How to protect yourself in the city from the harmful effects of smog and smoke?

IN last years due to certain conditions in the summer, especially in July and August, there is an unfavorable fire situation on the territory of the central region of Russia, when the peat bogs burn. With the prevailing southeast wind, Moscow and some of its satellite cities are covered with thick smoke (smog) - a product of burning (smoldering) peat bogs, which we inherited as a memory of the plans of the first five-year plans and the electrification plan of the young republic of the Councils of People's Commissars. However, on the Internet you can find information about forest peat fires in Muscovy during the Battle of Kulikovo and the conquest of Ochakov and Crimea. However this material we focus on issues of protection, or in other words, what to do, rather than who is to blame.

Smoke formation and distribution in the atmosphere

What, first of all, you need to know about forest peat fires? That smoke - a product of peat combustion - is usually an odorous and visible to the eye light gray mixture of combustion products of flammable substances organic materials, containing a mixture of gases, vapors and finely separated solids(the size of which ranges from 20 to 400 microns), formed during more or less incomplete combustion of fuel. Therefore, when peat bogs burn, a whole “bouquet” of combustion products is obtained, containing not only carbon monoxide, but also flammable compounds, including carbon, hydrogen and partly oxygen and nitrogen, and other associated compounds, in addition, peat in a finely divided state - in the form of soot . Therefore, you need to understand that you need to protect your body comprehensively, from all harmful factors of combustion products, which is not easy to do in everyday life.

As a result of this combustion, smoke and dust rise upward in the atmosphere. The height of the rise of combustion products can vary from the ground layer (up to 2 m) up to several hundred meters, it depends on the state of the lower layers of the atmosphere (wind speed, air and soil temperature, time of day, etc.). In connection with which it can be argued that when peat bogs are burning, to protect from smoke, climb onto the roof of a skyscraper in daytime not advisable. However, one cannot but agree with the statement that on the upper floors the gas pollution situation is much calmer, especially at night, morning and evening with low winds.

The influence of combustion products of peat bogs on the human body

It is important to understand how products forest and peat fires affect our body. Large soot particles can be easily dealt with using a medical bandage. It will protect our bronchi and lungs from particles whose chemical nature is relatively acidic. To prevent a sore throat, it is enough to rinse with a weak alkaline solution (for example, a 5% solution baking soda), acceptance hygienic shower, wet cleaning of the premises. It is much more difficult to deal with carbon compounds and other associated gases. It should be remembered that a cotton-gauze bandage or medical bandage does not protect against this, but rather aggravates the person’s condition, as it creates breathing resistance and reduces gas exchange in the lungs. For example, from the experience of managing a normal developed person the volume of the lungs ranges from 2400 to 3600 cm3, and the breathing resistance in a gas mask reaches 80 mm of water column, in a bandage it is slightly lower. Therefore, wearing a protective mask for a long time can be compared to helping a person suffocate with a noose that we squeeze on his throat. Therefore, the person himself must determine his own behavior during the period of forest peat fires. How much time is spent outside, how much indoors, how long in public transport, how long to wear a bandage. The main criterion is the state of the body (young or old, sick or healthy) and well-being (fatigue, dizziness or headaches).

Currently, no studies have been published on the harmful effects of smoke (smog) on ​​the human body and the development of chronic diseases. It is possible only on household level hear stories of deterioration general condition health from the summer heat when the peat bogs are burning. And this fact should alert you and me, since a Russian will not cross himself until thunder strikes. Therefore, our experienced specialists offer some rules that can be accepted or ignored.

Methods of protection against smoke during forest and peat fires

1. If possible, temporarily leave the smoke zone caused by forest or peat fires.


2. Minimize exposure to the open air. Especially early in the morning. Concentration in the morning harmful substances the biggest one in the air. Don't jog in the morning.


3. It is recommended to consume fermented milk products, salted and alkaline water. And forget about sweet soda.


4. It is very important to take multivitamins (if there are no contraindications).


5. If the burning smell intensifies, it is recommended to wear protective masks. And cover window and door openings with damp cloth (sheets, gauze). This especially applies to older people, those who suffer from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung diseases, and allergies.


6. It is better to carry out wet cleaning indoors. At least once a day.


7. Take a shower several times a day.


8. Rinse your nose and throat frequently. You can use sea water or saline solution.


9. In food, give preference to fruits and vegetables rich in minerals.


10. Don't drink alcohol. Limit your smoking. This provokes the development of acute and chronic diseases of the respiratory system.


11. If you experience shortness of breath or cough, do not hesitate and consult a doctor.


12. If you have a chronic illness, follow your doctor's instructions strictly.


13. Use rooms where there is air purification and air conditioning.


14. Take walks in the forested area more often.

Based on materials from the Japan Air Cleaning Association.

forest fire is a spontaneous, uncontrolled spread of fire across a forest area.

Peat fire- this is the burning of a peat bog, drained or natural, when its surface overheats.

The main causes of forest fires are:

Careless handling of fire by tourists, hunters, fishermen, mushroom pickers and other persons when visiting forests (bonfire, unextinguished cigarette butt, unextinguished match, sparks from a car muffler, etc.) – 50–60%;
spring and autumn uncontrolled agricultural burning (burning of dry grass in hayfields, distant pastures, as well as stubble in fields) - up to 15-20%;
breaking the rules fire safety loggers – up to 20%;
lightning discharges – up to 10–20%.

Spatial distribution forest fires is random in nature, and their periodicity is determined by the cyclicity of atmospheric processes, the duration of fire seasons and the frequency of dry periods. The largest annual area of ​​forest fires occurs in forests Far East and Eastern Siberia, although outbreaks of massive fires still often occur in Western Siberia, in the republics and regions of the Urals, as well as in the Northwestern and Central regions.

Forest and peat fires pose a serious danger to the population, the natural environment and the economy. Forest fires in the country annually cover up to 2–5 million hectares forest area, as well as up to one million forest young growths and the so-called non-forest area (swamps, reindeer and other distant pastures, hayfields, bush thickets and others). The damage from these fires annually amounts to several billion. rubles

The danger of forest fires for the population is manifested in the threat of direct impact on people, their property, in the destruction of villages and enterprises adjacent to forests, as well as in the smoke of large areas, which leads to disruptions in traffic and railway transport, cessation of river navigation, deterioration of people's health.

Depending on the elements of the forest in which the fire spreads, forest fires are usually divided into ground fires (up to 90% in number), crown fires and underground fires (soil fires). In turn, ground and crown fires can be stable and fugitive. Fire intensity indicators are presented in table. 1.

Table 1

Fire intensity indicators

Fire parameters	Fire intensity indicator values
	Weak	Average	Strong
Ground fire
m/min.	Up to 1	1 – 3	more than 3
Flame height m	up to 0.5	0,5 – 1,5	more than 1.5
Horse fire
Speed ​​of fire spread m/min.	Until 3	3 – 100	more than 100
underground fire
Depth of burnout m	Up to 25	25 – 50	more than 50

A stable ground fire spreads along the lower tier of the forest (ground cover, undergrowth, dead wood burns) at low speed (up to 0.5 m/min), covering the lower parts of tree trunks and roots protruding to the surface.

With fluent ground fire living and dead ground cover, dead wood, forest self-seeding, coniferous undergrowth and undergrowth burn, but at the expense of more favorable conditions(dry forest, windy weather) such a fire spreads at an increased speed (more than 0.5 - 1 m/min.) and flame height, bypassing places with high humidity cover.

A ground fire is characterized by an elongated shape of the fire with an uneven edge. The color of the smoke is light gray; the speed of ground fires spreading against the wind is 6–10 times less than downwind. At night, the rate of fire spread is less than during the day. When the wind direction changes, it becomes more difficult to determine the shape of the fire - its main elements of the front, rear, and flanks. In such cases, especially when the fire has taken big sizes, it is possible that people in the forest will be surrounded by fire.

Navigating the situation during large fires is possible only with the help of aerial reconnaissance.

A high stable fire is the next stage of a low fire. The flame of a ground fire sets fire to the crowns of trees, while pine needles, leaves, small and larger branches burn. The transition of a ground fire to the tree canopy occurs during strong winds, as well as in plantations with low crowns, in stands of different ages, as well as with abundant coniferous undergrowth (especially on mountain slopes when fire spreads upward). The tree stand after a crown fire, as a rule, dies completely, leaving only the charred remains of the trunks. In a stable top fire, the fire spreads across the crowns only as the edge of the bottom fire moves.

In case of a running fire on top, which occurs only during a strong wind, the fire spreads along the tree crowns “in leaps”, ahead of the front of the ground fire. The wind also carries burning branches and sparks, which create new ground fires hundreds of meters ahead of the main source. In some cases, the fire is “thrown” in this manner across rivers, wide roads, treeless areas and other apparent boundaries to localize the fire.

During the “fire jump,” the fire spreads through the crowns at a speed of 15–25 km/hour, however, the average speed of spread of a runaway crown fire is always less, since after the “jump” there is a delay in the spread of the fire front until the ground fire passes the area with already burned crowns. This occurs because the "fire surge" is caused by the heating of the forest canopy by the warmth of the ground fire. The heat flow, rising obliquely in the direction of the wind, heats the crowns of trees ahead of the fire front at a considerable distance. When at least one of the crowns ignites, the others almost instantly ignite and the fire “jumps” along the heated crowns, but then dies out outside the scope of the heating. In the next section, when the ground fire approaches the front, the process of heating the canopy is repeated and a “fire jump” occurs again.

Raised fires, releasing a large amount of heat, cause upward flows of combustion products and heated air and form convective columns with a diameter of several hundred meters. Their forward movement coincides with the direction of movement of the fire front. The flame in the middle of the column can rise to a height of 100–120 meters. The convective column increases the flow of air into the fire zone, generating wind that intensifies the combustion.

The shape of the square during a fluent crown fire is elongated in the direction of the wind. The smoke from the crown fire is dark.

Underground (soil) fires occur in well-dried areas with peat soils or with a thick layer of forest litter (up to 20 cm and more). A fire spreads slowly through the peat layer - up to several meters per day. Peat and forest litter burn to the entire depth of the dry layer or to the mineral (earthy) soil.

Most often, soil forest fires represent a further stage in the development of ground fires. In the first stage of a fire, the drier peat layer burns only under the trees, which fall randomly, and the forest area damaged by the fire appears pitted. Then the soil funnel-shaped combustion continues deep into the peat layer. When the wind blows, burning particles of peat and forest litter are transferred to neighboring areas, contributing to the development of fire over the area of ​​peat soil and the occurrence of ground fires.

Based on the size of the area engulfed in fire, all listed types of fires are classified in accordance with the data presented in table. 2.

table 2

Classification of forest fires according to the size of the area covered by fire

Organization of fighting forest fires, legal basis protection and protection of forests from fires, powers in this area of ​​the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, bodies local government, federal executive authorities are established by the Forest Code of the Russian Federation (dated January 29, 1997, No. 22-FZ).

In accordance with Article 100 of the Forest Code, in order to prevent forest fires and combat them, executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation:

Organize annually the development and implementation of action plans for the prevention of forest fires, fire-fighting arrangement of the forest fund and forests not included in the forest fund;
ensure the readiness of organizations entrusted with the protection and protection of forests, as well as forest users, for the fire season;
approve annually before the start of the fire season operational plans for combating forest fires;
establish the procedure for attracting forces and means to extinguish forest fires, provide citizens involved in this work with means of transportation, food and medical care; create a reserve of fuels and lubricants for the fire season.

Every year, before the onset of the fire season in forests, forestry enterprises and territorial forestry management bodies with the participation of other interested management bodies and organizations, as well as commissions for emergency situations RSChS territorial subsystems and their units develop action plans and operational plans to combat forest fires, which are submitted for approval to the heads of executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local governments.

At the same time, checks are carried out on the readiness of fire observation towers in areas of ground protection of forests, airborne forest protection units are brought into full readiness, all issues related to the creation of forest fire formations from among citizens involved in extinguishing fires during periods of high danger in forests are resolved, providing them necessary equipment and creating conditions for immediate departure in required cases to extinguish fires.

The state forest guard numbers about 100 thousand people (including foresters) and has a network of fire-chemical stations (more than two thousand) with specialized forest-fire equipment.

In densely forested and inaccessible areas, where detection and prompt elimination of forest fires by ground guards is difficult or impossible, forest protection problems are solved with the help of aviation. This task is carried out by the Avialesookhrana association, which has at its disposal about two hundred air squads that are part of 24 regional air bases, which guard 677 million hectares forest area.

Within the framework of RSChS, the federal forest management body (MPR of Russia) actively interacts with the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. There is a general agreement between him and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations on the use of aviation from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in the fight against forest fires. In accordance with this agreement, helicopters of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations with water drainage devices VSU-5 (the volume of water poured onto the burning area is 5 cubic meters. m) and Il-76TD aircraft with removable cassettes of aviation drainage devices VAP-40 with a water volume of 42 cubic meters. m have already been effectively used many times to extinguish complex forest fires.

In addition, the Center for Reception and Analysis of Aerospace Information of the Agency for Monitoring and Forecasting Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia annually identifies up to 8-10 thousand sources of forest and other natural fires.

General principles of forest fire suppression tactics

Fighting a forest fire is divided into the following sequential tactical operations:

1. Fire localization
2. Extinguishing fires remaining inside the fire
3. Guarding a fire

The most difficult and time-consuming is fire localization, which represents the decisive phase of fire extinguishing work.

Localization of a forest fire in most cases is carried out in two stages. In the first, the spread of a fire is stopped by directly influencing its burning edge. This makes it possible to gain time and then concentrate forces and resources on the more labor-intensive work of the second stage - laying barrier strips and ditches and on the necessary additional processing the periphery of the fire in order to exclude the possibility of its resumption.

In practice, the following main methods of extinguishing a forest fire are used:

Swamping or throwing soil over the edge of a ground fire;
construction of barrier and mineralized strips and ditches along the path of fire advance;
extinguishing fires with water or solutions of fire extinguishing chemicals;
annealing (starting counter fire).

Swamping, backfilling with soil or pouring (especially using backpack equipment) the edge of a fire with water or chemical solutions in most cases ensures only the first stage of localizing fires - temporarily stopping their spread, and the burning of the edge often resumes after some time and the fire continues to spread. Therefore, only those fires are considered localized if there are protective mineralized strips or ditches around them, reliably blocking the paths of further spread of fire, or when the extinguishing manager has full confidence that the methods used to localize fires no less reliably exclude the possibility of their resumption.

Extinguishing a fire involves eliminating the sources of combustion that remain in the area covered by the fire after its localization.

Guarding a fire consists of a continuous or periodic inspection of the area “traversed” by the fire in order to prevent the resumption of the fire from hidden sources that were not identified during extinguishing.

General management of forest fire extinguishing on the territory of the forestry enterprise and responsibility for the completeness and timeliness of the measures taken to eliminate them are assigned to the director (head) of the forestry enterprise; he makes the first decisions on organizing fire extinguishing and mobilizing the necessary forces and means for these purposes. Direct work to extinguish single fires in areas of ground protection of forests, as a rule, is supervised by the heads of fire-chemical stations or other persons of forestry management bodies and the State Forest Protection Service who have passed special training. In areas of aviation forest protection, extinguishing work is headed by senior employees of operational aviation departments or higher-ranking employees of aviation forest protection and forestry management bodies.

The head of a forest fire, when making a decision to eliminate it, must, based on existing data or by conducting reconnaissance and using documents operational plan elimination of forest fires in a specific forest area, determine possible directions of fire development and assess: whether there is a threat to people, objects and settlements located in or near the forest; what roads and water sources can be used by units involved in firefighting; make an approximate calculation of the required forces and means and, if they are insufficient, request assistance. Having determined the plan for localizing and extinguishing the fire, the fire extinguishing manager sets tasks for the work performers, resolves issues of communication and mutual information between different groups of fire extinguishing participants.

Specific methods and features of liquidation various types forest fires are selected taking into account the “Recommendations for detecting and extinguishing forest fires” approved by Rosleskhoz on December 17, 1997.

Particular difficulties arise when extinguishing surface fires covering a significant area (several tens of hectares): such fires usually spread over areas that differ from each other in terms of relief conditions, the predominance of various complexes of combustible materials, etc., which determines the different strength of fires and the speed of spread edges and other features. It may be that in one section of the edge the burning became weak when it encountered deciduous plantings, while in another it intensified, spreading through a pine forest with dense undergrowth, etc.

In such cases, the fire extinguishing manager is obliged to take into account possible features of the spread of fire to different parts active edge and combine applications accordingly different ways, maneuvering with available forces and means. It should be taken into account that with the presence of fire trucks and a sufficient amount of water, it is possible to ensure complete extinguishing of all types of ground fires both under the forest canopy and on open places, and with the use of mechanized and explosive methods of laying mineralized strips while simultaneously maximizing the use of existing obstacles to the spread of combustion and in combination with the launch of anneals, it is possible to successfully fight with small forces even against fires that have covered large areas.

Annealing (or controlled backfire) is the most effective way, used to extinguish overhead fires, as well as strong and medium-sized ground fires. This method allows you to quickly stop the spread of such fires with a small number of forces.

The annealing is started from the boundaries existing in the forest area (roads, trails, streams laid as fire prevention, mineralized strips and other natural or artificially created barriers to the spread of fire), and in the absence of such boundaries near the fire - from support strips specially laid using tillage implements or explosions, or chemical solutions. Width of support strips 0.3–0.5 m.

When starting annealing, the ground cover is ignited along the very edge of the support strip facing the fire, without any gaps. For ignition, special devices are used, as well as improvised means: torches made of birch bark or rags soaked in fuel, etc.

The annealing is started, first of all, against the fire front at such a distance that the oncoming fire, before meeting the edge of the underlying fire, would have passed a strip approximately equal to the width of the fire edge.

To avoid the opposite effect (the formation of a new fire), only experienced forest fire extinguishing specialists should start a counter fire.

Even more difficult, compared to extinguishing ground fires, is extinguishing crown fires. Stopping the front of a stable crown fire in young forests and covering a small area can be achieved by extinguishing the fire with jets of sprayed water from fire tankers. In older plantings and when fires cover a large area, to localize the fire, it is recommended to make maximum use of the existing obstacles for its spread and apply annealing with fire coverage, starting from the front.

In areas where there are persistent crown fires, annealing fire fired along the ground cover can spread to the crowns of trees and spread like a crown fire. Therefore, in such conditions, when creating support strips for starting annealing, they are laid along clearings, the boundaries of deciduous tree stands, in areas free from coniferous undergrowth and trash, or at such a distance that would ensure the rapid appearance of traction to the edge of the crown fire.

To localize runaway crown fires, only annealing is used, covering the fire from the front. The annealing is started in such a way that when the fire front approaches, the burnt out strip is no less possible maximum length"jump" of combustion along the crowns and the range of sparks, i.e. from 100 to 200 m.

Due to the rapid, spasmodic spread of runaway crown fires, special attention should be paid to the safety of workers involved in extinguishing. The length of the jump in wind conditions is no more than 6 m/s can reach 80 - 120, and sometimes more meters. Therefore, workers should not be closer than 250 m from the fire front (at a distance of at least twice the length of possible jumps).

A particularly high danger for people working in the forest, including those involved in extinguishing fires, is created in cases where, with a very strong wind, an overhead (sometimes strong downstream) fire is accompanied by the formation in front of it at a distance of several hundred meters of many secondary, so-called " spotty" fires arising due to the transfer air currents and the wind of sparks, burning branches and other elements of the forest.

During a stormy wind, the speed of spread of spot fires can even reach several tens of kilometers per hour, resulting in a great danger of groups of workers engaged in extinguishing, as well as settlements located in the forest, industrial facilities, buildings, etc. being caught in the ring of fire.

In practice, fighting a spotted fire during the day can only consist of containing its flanks with the help of water fire extinguishing and annealing. The front stops during the day, usually due to strong wind impossible, and this work is associated with great danger to the lives of workers.

In the event of such fires, authorities are immediately notified forestry and local authorities and urgent evacuation of the population of forest villages and objects located in front of the approaching front of such a fire is organized.

At the same time, a plan is being developed and several milestones are outlined to stop the developing spotty fire at night and in the morning, i.e. when the wind subsides, the air temperature will drop and the fire will weaken, largely moving to the ground level. The fire is stopped at this time by annealing in the same order as the top one.

There are significant features and a number of difficulties when extinguishing forest fires in the mountains. The use of powerful earth-moving and tillage equipment to fight forest fires in the mountains is limited, and on rocky soils it is completely excluded. The use of tank trucks and firefighting motor pumps here is ineffective due to the impossibility of supplying water to a height of more than 90–100 m. Therefore, to extinguish fires in mountain forests, annealing with the laying of support strips with solutions of chemicals from backpack sprayers, explosive methods (where possible), as well as hand tools - shovels, hoes, rakes - are widely used.

The speed of the fire as it moves from a horizontal surface to steep slope can increase 5–10 times or more, which is also dangerous for those working on fire extinguishing. Such a fire, as a rule, is stopped behind a ridge on a gentle slope with an average slope of 15° or less, as well as on watersheds and on the boundaries of non-burning areas.

Fires in meadows, pastures and gardens, which usually occur in the spring, are extinguished by sweeping the edges from the flanks to the rear and reducing them to a wedge. In areas where there are thickets of bushes, partial annealing is also used.

Fires in moss swamps and tundra areas are extinguished by sweeping the edges, spraying with solutions of chemicals from backpack sprayers, and using partial annealing around bushes.

Strong and rapidly spreading meadow, steppe, tundra fires, as well as fires in pastures, are stopped by annealing, using existing natural barriers to fire, as well as support strips laid by tillage tools or chemical solutions.

An extremely labor-intensive process is extinguishing developed forest soil-peat fires, especially when they are combined with fires of developed peat deposits (peat fields) and stacks of harvested peat, as clearly evidenced by the experience of fighting forest and peat fires in the summer of 1972 in the Moscow region. Then, due to the unusually dry and hot weather, which long time persisted in many regions of Central Russia; already in July, massive forest and peat fires broke out, which in August took on the character of a natural disaster. During the period of the greatest development of fires, about 360 people were simultaneously involved in fighting them. thousand. people, including over 100 thousand military personnel civil defense, engineering and other troops, as well as up to 15 thousand units of earth-moving and other equipment.

The source of a newly emerging soil-peat fire can be quickly extinguished by pouring water on a section of burning peat, separating it from the edges of the resulting funnel and stacking it on the burnt area. Since there are a lot of roots of trees and shrubs in the upper layers of peat, this work should be done with axes or very sharp shovels. If possible, the edges of the funnel should be treated with water and wetting agent or chemicals from backpack sprayers.

In cases of multi-focal peat fires, which usually occur on peaty soils as a result of a ground fire, extinguishing is possible only by localizing the entire area where the fires are located. This localization is carried out using ditch diggers or explosions, with water then supplied to the laid ditch from local water sources. If there is a sufficient amount of water fire extinguishing agents, the surface of the burning peat should be treated with water at the same time.

To lay protective barriers on peat bogs, special units available in forestry organizations, as well as various earth-moving equipment (ditch diggers, excavators, etc.) can be used.

When extinguishing peat fires, fire pumping stations of the PNS-110 type can be successfully used. The station can supply water from open water sources through main hose lines with a diameter of 150 mm over a distance of more than one kilometer and directly power 2–4 fire trucks, fill artificial ponds or ditches dug around peat fires.

In addition, it is possible to attract, in accordance with the established procedure, to extinguish developed peat fires from local farms, water distributors, watering machines, pumping stations agricultural type, etc. with personnel servicing this equipment.

Recently, due to certain conditions, especially in the summer season, a critical fire situation often arises in the central region of Russia when swamps catch fire. Most of all, you can observe burning peat bogs in Moscow, as well as other cities that are covered in thick smoke (smog).

The benefits of swamps

Peat bogs provide a lot of beneficial actions for the inhabitants of the planet, namely:

• facilitate air vibrations;
• saturate rivers with water, take away excess moisture as a result of melting snow and reduce floods;
• maintain a constant level on nearby soils even during drought;
• present gifts of game, berries and mushrooms to humanity;
• provide shelter and food to many species of animals and plants.

There are certain plant species that, once in a humid environment, do not decay like others. They are compressed into an inseparable mass, creating the so-called peat, which is an absolutely unique material. It is like a sponge, only it can absorb much more liquid!

Why do peat bogs burn?

Swamp fires are often considered a violation of safety rules for “playing with fire.” In addition, flashing may occur due to excessively high temperatures (over 40-45 degrees) or in the event of a lightning strike on the ground cover. Also grassroots, forest and can turn into peat fires. Their flame goes deep into the swamp where the roots are various trees or bushes. Burning peat bogs, as a rule, can be noticed only in the summer, when the soil has already accumulated enough organic remains and heat has penetrated deep into the bog layer.

