burning area
- Escape through already burned terrain
Do not stand at high levels
- Avoid thick and dry vegetation
- Avoid troughs (they can act as chimneys) especially if the fire is in lower areas
- If there is smoke, cover the nose and mouth with a wet handkerchief
- If the fire is very close, protect the body, hands and head with thick clothes, if possible wet or damp
- If clothing is lit, do not run but roll on the ground and / or cover the affected person with a blanket or pour water or dirt on it
- If the fire surrounds the area preventing escape, protect yourself in the water if available (streams, ditches, rafts, etc.) or lie behind rocks or hollows of the land and wait until the surrounding vegetation is burned
- If you are trapped in a house surrounded by fire, close doors and windows and protect the bottoms of the doors and slits with wet rags
- If there are power lines in the area, disconnect the power
FIRST AID FOR BURNED PEOPLE OR WITH SYMPTOMS OF ASPHIXIA
- Move the injured out of the spotlight to a safe place and place it in a horizontal position face up or in a lateral position if the back and face are burned if the burns affect the sides and back
- Notify the emergency services, calling 112 for assistance and evacuation
- When the clothing of the injured person is in contact with the burn, do not remove it if it is observed that it is attached to the skin
- Cool the burn with jets of cold water
- Do not burst blisters or treat with ointments or ointments without a prescription
- Protect burns with clean canvases and if possible with sterile pads
- Cover the victim to prevent cooling, even summer
- Do not give drinking or eating to the serious burned unconscious; if conscious, give small sips to rehydrate the body
- Do not supply alcoholic beverages
- Case of symptoms of suffocation from having breathed smoke or combustion gases, if you do not recover spontaneously, practice artificial respiration and cardiac massage when the pulsations are not perceived.
RESEARCH AND FIGHT AGAINST FIRE
- Given the enormous extent of forested land, its isolation and the lack of human presence and surveillance, many of the fires are intentionally produced (several simultaneous foci or in different areas at the same time, use of incendiary devices, ect) by criminals that act on their own (revenge, interests, psychopathies, pyromania) or hired by others; They often use motorcycles or ATVs that facilitate the escape from the place.
- These subjects are difficult to identify and detain (only 2-3% of the perpetrators can be detained) so that the control and investigations would have to be intensified with more specialized personnel and technical means (surveillance, fingerprint analysis and DNA in failed incendiary devices, verification of the traces of tires of suspicious vehicles in the vicinity of the initial outbreaks, telephone intervention and home searches of persons with backgrounds or economic interests, etc.)
- Another type of intentional authorship is that produced by the so-called pyromaniacs, whose profile responds to that of a man of rather low intellectual quotient, who enjoys or raves when seeing the flames and their effects; sometimes it is he who warns about the fire and collaborates in the extinction
- Another type of intentional authorship is that produced by the so-called pyromaniacs, whose profile responds to that of a man of rather low intellectual quotient, who enjoys or raves when seeing the flames and their effects; sometimes it is he who warns about the fire and collaborates in the extinction
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See these videos:
