Peat and forest fires. Features of the occurrence, development and extinguishing of peat fires. Causes of peat fires
Peat fires – this is a difficult type of fire, in most cases they occur directly on natural areas, during which the peat layer burns. The development and occurrence of such fires falls on marshy areas, since there is a lack of oxygen, which is caused by an excess of moisture. As a result, the decomposition of marsh plants does not occur completely and, over the course of several thousand years or centuries, accumulation occurs in the form of a homogeneous mass - peat.
We remain somewhat stunned by the fact that so many fermentations, sublimations, distillations, corrections, filtrations and cobobations, which I am surely forgetting, serve only to return to the square. It is not surprising that enzymatic phenomena find their place so easily in distillation vessels. In contrast, fermentation and distillation are considered to be two phases of the same process of decomposition of a substance under the influence of heat: If this heat corresponds to the body and makes the separation without any external help, it is called fermentation.
The most dangerous for people and animals are considered to be fires that occur in swamps that have been drained as a result of laying a drainage network for agricultural purposes, as well as in order to increase the productive characteristics of forests. Often the level of danger of fires associated with peat is not fully assessed.
Peat fires have a very interesting feature, which makes this type of fire quite dangerous to life. The peculiarity is that they take a very long time to flare up and also take a long time to spread, but the duration of such fires exceeds all types of fires.
If it is produced externally by fire or other hot substance in which everything is still placed, it is called digestion or distillation: digestion if the heat only prepares the substance for distilling their alcohol; distillation, if the action is powerful enough to remove and distill them.
The very practice of distillers of the time is baffling, and it is not uncommon to see them distilled in the heat of fermentation, horse manure, or grapevines. Thus the entry for "Fire" in the Fouretier Dictionary, where the different degrees of heat are defined, names the first degree of digestion, manure, natural heat, bath, the second degree, where the material to be heated is separated from the flame by a container filled with ash, sand or water, as in water bath, which corresponds to the usual fire that is used under the vessel.
In this article we will consider the main characteristics of peat fires, methods of extinguishing them, as well as what consequences they have for environment and man.
Types and causes of peat fires
The main causes of fires in peat areas include: human factor. This is an incompletely extinguished fire after a picnic, an abandoned match or a smoldering cigarette butt, or the burning of dry grass.
So three possible forms distillations are determined in the first three degrees of fire. The last two are still used today in current frames, with bare fire and bein marie. However chemical theories, who see the development of this predominance of fermentations, compete with the thinking of Yamatomechanics, who, after Descartes, offer purely mechanical explanations of the functioning of the organism. Thus, at the end of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were opponents of digestion by fermentation and those who saw after Borelli the consequences of plant nutrition in the stomach and digestive tract.
In addition, peat is capable of spontaneous combustion when temperatures reach above 50 degrees Celsius. In summer, the soil surface can heat up to 52-54 degrees. This temperature is often enough for peat to ignite.
In rare cases, such a fire may be caused by a lightning strike. Often they are a continuation. An important characteristic is the moisture level of the peat. Typically, a period of prolonged drought contributes to the outbreak of fire. The top layer dries out greatly, and the humidity drops to 25% or less.
However, fire is always at the heart of the matter. For Philipp Hecke, it is the crushing of food that produces the heat needed for cooking, since the wheel can be ignited by simple friction. However, Descartes' physiological theories are not completely alien to those we saw at work, but they are an exception to him. For Descartes human body is a hydraulic and pneumatic machine aligned by a thinking soul. Firstly, the meat is digested in the stomach of this machine with the help of some very hot liquors which agitate them but the word "fermentation" or "enzyme" is not expressed.
The peculiarity of a peat fire is that its depth depends on the level of location groundwater. Fire starts on a dried surface and goes deep, where it can smolder for years.
Smoldering is considered the main flameless phase of peat forest fires. This process is supported by oxygen entering the lower layers of peat along with air. The speed of fire spread is low. The edge of a fire can move only a couple of meters per day. The combustion of peat is dangerous due to its stability, and the fact that when smoldering in deep layers, even heavy rains or showers.
The very examples that he wants to illustrate with his thought are about water that affects quicklime or metal etching seems to want to separate from it. Descartes simply states that even without these liqueurs the meat is such that it can corrupt and heat itself: just as new hay does in a barn when it is drawn in before it is dry. This image of spontaneously consumed hay is widely used by iatrochemists to illustrate the production of heat in fermentations, but when it comes to explaining how foods are converted into chile, Descartes refers to the metaphor as they are digested, the finer parts leaving the digestive ducts through the small openings from which they flow into a large vein, which leads them to the liver, and also when agitated, the flour in the airlock compartment is all the purest streams, and there is nothing but the smallness of the holes through which it passes, which prevents the sound from following it.
The types of peat fires differ depending on the number of fires that occur - single-focal and multi-focal. If fire is handled incorrectly, most often there is one source of fire, and in case of spontaneous combustion or from ground fires, the fire, deepening, can appear in several places at once, then they speak of a multi-focal type of fire. In such cases, it can be eliminated only by limiting the area with outbreaks by digging ditches. Water is poured into it from a nearby reservoir.
However, the circulation of blood between the heart and lungs is strangely similar to distillation, but any direct reference to still seems to have been eliminated, and the body's machine is rather comparable to a clock, a hydraulic mill or a fountain, to a distillation vessel. In fact, at the end of the seventeenth century, the alembic body metaphor was buried again, and the pain immediately ceased. When one considers that classical medical thought associates migraine with the fact that the technique of cooling the head and neck with wet clothes is still used for a long time and to this day to help vapors condense, one will not fail to find there an image of vapors that rise to the head of pun people.
Peat fires are classified according to the depth and severity of burning of the layers. They can have weak (up to 25 cm), medium (25-50 cm) and strong (over 50 cm) burn depth.
The duration of peat fires can be several months, and sometimes even several years. Peat fires do not burn like an ordinary fire, they smolder, and a lot of smoke is released. It is noteworthy that in winter such fires do not stop, since the smoldering center itself is under reliable protection layer of peat or ash containing peat. Another feature is hidden combustion, which makes it quite difficult to determine exactly where the peat is burning. To stop the smoldering process, it is necessary to pour a large amount of water or a special extinguishing agent into the smoldering site itself.
Fermentation and rotting
In the eighteenth century, Lavoisier's discoveries on animal heat and the role of respiration, as well as those of Reaumer and Spallanzani on digestion, would be completed. They invalidate numerous explanations for bodily fires. But during this century the problem of the relationship between fermentations, gaseous emanations, is gradually revealed, and fire, with some dramatic precision, will be posed. Again, what happens in the outside world is reflected in the human body, and again alcohol plays an important role.
The root of the problem is spontaneous combustion. Spontaneous combustion or spontaneous fires are those that "occur of themselves without the aid of art or any other cause foreign to the movement of the bowels, which excites in burnt bodies." If the eighteenth century is particularly interested in this question, it lies at the heart of the scientific debates of the moment. The era was truly dominated by the phlogiston theory of Georg Ernst Stahl, University of Halle, a student of the chemist J. Joachim Becher, famous for his work on fermentation, and who developed the idea that fire was the universal agent of transformation of matter.
Read about ways to extinguish this type of fire in this article:
How to detect such a fire? The answer is in this article:
Consequences of peat fires
Such underground fires cause enormous damage to forest plantations. They damage or completely destroy root system trees and shrubs, as a result the forest dies. This also affects the animal world. Animals are left without food and shelter, and in most cases the natural balance is disrupted.
Stahl's phlogiston is a kind of principle of fire, contained in more or less quantity in all combustible bodies and which escapes at the moment of combustion, is renewed by the flame and explains the changes in its state by the “dephlogistic” of the consumed body. There remains some confusion between fermentation and putrefaction. In fact, putrefaction includes all types of fermentation and is the last degree. If vegetables are allowed to ferment until they rot, the bodies that are not subject to fermentation will directly rot. However, it is still believed that the living body can be the site of fermentation, but that it is followed by putrefaction.
Often there is no visible flame on the surface. This makes it dangerous for all living inhabitants of the forest and humans. main feature peat fires is that it is almost impossible to outwardly notice signs of underground decay, but burnt-out voids form below. Any careless step on peat terrain can end in tragedy for a person.
This refers to food in the stomach and digestive sphere, belching and wind are manifestations of this fermentation phenomenon. The development of gases arising from the decompositions of matter is also becoming better known. The term "gas" was created by Van Helmont to designate all flammable or non-flammable emanations formed during chemical transformations of bodies, including fermentations.
In this context, any place where a material decomposes is perceived as potentially hazardous. Whether they receive "mephitic" emanations, moffets that can cause death or generate excess heat are capable of explosions or inflammation. The earth itself exhales vapors and fires. The best example of this are volcanoes, such as the vapors emitted by some cracks. To dive into the depths of the earth, you need to get closer to sources of danger. Therefore, places that are buried and closed must be especially dangerous.
In addition, a strong gust of wind can transport smoldering peat dust and particles to other areas of the forest belt. As a result, new fires arise. When contacted with a human body, such peat wind turbulence causes severe burns.
Constant smoldering leads to the formation of smoke, soot, methane and hydrogen. This degrades air quality, which can trigger asthma attacks or allergic reactions in sick people.
Mines are thus often the basis of inflammations and are attributed to the decomposition of pyrites, which their heating causes to ignite, and also develops still more dangerous vapors, which, far from ignition, extinguish caves, wells, comfort pits, "by the arrangement of which the feces become sulphurous" and ignite, may see the same consequences. The strength of these manifestations sometimes gives them significant proportions.
Epichev's wife, who lived in Paris on the Rue Cornet in Gros Caillou, threw a lighted paper into the siege of the comfort pit and was immediately surrounded by flames, inside the closet, setting fire to his headdress and making an impression on his face and hands, an effect that flammable air did not would have produced if he had not been pulled in by the room. was extinguished, and the materials exploded and rose to the ceiling; To the great whistle, there was an underground noise and noise so stunning that the neighboring houses were shaken and aroused suspicion of a real earthquake.
As a rule, the main causes of peat fires are people and their rash actions, namely:
- burning dry grass;
- fires that were not put out after themselves;
- discarded cigarette butts;
- and much more.
Massive outbreaks pose a serious threat to the natural environment, economy and population. forest and peat fires. They are varieties of landscape fires, which are fires that cover various components of the geographical landscape (GOST 17.6.1.01-83).
The pit key was broken along its entire length and raised. All these phenomena happened at the same instant. The last was a very strong sulfurous odor that spread and persisted for several days in the neighborhood. This is an example already mentioned of haystacks that catch fire, piles of manure that water is powerless to extinguish, or even bales of cloth or fabric that are heated to the point of being roasted from the inside. This flame continued, usually decreasing in size, for two or three minutes.
True, the owner of the animal forced him to swallow it, hoping to cure him, good load fresh water powder powder. But healing is not the only reason for this. Stories often occur in flames, spontaneous or caused by the proximity of candles, emerging from the stomachs of human corpses opened during autopsies.
Main cause of fires– careless handling of fire, violation of rules fire safety. In addition, they can arise as a result of natural phenomena ( lightning discharges, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, spontaneous combustion of gases, peat, etc.). Forest fires are especially dangerous in the dry season, when favorable conditions are created for the burning of dry forest materials and subsoil peat deposits.
Thus, as in the interior of the Earth, the digestive sphere must be susceptible to inflammation by fermentation, heat, and the gaseous emanations that occur there. But the whole body seems to harbor a hidden fire, which sometimes appears in those electrical sparks, or even in those white flames that occur in hair or clothing, but these flames are harmless. reduce the hair to ash, although most of the time it doesn't burn or get hot.
In fact, the living human body is susceptible to much more severe inflammation, spontaneous combustion so terrible that a short time it can destroy him completely. The main agent of these fires is alcohol abuse.
Main damaging factors forest and peat bog fires are fire, heat, as well as various secondary damage factors arising as a consequence of a fire.
forest fire is a fire spreading across a forest area (GOST 17.6.1.01-83). The occurrence of forest and peat fires is most likely during the fire season. The forest fire season is the part of the calendar year during which a forest fire is especially likely to occur. An important characteristic of a forest fire is the speed of its spread, which is determined by the speed at which its edge advances. The edge of a forest fire is a burning strip that borders the outer contour of a forest fire and is directly adjacent to the areas not covered by the fire. Forest fires, depending on in which elements of the forest the fire spreads, divided into grassroots, upland and underground (peat).
There he reveals five cases of complete spontaneous combustion, taken by different authors, and in which he sees "one of those wonderful similarities between the great and the small world." The scenario is pretty much the same. Feeling “heavy and listless” during dinner, the Countess goes to bed. The next day he is found in the ashes four feet from his bed. The bed and room were not affected by the fire, but everything was covered with damp soot, and the floor was smeared with a thick sticky dampness. If there is no question of alcohol in relation to Bianchini, it was later stated that the Countess was accustomed to rubbing her body with a camphor spirit.