What you should know about peat fires

Smoke is the result of the combustion of peat, which is a common light gray and odorous compound of products of the flashing of inseparable sources, having a mixture of finely divided dense matter (their volume is from 20 to 400 microns), gases and vapors.

In this regard, when swamps catch fire, a whole “bouquet” of combustion consequences is formed, containing not only but also fluid mixtures containing part of nitrogen and oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, peat in the form of soot and other related compounds. It follows that it is necessary to protect your body from all these destructive results of combustion and stay away from places where peat bogs are burning.

During this combustion process, smoke rises to the top. The rising point of combustion outcomes can vary over a distance from 2 m to several hundred. All this is determined by the state of the internal layers of air (temperature of the earth and atmosphere, time of day, wind speed, and many other factors). Some argue that when peat bogs are burning, it is undesirable to climb onto the roof of a house to escape the smoke, while others believe that the pollution conditions on the upper floors are much lower, especially in the evening and at night with light winds.

Impact of swamp combustion products on the human body

It is very important to understand how the results of combustion of peat and forest fires affect the human body. Large grains of soot that are emitted by burning peat bogs can be overcome quite easily with the help of a medical bandage. It will protect the lungs and bronchi.

To prevent a sore throat, it will be enough to rinse it with a light alkaline mixture (for example, 5% soda solution), do wet cleaning of the room, or take

A gauze mask is not the best protection

It is much more difficult to resist carbon compounds and others. You need to know that medicine either does not save you from this, but, on the contrary, worsens the human condition, as it causes resistance to breathing and reduces gas exchange in the lungs.

In this regard, a person must independently choose for himself the course of action when burning peat bogs occur. How long should you stay in public transport, outdoors, indoors, and how long should you wear a mask? The main criterion here is the state of the body (healthy or sick, elderly or young) and well-being (headaches, loss of strength, weakness).

To date, no data have been published on negative impact smoke (smog) on ​​the human body and the formation of chronic ailments. One only hears some stories about the deterioration of general health as a result of the summer heat. And burning peatlands are also a reason for this.

How to protect yourself from smoke during peat fires

There are some methods to protect yourself from such disasters.

1. If possible, leave the area where there is smoke for a while.
2. Spend as little time outdoors as possible, especially early in the morning. During this period, the accumulation of toxic substances in the atmosphere is greatest. You should also not run in the morning.
3. It is better to consume fermented milk products, alkaline and salted water, but not sweet carbonated water.
4. It is important to take multivitamins (if there are no contraindications).
5. When burning peat bogs emit a strong burning smell, it is advised to wear protective bandages and curtain doors and windows with a wet cloth (gauze, sheet). In particular, this applies to older people and those who suffer from allergies, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic pulmonary ailments.
6. The rooms must be wet cleaned at least once a day.
7. Take a shower 2-3 times a day.
8. Rinse your throat and nose more often with saline or sea water.
9. In food, preference should be given to vegetables and fruits with maximum number minerals.
10. Do not drink alcohol, limit yourself to smoking. All this causes the formation of chronic and severe diseases of the respiratory system.
11. If cough and shortness of breath are detected, you should consult a doctor.
12. Spend more time in rooms where an air conditioner or air purifier is running.
13. Take walks in forested areas as often as possible.

Are peatlands burning in other regions or countries? This is best known to those residents who live in areas where swamps are located.

:101 The fire spreads at a speed of up to several meters per day. Peat fires often represent a stage of development of ground fires, or turn into ground fire when they are fanned by the wind. When the soil under the trees burns out, the trees fall randomly. :102

When observed from the air, the boundaries of a recently started fire are poorly distinguishable, smoke rises from the entire fire area, and the fire is not visible. :49

The depth of peat combustion is limited only by the groundwater level or underlying mineral soil. A peat fire is not afraid of precipitation due to the hydrophobicity of bituminized peat particles. In this case, the moisture goes into the groundwater past the peat particles, and the peat continues to burn until the deposit is completely burnt out. In the winter of 2002, peat bogs burned under the snow until the spring flood began. :146

Peat fire spread speed

Causes of peat fires

Spontaneous combustion of peat

According to the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region, Evgeniy Sekirin, peat can spontaneously ignite if its humidity is less than 40%. During the period of massive fires in 2010, peat moisture was estimated at 28-30%.

Anthropogenic factor

According to E.I. Sekirin, 10% of peat fires occur due to spontaneous combustion of peat, while in other cases the “human factor” is to blame: abandoned cigarette butts or matches.

Lightning strikes

A significant (20-60%) percentage of fires is observed due to thunderstorm activity - in particular, “dry thunderstorms” (lightning strikes without subsequent rainfall). According to statistics, from 1100 to 5100 fires in protected forest areas are caused by lightning; At the same time, fire covers from 22 to 890 thousand hectares, which is almost 3 times the area from anthropogenic sources of fire. Fires caused by lightning can be difficult to reach due to their distance from infrastructure. :152-153

Prevention of peat fires

Fire breaks

According to the Fire Safety Rules in Forests of the Russian Federation, which were approved by Decree of the Council of Ministers - Government of the Russian Federation dated September 09, 1993 No. 886, at peat enterprises it is required to install a fire break 75-100 meters wide with a water supply channel along the inner edge of the gap, with the removal of vegetation on a strip 6 wide meters. :63

Irrigation of peatlands

Watering previously drained peatlands can prevent their further fire. Deputy Director of the State Hydrological Institute Valery Vuglinsky proposes to eliminate previously dug drainage ditches and reclamation network. Deputy Dean of Soil Science at Moscow State University Vladimir Goncharov believes that it is necessary to adopt Western experience in bilateral regulation of the water regime (depending on the presence of drought or abundance of moisture, allow required quantity water to avoid drying out or flooding of the land). According to him, in Holland the humidity of 80% of peat lands is regulated in this way, and in Finland - 100%.

Extinguishing burning peat bogs

The main method of extinguishing peat bogs is digging in ditches, as well as using water trunks. The depth of the ditch should reach mineral soil or groundwater. :19

Peat trunks

Peat trunks are used to extinguish peat fires. Barrel models:

Peat trunks are pierced into the soil, turning the handle opens access to the solution and waits for 32...40 seconds until foam appears at the puncture. Close the tap and move the barrel to another place. The next puncture is made at a distance of 35...40 cm from the previous one. In this case, it is necessary to process a strip 0.7 - 0.8 m wide. :204

Digging up peat bogs

For fires that have just broken out, the burning peat is separated from the edges of the funnel and dumped in the burnt area. The edges of the funnel are watered with water with wetting agents or chemical forest fire extinguishers. :203

Localization of a multi-focal peat fire that arose after a ground fire is carried out by digging ditches and filling the ditches with water from available sources. For this purpose, special equipment is used - ditch diggers or explosives. :204

Digging up peat

Application of fire trucks

In 2007, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Vladimir Region, Sergei Mameev, stated in an interview: “... this technique is not suitable for extinguishing peat bogs. Dumping water onto a peat bog will cause it to burn to a greater extent.”

Peat bog conservation project coordinator Russian program on the conservation of wetlands, Tatyana Minaeva, in an interview with the Voice of Russia radio station, argued that “throwing water on a peat fire from above is useless.”

As a result of experimental studies of forest fire extinguishing, carried out using the IL-76 MD aircraft, it was found that the depth of soil wetting after water discharge is 5...7 cm. The results were reported at conferences in 1999...2001.

Dangers of peat fires

Failures of people and technology

Peat fires create a danger of people and equipment falling into the burnt-out soil (burnout), and therefore it is recommended to exercise caution:21.

Peat slowly burns to its entire depth, which can reach 6-8 meters or more. Burnt-out areas are dangerous because sections of the road, houses, cars or people fall into them. :142 They remain for a long time after burnout heat, therefore, a person who fails in the area of ​​a peat fire is doomed.

