To my knowledge planet Earth is the only known place where fire exists and history reflects this natural condition has always had the potential to devastate entire communities even in our 21st century world. Therefore, it is time to consider arranging current 21st century technology in new ways to address this lasting foe.
When such fires occur, they are obviously difficult for Firefighters to access and be in close proximity, thus requiring distant resources to manage and control. We in the industry have been left with the “Let it burn, just keep it in the city limits” strategy in such cases. There has been no way for us to get enough water on them in the past. When such events do occur, they leave everyone feeling helpless, especially Firefighters.
A closer examination would show that Firefighters are well acquainted with the fact that the most efficient way to extinguish any fire is by Direct Water Attack onto the seat of the it. Wildland Firefighter Units often take advantage of this and deploy a tactic called “Direct Tandem Attack” on open range wildfires, where multiple units line up in a row on the burned out side of the fire (upwind) and the units do a “pump and roll”. The first unit knocks it down while the following ones mop up any hotspots.
Firefighters have also long known that mixing foam products with water makes fire extinguishment more efficient as well, by conveniently changing the characteristics of water to our heat absorbing favor and thereby making a tank of water last longer during operations. The largest and fastest applicators of firefighting foam that I have used were for Aircraft and Rescue Firefighting, (ARFF), though I seem to recall a video of an entire train becoming a water cannon. ARFF foam discharge rates are outstanding to say the least. If memory serves, they are capable of discharging 3000 gallons per minute (50 gallons per second) of heat hungry foam. Having used this technology in the past, I’m rather confident it could even knock down “crowning” forest fires.
Firefighters also use helicopters as well, for water drops onto fire and personnel transport etc.
Therefore, it is time we consider blending these past and proven firefighting practices into a new 21st century Conflagration/Wildland firefighting strategy, by adopting and blending technologies that are currently being applied elsewhere.
We are fortunate in this day of age to have aircraft such as the V-22, a combination airplane/helicopter. It is capable of great ranges, has heavy carrying capacity, and can mid air resupply. Their all-weather and get anywhere resiliency is apparently satisfactory enough for the US Military, and therefore tough and resilient enough for firefighting. Squadrons of ARFF equipped V-22’s could aerially take positions to perform the same Direct Tandem Fire Attack tactic that ground Wildland Firefighters use, the first knocking down the fire with copious amounts of firefighting foam (50 gallons per second), while the following ones mop up. All from a nose in the upwind position, extinguishment being discharge in the downwind. After the first V-22 exhausts their extinguishment supply, it then flies off to connect with a resupply aircraft while the rest of the V-22 squadron move forward one position and continue the attack.
To counter the fire fanning effect that V-22 rotor wash would have on such large fires, it will be necessary to install water nozzle discharges into the aft air turbulence, thus creating a huge heat absorbing air atmosphere. As one who has witnessed the effect, nothing will knock down wildfire as fast as rain. As further argument for rotor wash water application, I am not aware of Conflagrations being a concern during hurricanes. In both examples the air becomes filled with billions of heat absorbing water droplets making it very difficult for fire to survive.
It is theorized that such ARFF equipped V-22 squadrons and their aerial resupply systems would be Conflagration/Wildland Firefighting game changers by giving firefighters access to the seat of fires with direct application of a copious amounts of foam while also filling the fire atmosphere with drenching humidity. Such a system could make conflagrations and large wildfires much more manageable.
If such a system were developed, they could take up positions with the proposed State/National Coast Guard fleets previously mentioned and perhaps be of help when tsunami debris piles turn into conflagrations. I suspect they would also be useful for rescues, personnel and supply transport, etc.