Ground fire is a forest fire that spreads through the lower tiers of forest vegetation, forest litter, and decline. They highlight a dead fire - ground fire, in which the main combustible material is wood located on the soil surface. Based on the speed of spread and degree of impact on the phytocenosis, ground fires are divided into fluent and stable. A quick ground fire is a ground fire that spreads at a speed of forward movement of the edge of more than 0.5 m/min with a predominance of avalanche burning, as a result of which the surface surface burns. Stable ground fires include ground fires that spread at a speed of translational movement of the edge of less than 0.5 m/min, during which slow burning is observed not only of grass, fallen leaves, pine needles, but also stumps, dead wood, and the lower part of trees. According to the parameters of the edges Forest fires divided into weak, medium and strong. A weak ground fire is a ground fire with a forward movement speed of up to 1 m/min and a flame height of up to 0.5 meters. An average ground fire is a ground fire with a speed of translational movement of the edge from 1 to 3 m/min and a flame height of 0.5 to 1.5 m. A strong ground fire is a ground fire with a speed of translational movement of the edge of more than 3 m/min and flame height above 1.5 m.
Most dangerous crown fire. This is a forest fire that is burning through the forest canopy. The grassroots fire spreads like component crown fire. The conductor of combustion during crown fires is the layer of needles (leaves) and twigs of the crown space. Based on edge parameters, crown fires are usually divided into three classes – weak, medium and strong.
Also distinguished general fire– a forest fire that covers all components of the forest biogeocenosis. It is divided into fluent and stable.
Underground peat fire is a fire in which the peat layer of marshy and marshy soils burns. It is characterized by a low rate of advance of the fire edge and is divided into weak, medium and strong. A weak underground (peat) fire spreads at a speed of up to 0.25 m/min, a medium one - at a speed of up to 0.5 m/min, a strong underground (peat) fire spreads at a speed of more than 0.5 m/min. Characteristic feature peat fires are flameless combustion of peat with accumulation large quantity heat.
Forest fires can cause the ignition of artificial objects and, thus, lead to massive fires and the death of populated areas, holiday villages, social institutions, residential buildings, warehouses and storage facilities, poles and communication and power lines, bridges, elements of pipeline transport, agricultural land and products. As a result of such fires, economic activity in large areas is disrupted.
Massive forest and peat fires, especially in dry weather and wind, covering large areas, cause great damage natural environment, economics, social sphere. They provide destructive effect on forest resources, destroying trees and fauna, causing damage to the organic layer of soil and its erosion, polluting the atmosphere with combustion products. Plants weakened by fires become sources of plant diseases. As a result of the fire, the environmental protection, water protection and other beneficial properties of the forest are reduced, the planned management of forestry and the use of forest resources are disrupted.
Forest fires can cause the ignition of artificial objects and, thus, lead to massive fires and the death of populated areas, holiday villages, social and domestic institutions, residential buildings, warehouses and storage facilities, communication and power line supports, bridges, elements of pipeline transport, agricultural land and products. As a result of such fires, economic activity is disrupted over large areas. Forest fires often lead to the destruction of people and cause their death, burns or injuries, and also cause the death of farm and wild animals.
The consequences of forest fires cover a wide area and can be severe. Catastrophic forest fires in October 1976 in the Khabarovsk Territory completely destroyed 11 villages and partially 19 other settlements, causing damage to the national economy of 60 million rubles alone. In 1987 total area forest fires in the Chita region amounted to 93,750 hectares. In the fires of 1989, Sakhalin was practically deforested. The scale of forest loss on the island was officially recognized as an environmental disaster. During the fire-hazardous period of 1990, 2015 forest fires were discovered in the Irkutsk region, and the area of their elimination amounted to 295,705 hectares.
In most cases, the culprits of forest fires are people who do not show caution when using fire in the process. production activities and rest. Persons guilty of violating fire safety rules in forests, depending on the nature of the violations and their consequences, bear disciplinary, administrative or criminal liability.