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Home > Abstract >Life safety

1. Types of fires............................................................. ...............................2

2. Methods of fighting forest and peat fires.................................7

3. Revival of the forest after a fire.................................................... ..15

4. Prevention of forest and peat fires....................................17

5. Safety precautions......................................................... ......................19

List of used literature..............................................................24

Introduction.
Today, in the age of technological progress, the development of science and technology, many different types of accidents and disasters occur in the world, which are certainly associated with the death of people, with the destruction of material assets, with the occurrence of serious environmental violations, etc. etc.
The topic of natural emergencies is becoming increasingly relevant. The number of floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions increases every year, killing more and more people.
Natural emergencies include forest and peat fires. Russian Federation Famous for its forests, it is one of the world's largest exporters of wood. But recently, the total area of ​​forests has been decreasing disproportionately. And one of the reasons for this reduction is forest and peat fires. Currently, many forest fires occur every year, and catastrophic outbreaks of forest and peat fires are increasing. The harm they cause to humanity is enormous, especially if we take into account not only direct, but also indirect damage. In the first half of the twentieth century, there were 46 types of forest on the territory of Russia, of which only 25 have survived to this day. Moreover, some of them are only in the form of small islands and are in danger of destruction.
Forest fire is a spontaneous (uncontrollable) burning that has spread to a forest area surrounded by unburned territory. The forest area through which the fire spreads also includes open forest spaces. One fire includes the entire area covered by the fire, surrounded by territory that is not currently burning. It is easier to prevent a fire than to extinguish it.
1. Types of fires
The combustion process can only occur in the presence and certain ratio of three elements: free oxygen, combustible material and a heat source. Since oxygen is present everywhere in the atmospheric air, and combustible materials in the form of various organic compounds are quite widespread in nature, the missing part for combustion can only be heat sources. Heat is necessary to prepare the combustible material for combustion, that is, to dry it and heat it to combustion temperature. The source of heat in the combustion process is usually the zone itself where the reaction takes place. If the heat released during the combustion of some portion of the fuel prepares exactly the same new portion of the fuel for combustion, then the combustion zone remains stable. If each newly prepared portion of fuel is larger than the previous one, then the size of the combustion zone increases. This is exactly the phenomenon observed during fires.
The primary source of heat for a fire in a forest is most often an open fire that occurs due to human fault, as well as fire that occurs during lightning strikes.
Fires- the spontaneous spread of combustion, manifested in the destructive effect of fire that is out of human control. Fires usually occur when fire safety measures are violated, as a result of lightning strikes, spontaneous combustion and other reasons.
Forest fire - spontaneous (uncontrolled) burning that has spread to a forest area surrounded by unburned territory. The forest area through which the fire spreads also includes open forest spaces. One fire includes the entire area covered by the fire, surrounded by territory that is not currently burning.
When a controlled burning spreads across a forest area, which arose by the will of man to achieve certain economic goals, and the burning has a given strength and does not go beyond the boundaries of the intended area, then such a burning is no longer called a fire, but a target fire.
The most intense combustion during a forest fire occurs on its edge, while inside the area traversed by fire, on conflagration, usually only individual stumps, hollow trees, etc. burn out. etc. That part of the edge that moves most quickly and burns most intensely is called front fire, and the opposite one - with the lowest speed - its rear. The parts of the edge between the rear of the fire and its front are flanks fire - left and right. On the plain, the fire front always moves with the wind, and the rear always moves against the wind. In the mountains, the frontal edge will be the one that rises up the slope.
According to the nature of combustion propagation, forest fires are divided into four groups.
Firstly, ground fires. In such fires, combustion spreads through the lower tiers of vegetation of the forest biogeocenosis and, first of all, through the living ground cover with litter included in it from dead branches, needles, and leaves. Ground fires are divided into ground fires, undergrowth and deadwood fires.
Secondly, crown fires. With them, flaming combustion spreads not only along the ground cover, but also along the canopy of the tree stand. Among crown fires, a distinction is made between general fires, when all tiers of the forest burn simultaneously; and summit fires, when burning in the crowns for a short time, as if in a jump, bursts upward, ahead of the front of the ground fire.
Third, soil fires, when flameless combustion spreads in a layer of litter or peat. Soil fires, depending on the combustible material, are divided into litter, turf and peat. Peat fires, in turn, are divided into single-focal and multi-focal. Single-point fires arise mainly from a fire or lightning strike, while multi-point fires occur as a result of a ground fire passing through a wetland.
Fourth, spotted fires. The most terrible of all types of fires. The spread of combustion occurs not only along the ground cover, the canopy of trees and shrubs, but also through the air, due to the scattering of burning particles in front of the edge of the fire, from which spots of new fires arise, which then quickly connect with each other, forming a vast burning area.

According to statistics larger number fires occur at ground level. Among ground fires, there are weak ones, with a flame height of up to 0.5 meters; medium, with a flame height ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 meters and strong, with a flame height of 1.5 meters and above. Based on the nature of their spread, ground fires are further divided into fugitive and persistent. During runaway spring fires, only the upper, drier part of the ground cover burns, but during persistent fires, usually in the second half of summer, the cover often burns down to the soil. Burning in stable fires lasts longer, accompanied by smoldering, but the duration of burning in this case is explained not by a decrease in the speed of advance of the fire edge, but by an increase in its width.
The behavior of fire in a forest depends on many factors and, above all, on the nature of the forest itself. In dry pine forests with a cover of lichens and green mosses, fire spreads quickly and in a continuous front. The wetter the soil and the more low-burning species in the living ground cover, the slower the fire spreads, and the fire does not spread entirely, but mainly in dry places. And in some types of forests, for example, in grass forests, during the growing season of grasses, and in thick pine and spruce forests, fire spreads very weakly or does not spread at all.
In sparse forests, ground fire appears stronger, and crown fire, on the contrary, appears weaker. Under the influence of wind, the speed of fire spread increases many times. A similar increase in the speed of fire spread is observed when it moves up a slope. The cluttering of the forest area and the presence of dense coniferous trees and undergrowth also contribute to the intensification of the fire.
In any fire, even a general one, the organic mass of plantings is far from completely burned, and in some of them, for example, a runaway ground fire, even living ground cover is partially preserved. The degree of forest burning is determined both by the type of fire and its severity.
A very important combustible material in forests is forest litter. The moisture content of the litter is usually high, but with the onset of dry weather in the second half of summer, the litter becomes a fire hazard. Forest litter most often burns without flame. Smoldering spreads very slowly and remains in the fire for several days.
During crown fires, the crowns of trees are partially or completely burned. But the trees themselves remain intact.
The longer the frontal edge and the stronger the burning on it, the more difficult it is to hold back the fire with any barrier. Under the forest canopy, the frontal edge of a weak surface fire is usually delayed by a barrier 2–3 meters wide (road, stream, burnt strip). In the case of a medium fire, the width of the barrier should be greater - 5 - 6 meters, and in case of a strong fire, at least 10 meters.
In open forest spaces, the ability of a fire to overcome obstacles increases many times over. The wind easily throws individual burning particles across rivers and swamps at a distance of 200 - 300 meters or more; when the wind subsides, the ability of a fire to overcome obstacles in open areas becomes the same as in a forest. The average speed of a crown fire is not much higher than the speed of a ground fire. Spot fires, at some points, can spread at a speed of 10 - 20 and even 50 kilometers per hour. When there is no strong wind and the fire does not climb a steep slope, the fire speed does not exceed the speed of a pedestrian. After sunset, the wind strength usually decreases and the fire speed decreases.
Of all types of fires, soil (peat) fires have the lowest rate. Their speed is not affected by either wind or daily weather changes.
The rate of edge advance for other types of fires - ground fires, crown fires and spotted fires - is measured in hundreds of meters and kilometers per day. It is almost entirely determined by weather conditions, primarily the degree of drought and wind strength (in the mountains the steepness of the slope is also added). In a dense forest, the speed of a ground fire rarely exceeds 500 meters per hour, but in open spaces it reaches 2 - 3 kilometers per hour.
Peat(from German word Peat, which means the same thing) is a combustible mineral used as fuel, fertilizer, thermal insulation material, etc.
Peat is formed from accumulations of plant remains that have undergone incomplete decomposition in swamp conditions. Contains 50-60% carbon. Heat of combustion (maximum) 24 MJ/kg. World reserves of peat amount to about 500 billion tons, of which more than 186 billion tons, according to experts, are located in Russia.
Peat has become notorious for the underground fires known to mankind for thousands of years. Such fires are practically impossible to extinguish and pose a huge danger.
Peat fires most often occur in peat mining areas and usually arise due to improper handling of fire, lightning strikes or spontaneous combustion. Peat is prone to spontaneous combustion, which can occur at temperatures above 50 degrees (in the summer heat, the soil surface is middle lane can heat up to 52 - 54 degrees)
In addition, quite often soil peat fires are a development of ground forest fire. In these cases, the fire is buried in the peat layer near the tree trunks. Combustion occurs slowly and flamelessly. The roots of trees burn and fall, forming rubble. Peat burns slowly throughout its entire depth. Peat can burn in all directions, regardless of the direction and strength of the wind, and under the soil horizon it burns even during moderate rain and snowfall.
2. Methods of fighting forest and peat fires.
Fire extinguishing consists of stopping the fire, localizing it, extinguishing it and guarding it. The elimination of massive forest and peat fires is often complicated by the inaccessibility of extinguishing areas and their remoteness from water supply sources, the irrationality, and sometimes the impossibility of using vehicles to deliver water. To carry out fire-fighting measures, the need for it can reach several thousand tons per day. The success of fighting forest and peat fires largely depends on their timely detection and rapid adoption of measures to limit and eliminate them.
Currently, the most common methods of extinguishing forest fires are edge suppression, extinguishing with soil, water, chemicals, and removal of flammable materials by annealing, explosion, or mechanical means.
If there is a small fire, you should begin to extinguish it. The most common and simplest way to extinguish a fire is to overwhelm the fire at the edge. For choking, green branches and young trees are most often used (better coniferous species). When it overwhelms the fire, they simply overwhelm it, that is, they hit the burning edge with sharp, sliding blows, trying not only to knock down the flame, but at the same time to sweep away the coals onto the burnt-out area. This method turns out to be quite effective for weak ground fires.
The next most important method is extinguishing with soil, because soil in the forest is always at hand. With the help of shovels, on light sandy soils, you can extinguish a ground fire of even medium strength. Once on the edge of a fire, the soil not only knocks down the flames, but also stops burning, cooling combustible materials and depriving them of oxygen. It is this method of extinguishing that often decides the outcome of a duel with fire.
Extinguishing with water is a method that nature itself uses against fires: all outbreaks major fires ends with heavy rains. Water is an excellent fire extinguishing agent, but unlike soil it has to be delivered, and sometimes from afar. Water is supplied through hoses, delivered in tanker trucks, and dropped from helicopters and airplanes.
Forest combustible materials, especially litter and peat, when very dry, are poorly wetted with water. Hence, one of the ways to save water is to improve its properties. For this purpose, various chemicals are added to water. It is completely impossible to replace water with chemicals when extinguishing a fire. Chemicals easily extinguish the flames in the combustion zone, but they are not able to extinguish the coals. The specific heat capacity of coals is very high and the best substance for cooling them is water. True, there are fires in which practically no coals are formed - runaway grassroots fires. But their edges easily become overwhelmed, and it simply doesn’t make sense to spend chemicals to extinguish it. When using chemicals, you can take a different route: not extinguish the flames and embers at all, but treat only flammable materials in front of the edge of the fire, making them non-flammable. But to obtain a high effect, the chemical must be distributed evenly over the surface. This can only be done by mixing the chemical with some filler, for example water. But water, if available, can be used without chemicals. In addition, various types of chemicals are very expensive.
There are other ways to extinguish fires - by removing or destroying flammable forest cover. To mineralize the soil away from the fire front or as a preventive measure, tractor plows are widely used.
Annealing is also used. Annealing is the operation of burning the ground cover to stop or prevent a fire. It is made from the reference line in the form of a narrow (40 centimeters) mineralized strip, path, road, stream. The strip adjacent to the support line on the fire side is cleared of debris. Annealing begins in advance, without waiting for the fire to approach, while trying to ensure that the combustion is weak and in no case goes into the crowns.
Peat fires cover large areas and are difficult to extinguish, especially large fires when a layer of peat of considerable thickness burns. The main way to extinguish an underground peat fire is to dig in the burning peat area with protective ditches. Ditches are dug 0.7-1.0 m wide and deep to mineral soil or groundwater. When carrying out excavation work, special equipment is widely used: ditch diggers, excavators, bulldozers, graders, and other machines suitable for this work. Digging begins from the side of objects and settlements that can catch fire from burning peat. The fire itself is extinguished by digging up the burning peat and pouring it with a very large amount of water, since the peat almost does not get wet. To extinguish burning stacks, caravans of peat, as well as extinguish underground peat fires, water is used in the form of powerful jets. Water is poured into places where peat burns underground and on the surface of the earth.
All techniques and methods of fighting forest fires are divided into active and passive. Active methods necessarily involve active influence on the edge of the fire, both direct and indirect. Direct extinguishing is advisable only when there is enough water nearby or the fire at the edge is so weak that it can be overwhelmed or covered with soil. In all other cases, indirect quenching - annealing - is preferable.
Of great importance for reducing the consequences of natural disasters is timely notification of the population about them, which will make it possible to take the necessary measures to protect people and material assets. Depending on the nature of the natural disaster and the conditions of its occurrence, the population is notified about it by the civil defense headquarters through all possible communication channels - radio broadcasting, television and using sound signals.
The signal about a fire in a forest or peat bog is transmitted in the established manner:
- from patrol aircraft (helicopters) of aviation fire protection - fire-chemical stations of forestry enterprises;
- the person on duty from the fire observation tower (forest ranger, fire watchman) - to the state forest protection service or to the corresponding forestry enterprise. Having received the signal, the forest protection service and forestry enterprises organize fire extinguishing and alert the population about the fire by radio, telephone or sound signals.
Fire extinguishing tactics depend on the size of the fire and the intensity of burning at the frontal edge. There is the following classification of fire:
Class
A (sunbathing) .................................................... ......................less than 0.2 hectares.
B (small fire)................................................... ...................0.2 – 2.0 hectares.
B (small fire)................................................... ..........2.1 – 20 hectares.
G (medium fire)................................................... .................21 – 200 hectares.
D (major fire)................................................... ...............201 – 2000 hectares.
E (catastrophic fire)...................................more than 2000 ha.
Extinguishing a Class A fire does not require any special techniques. But fires of class B, C, D and others require certain tactics. In the process of extinguishing a fire, there are 4 sequential operations: stopping the fire, localizing it, guarding and extinguishing.
Experience shows that field trunk pipelines (FMP), which are used to equip the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, can help solve these issues. For the first time in domestic practice, they were used on a large scale in August 1972 to eliminate massive fires in the center and east of the European part of the country, where forest and peat fires spread over a vast territory (Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and other regions).
Peat bogs and peat mines burned over large areas, and a significant number of small fires and zones of continuous burning in layers up to a depth of 2 m were noted, as well as fires of caravans of marketable peat. In some areas, crown and ground forest fires have been recorded.
The spatial extent of the disaster zone, the inaccessibility of fires, their remoteness from water sources, and the lack of manpower and resources did not make it possible to effectively fight the fire using traditional methods. Military units and civil defense formations operating in the areas of forest fires, using equipment (bulldozers, track-layers) and explosive devices, in some cases only localized the fires. Under these conditions, it was decided to involve the pipeline troops of the Ministry of Defense in extinguishing fires, whose main task was to deploy pipeline lines as soon as possible and pump water to the fires with the highest possible supply.
Pipeline parts are equipped with PMT sets with nominal pipe diameters of 100 and 150 mm, intended for transporting light petroleum products (if necessary, oil and water) in field conditions over long distances.
Each kit is an engineering complex consisting of pipes, pumping means and other equipment with which you can deploy main line or the required number of local lines with a total length of up to 150 km. PMT is characterized by high installation speed and use in any geographical conditions. The prefabricated design of field pipelines allows you to quickly move PMT sets (in whole or in parts) by all types of transport, quickly deploy them in selected directions, pump water until the task is completed, and dismantle them. At the same time, the pace of deployment of pipeline lines depends on the number of personnel and Vehicle. For operational calculations, it is generally accepted that a team of ten people installs 1 km of pipeline with a diameter of 150 mm or 1.2 km with a diameter of 100 mm in 1 hour.
In all cases of involving pipeline parts to supply water to areas of massive fires, they successfully coped with the assigned tasks. In the process of their implementation, effective techniques and methods of supplying water with the highest possible productivity were developed.
Particular attention was paid to reconnaissance and the readiness of pipeline units for rapid response. Every day, aerial reconnaissance was carried out from helicopters in order to accurately determine the coordinates of fires, their nature, the presence of water sources, study the area and its accessibility for vehicles. At the command posts of the units there were reserves of personnel, vehicles, a supply of pipes (15-20 km) and equipment loaded onto vehicles, pumping equipment ready for transportation, repair shops and communications equipment. The presence of a reserve and constant updating of information made it possible to quickly respond to changes in the situation and make the most efficient use of forces and means.
To ensure maximum water pressure, a number of measures were taken. Retaining stations, which had two hoses at the inlet and outlet of the pumps, were installed on flat banks as close as possible to the water's edge. The head pumping stations, which included mobile pumping units PNU-100/200M, were deployed at a minimum distance from the booster stations (12-24 m). When pumping water over relatively short distances (up to 10 km), the pump impellers were connected in parallel.