IN During the fire season in the forest it is prohibited:
· throw burning matches, cigarette butts and shake out smoking pipes hot ash;
· use wads made of flammable or smoldering materials when hunting;
· leave cleaning material oiled or soaked in gasoline, kerosene and other flammable substances in the forest (except in specially designated places);
· refuel the fuel tanks of running internal combustion engines, use vehicles with a faulty engine fuel supply system, as well as smoke or use an open fire near vehicles refueling with fuel;
· leave bottles or glass fragments in a sunlit forest clearing, since by focusing the rays they can act as incendiary lenses;
· burn grass under trees, in forest clearings,
clearings and meadows, as well as stubble in fields located in the forest;
· make fires in young coniferous forests, peat bogs, cutting areas with logging residues and harvested wood, in places with dried grass, under tree crowns, as well as in areas of damaged forest (windfall, windfall) and old burnt areas.
Each group of the population involved in fire extinguishing operations should be assigned a guide who knows the area well, and an observer should also be assigned to monitor the direction of fire spread and falling trees.
Leaving the forest fire zone need to be in the windward direction using open spaces- clearings, clearings, roads, rivers. If it is necessary to pass through a combustion zone, you should hold your breath so as not to burn your respiratory tract when inhaling. Clothing that catches fire must be extinguished with water or by throwing a tarpaulin or other materials.
Falling trees that have been burned from the roots pose a particular danger. Therefore, crossing declared boundaries and isolation ditches towards the fire is prohibited.
Extinguishing underground fires requires special care. The edge of such a fire is not always noticeable and you can fall into a burnt out hole or into burning peat. To avoid accidents, you should only move through the peat field in groups. Moreover, the leader of the group must constantly probe the peat soil with a pole in the direction of movement.
A serious danger is posed by the unexpected breakthrough of fire from a fire in the underground layers of peat, sudden changes in wind direction, an increase in the rate of peat burning and the transfer of sparks, which can lead to the formation of new fires.
It is prohibited to spend the night in the zone active fire. The place of rest and overnight accommodation should be located no closer than 400 m from the localized part of the fire and be fenced with mineralized strips at least 2 m wide. At the same time, appropriate precautions should be taken in case of a sudden approach of fire.
In case of threat to the life of the population from massive fires in populated areas, his evacuation to safe places is organized.
When rescuing victims and extinguishing a fire, it is necessary:
· move crawling or crouching;
· to protect against carbon monoxide breathe through a damp cloth;
· carefully enter the smoke zone if visibility is less than 10 m;
· if your clothes catch fire, lie down on the ground and roll over to knock out the flames;
· when you see a person in burning clothes, throw a coat, raincoat, etc. over him and press him tightly; apply bandages to burn areas;
· leave the fire zone in the windward direction, i.e., where the wind is blowing from;
If there is a threat of a fire front approaching a populated area or individual houses, the inhabitants of this settlement or houses, regardless of centrally undertaken efforts or in interaction with them, must implement measures to prevent the fire of buildings. To achieve this, fire clearances between the forest and the building boundaries are increased by cutting down trees and bushes, wide mineralized strips are created around settlements and individual buildings, and water and sand reserves are created. When there is a threat of heavy smoke, the population is issued gas masks with hopcalite cartridges. At the same time, property is being prepared for evacuation or stored in safe places, and livestock is being prepared for removal or removed from the threatened zone. Property can be stored in stone buildings without flammable structures, in fire-proof dugouts, or simply in earthen pits covered with soil on top.
In the event of a fire approaching buildings directly and increasing the threat of a massive fire in locality If there are free routes, the disabled population is evacuated - the elderly, disabled, sick, pregnant women, children. If it is impossible to evacuate, the above-mentioned categories of the population are accommodated in self-sealed stone buildings, protective structures of civil defense, or in large open areas.
In the event of a general evacuation, residents prepare for it by collecting in advance the most valuable and necessary things, documents, and preparing personal Vehicle. During this period, they should receive information about evacuation methods, gathering places and possible routes.
Droughts
Grozny natural disaster There have been and continue to be droughts. Their main consequence is the death of people and animals or crop shortages. Abroad, western and central states USA, western Argentina, parts of Peru and Brazil, most of the northern half of the African continent. Dry areas exist in China, Asia Minor, and Southern Europe. The catastrophic droughts in India in 1965–1967, which killed more than 1 million people, remain memorable. The droughts of 1963–1973 in the Sahel zone of Africa were disastrous, when many thousands of people and millions of livestock died from hunger and lack of water. In Australia in 1982 and 1983. 20% of the population was affected by drought. Russia experienced 360 droughts from the 10th to the 19th centuries. In 1921, famine struck the Volga region. As a result of the drought in the early 1930s and the drought of 1946, famine struck the country.