The specificity of the fires was that many fires of varying intensity of combustion spread over vast territories. It was necessary to extend one or more pipeline lines to each outbreak and supply water through them, so pipeline units and divisions had to deploy and operate a large number of autonomous lines located far from each other. The main task of the work carried out was the optimal distribution of forces and means for the simultaneous deployment of new pipeline lines, supplying water to fires along several existing lines, dismantling the pipeline and removing pipes from those lines that were no longer needed.
The distribution of forces and means depended on the effectiveness of extinguishing fires. At the first stage, the main efforts were aimed at commissioning new pipeline lines. Since the commissioning of the first nine PMT lines on August 13, 1972, their number has been constantly increasing. As of August 28, the maximum number of lines was in use (41), through which 87.8 thousand tons of water were supplied daily. As the fires were suppressed, the need for lines decreased. The main content of the work at this stage is the supply of water through the remaining lines and the dismantling of the vacated lines.
It should be noted that the criterion of the maximum area of ​​the extinguished fire in the minimum time was used as the optimization objective function. In turn, the area of ​​the extinguished fire is directly related to the water supply through the pipeline. On average, about 50 thousand tons of water were pumped daily through the deployed pipeline lines. To deliver such an amount of water, tank trucks would need to make 10 thousand trips every day with a carrying capacity of 5 tons. The advantages of supplying water to areas of massive fires through a pipeline are also associated with the fact that water sources were significantly removed from the sources of combustion, which is why vehicles turned out to be ineffective. Thus, the use of field trunk pipelines in eliminating massive forest and peat fires has its own history, which is not known to everyone. There is no doubt that the scope of their use in such situations can be expanded, for example, to stop the spread of the edge of a fire (localization) or to completely extinguish it. The volume of water supplied through the pipeline may vary: it all depends on the number of installed pumping stations. The feed amounts for PMT are limited by the number pumping units, included in the kit, which ensure the operation of a pipeline 12-15 km long in moderately rugged terrain. When pumping over shorter distances, characteristic of the circumstances under consideration, more water is supplied. As a rule, the length of the pipeline depends mainly on the location of water sources and fire sources relative to each other, and to a lesser extent on the presence of roads (it can become a unique characteristic of the region in which the fires occurred).
In a similar way, you can determine the length of lines for any geographic area, i.e., determine the distance of fires from water sources. To do this, it is absolutely not necessary to deploy pipeline lines - you can use cartographic material and well-known mathematical models. The presence of such characteristics makes it possible to identify in advance the need for forces and means in order to localize and eliminate massive fires.
To supply water to fires, there are various methods for deploying a pipeline, the choice of which depends on the characteristics of the fire, the presence and location of water sources, the level of existing and potential danger of a particular fire. For example, when deploying a pipeline from a water source to a fire, methods such as deploying one or more main lines to the fire front are used; deployment of several main pipeline lines from different directions to one source; arrangement of branches from the main pipeline line to several combustion sources; surrounding the fire source with a pipeline line; coverage of the fire source by the pipeline line from one or more sides; deployment of several pipeline lines in the form of a “comb”.
In the process of using PMT to extinguish massive fires, the following methods of using water have been developed:
water supply in compact (sprayed) jets through fire nozzles;
splashing water through pipeline joints; creation of protective water zones near populated areas and industrial enterprises, as well as water reserves in reservoirs, closed folds of terrain and intermediate buffer tanks for its subsequent use;
flooding of drainage ditches and watering of areas of burning peat bogs;
filling containers of fire trucks and filling stations.
Based on the experience gained during the elimination of forest and peat fires, three main principles of using PMT for water supply can be named: localization of fires (fire defense); protection of populated areas and important facilities from the advancing fire front; active fire suppression (fire offensive). Each of the listed principles is implemented by a varied combination of the methods described above for deploying pipelines and methods of water supply (depending on the situation).
The advantages of using PMT when extinguishing large forest and peat fires are: creating branched systems of any configuration and inserting them into them anywhere; invulnerability of the pipeline when it is driven over by wheeled vehicles and blocked by burnt trees; the ability to quickly dismantle constructed pipeline lines and move them to another facility; operability even when the fire front spreads directly to the area where the pipeline is laid during water pumping.
The experience of eliminating massive fires made it possible to develop new principles for the use of PMT, which turned out to be not only an efficient and powerful means of supplying water to fires, but also demonstrated high efficiency in directly extinguishing fire. However, the widespread use of pipelines in common system the elimination of massive forest fires is hampered by the lack of a legislative and regulatory framework, a scientifically based concept and tactics for the actions of pipeline units and units of the Russian Ministry of Defense in such circumstances.
In light of the above, it is necessary to prepare an interdepartmental agreement on the procedure for attracting pipeline units of the Ministry of Defense in the interests of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation to eliminate large forest fires and a scheme of interaction between the territorial authorities of forestry management and internal affairs, regional departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
Further development of the scientific foundations and technical support of methods and methods for deploying field trunk pipelines, tactics of action of pipeline parts for extinguishing forest fires is required. At the same time, for more efficient use of water supplied through pipelines, it is necessary to have sets of additional equipment (small-sized portable motor pumps, manual, monitor and peat trunks, fire hoses, tees, etc.).

3. Revival of the forest after a fire.
Russia is famous for its forests, it is one of the largest exporters of wood, but are these reserves renewable? Usually, in the place of cut down trees, other species grow, they are replaced by third ones, and if the former forest biocenosis is restored, it will be only after several generations - centuries later. Scientists know of types of forest plantations that are not able to regenerate naturally. Are there forests that can exist unchanged for centuries? Yes, there are, and ecologists call them “undisturbed” and “old growth.” Their prosperous past can be judged by the fact that veteran trees over 250 years old are alive, and their prosperous present can be judged by the abundance of trees in their prime. The trees in such a forest stand close to each other, otherwise other weeds may grow in the clearings. According to environmentalists, such forests are the standards of natural biocenoses, and they need to be protected. But are there many of them left? Researchers have found that intact forests occupy about 862 thousand km 2, which is 5.14% of the area of ​​our entire country. The European part and the Urals account for 197 thousand km 2, Western and Central Siberia - 237, Altai, Sayan Mountains and the Baikal region - 189 and the Far East - 239 thousand km 2.
In the first half of the twentieth century, there were 46 types of forest on the territory of Russia, of which only 25 have survived to this day. Moreover, some of them are only in the form of small islands, and they are in danger of destruction. Among the candidates for extinction are East Siberian deciduous larches, broad-leaved forests of Primorye and the Urals, and mountainous Caucasian forests.
All valuable forest areas were located far from disadvantaged areas. A common cause of death of old forests is fires, which occur wherever people visit: extensive burnt areas are clearly visible from space. Only forests surrounded by swamps and in large mountain systems - Altai, Sayan, Sikhote-Alin, Yenisei Ridge, near the administrative borders of autonomous republics and large regions - have been well preserved.
The very slow recovery process begins immediately after the fire and continues for many hundreds of years. Fires, in most cases, do not occur in a continuous multi-kilometer front, but in an uneven line and burn in separate centers. The burned areas are adjacent to the remaining ones, which serve as a refuge for animals. Additionally, not every tree and not all litter will burn. Not every tree and not all litter burns.

Many factors influence the recovery process. Among them, the main one is the intensity of the fire, which is determined by the weather and the amount of combustible material. When the last fires were still burning out on the front line of the fire, sensing an opportunity to profit, whole hordes of bark beetles and other insects flocked to the fallen trees. And after them insectivorous birds appear: nuthatches, woodpeckers. Rodents begin to crawl out of their well-insulated holes. A month and a half after the fire, the first living stems appear on the blackened surface of the soil, growing from rhizomes preserved in the soil, most often these are lingonberries, blueberries, and lichens. Later, ferns and horsetail begin to grow, and bushes burned during the fire, as well as alder and birch, begin to appear. Where there were at least a few aspen trees, after a fire an almost pure aspen forest is formed.
If there is a fire in the spring, tree seedlings may appear in the fire area by the fall. Usually they appear in the second year, partly due to the seeds preserved after the fire and mainly due to the fruiting of trees that survived the fire. The number of deciduous trees in some places is so large that they completely cover the soil. Spruce and pine trees very rarely appear after a fire. The situation is even worse with the regeneration of cedar, the seeds of which are carried to the burnt area only by nutcrackers. More or less complete overgrowth of the burnt area with herbs occurs after 2–3 years. However, indigenous vegetation, that is, that which is characteristic of a particular type of forest in undisturbed conditions, is very rarely restored after a fire.
Seedlings of grass and tender growth of trees and shrubs attract hares, wood grouse, and black grouse to the fire. Within a year, the density of animals and birds in large fires may exceed their number in the unburned area.
Restoring trees after a fire is very difficult. Thin-barked species - spruce and pine - die even with a weak ground fire. They can stand rootless for many years after a fire, but eventually they are either attacked by bark beetles or rot. Young deciduous trees also die in ground fires: aspen, alder, and birch.
Pine and deciduous trees are practically not damaged by weak ground fires. Complete death of trees of such species occurs during severe ground fires.
The reason for the death of trees during ground fires is damage to the cambium in the butt part of the trunks and crown burns. The threshold temperature after which tissue death occurs is 60 degrees. Since the thickness of the bark increases with the age of the tree, and the crown rises higher, its resistance to fire increases. In other words, the older the tree, the greater its chances of surviving a ground fire. Due to damage to the cambium, tissue necrosis occurs in trees. With partial (one-sided) necrosis of tissue on the trunks, fire dry spots are formed, the length of which in some cases reaches 10 - 12 meters, although usually it is much less. Podsushki are located, as a rule, on the side opposite to the fire movement front, that is, on the leeward side of the trunks, where hot gases swirl and the flame lingers longer. If fire drains are small in size, they gradually become overgrown. But if the dried areas reach a width of 20–30 centimeters, then they persist until the end of the trees’ life. If the cambium is damaged along the entire length of the trunk, the trees die. In large fires, you can encounter any degree of damage to the tree stand, and even areas completely unaffected by fire.
The conditions for the germination of seeds of both woody and herbaceous plants in burnt areas are very favorable. During fires of low and medium intensity, the litter does not burn out completely and what remains of it along with the ash is an excellent bed for seeds. For some time after a fire, the content of nutrients in the soil increases: nitrogen, potassium, calcium, of which there is a lot in the ash.
And although in the centuries-old life of a forest, fires are a passing phenomenon and even useful to some extent, they are not desirable. Quite significant environmental changes are also caused by peat fires.
4. Prevention of forest and peat fires.
Forest fire prevention is a set of measures aimed at preventing the occurrence of fires and creating conditions for their rapid extinguishing. Most forest and peat fires occur due to human fault. Lightning fires are practically the only type of fire that occurs without direct or indirect human influence.
It is easier to prevent a fire than to extinguish it. However, the number of fires is growing, and there is something to think about. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations claims that if you find out in time about the impending danger and its possible consequences, a big disaster can be prevented.
In order to ensure fire safety, the entire population must follow certain preventive fire safety rules in everyday life.
In our country, emergency situation forecasting is carried out by the Emergency Monitoring and Forecasting Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, which actively interacts with scientific institutions Ministry of Science, Roshydromet, as well as rescue services. The main forecasting tools are geographic information systems (GIS), which combine accumulated and formalized data on disasters, information from multiple sensors, and simulation models of hazardous natural and man-made processes. Forecasting involves the creative participation of various experts who make decisions collectively when discussing a reference forecast option. The adequacy of forecasting results is determined by the quality of the main and auxiliary units information system. The main requirements for it are high efficiency, sufficient reliability, and protection from unauthorized access. It should be remembered that the rate of change of parameters that are used to predict the dynamics of a dangerous event is quite high, the streams of processed data are extremely saturated (digital maps, terrain images, telemetry). It is quite clear that simple, and even more so ideal solutions such a complex information task has not yet been proposed. The forecasting services of Roshydromet (the primary information for them are the results of measurements transmitted from automatic weather stations and satellite information) generate and transmit files containing the spatial coordinates of observation points, as well as data on the state of the atmosphere and precipitation in many parameters. Files with weather forecasts for various periods of time are also generated there. The information necessary to forecast the danger of forest fires goes to the forecasting center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. Here it accumulates, and zones with consistently favorable weather for vegetation fires are identified. Based on this and some other factors (for example, lightning activity), experts formulate a forecast fire danger, presented in the form of a thematic map with corresponding zones.

Based on this map, a forest observation plan is created, and plans for preventive measures are developed. (One of the points of such plans is to warn the population about possible danger.) Detected forest fires are plotted on an operational map, which makes it possible to predict the development of events and plan measures to eliminate the fires.
5. Security measures

1. When going to the forest on vacation or on a hike, take with you an axe, a folding shovel, a bucket or a large plastic bag. When you smell smoke, come closer and find out what is burning, which direction the wind is blowing, what is the danger of the fire spreading, and whether there are children in the fire zone. Assess the situation - is it worth trying to put out the fire on your own or is it better to rush for help so as not to waste time and prevent the fire from gaining strength. Report the incident to the nearest telephone or via a messenger to fire department. When escaping from a forest fire, you should go in a non-windy direction, perpendicular to the edge of the fire, along clearings, roads, clearings, banks of rivers and streams. In case of strong smoke, it is necessary to cover your mouth with a wet cotton-gauze bandage, a towel, or, in extreme cases, a piece of clothing. 2. Fill the fire with water from the nearest body of water and cover it with earth. To extinguish, use bundles of branches from deciduous trees or trees 1.5 - 2 meters long, thick fabric, and wet clothes. Apply sliding blows along the edge of the fire from the side towards the fire, as if sweeping away the flame; Turn the branches and fabric over after each one so that they cool and do not catch fire. Trample a small fire with your feet, do not let it spread to the trunks and crowns of trees. If the fire spreads to the crowns, cut down the trees that were not touched by the fire in its path (with the crown away from the fire site). 3. After putting out a small fire, do not leave until you are sure that the fire will not flare up again. Notify the forestry or fire department about the location and time of the fire, as well as its possible causes. If it was your careless actions that led to the fire, do not try to hide this fact and run away - sooner or later the culprit will be identified, but the amount of compensation for damage from an untimely extinguished fire will be immeasurably greater than what you will pay if you stopped the fire in time. 4. If a peat bog is on fire, do not try to put out the fire yourself, avoid it. Move against the wind so that it does not catch up with you with fire and smoke, does not complicate your orientation, carefully inspect the road in front of you, feel it with a pole or stick. Remember: when peat bogs burn, the hot ground and the smoke coming from under it indicate that the fire has gone underground, the peat burns out from the inside, forming voids into which you can fall and burn. If the fire reaches your home or garden plot 1. Immediately notify residents of nearby houses by shouting and hitting the rail or bell. Report the fire by telephone or messenger to the nearest fire station and volunteer fire department. 2. Check if there are people in the house and save them from the fire. Be careful - gas cylinders may explode or ceilings may collapse! When rescuing people, tie yourself with a rope (for safety from the outside and orientation in the smoke), cover your mouth and nose with a wet handkerchief or cloth and breathe through it, arm yourself with a crowbar or an ax to break open doors. 3. Use fire extinguishers, buckets of water, sand, and snow to extinguish the fire. To prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings, cool them with water; Use hooks or crowbars to destroy walls, remove burning logs and boards. Ask neighbors who are not engaged in extinguishing to watch the neighboring houses (sparks, firebrands and pieces of hot fire may fall on the roofs). roofing materials); take the children away. 4. If a fire catches you in the house and there is no way to get out, try to go down to the basement or cellar, tightly close the door and cracks with clothing to prevent smoke from entering (the cellar will protect you from fire and falling structures). After extinguishing the fire, attract the attention of firefighters by knocking or shouting. 5. Before firefighters arrive, inform them about the possible presence of people in a burning house; about availability and location gas cylinders, flammable liquids, fire reservoirs, hydrants, etc. If smoke from fires gets close to your home, doctors strongly recommend that - in order to avoid carbon dioxide poisoning - keep windows and doors closed in your home, and hang wet sheets in the hallways. It is better for children not to walk outside on such days; it is also advisable to cancel outdoor walks for patients and holding mass entertainment and sporting events In order to somehow support the “smoky” body, you should eat more often black currants, green vegetables, herbs, sea fish and olive oil. These products contain antioxidant substances that protect cells from free radical damage. Avoid fires in forests and swamps. This is very dangerous, because burnt peat forms voids into which you can easily fall

The main substances that can affect human health that are formed during forest and peat fires are carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide), nitrogen oxides, suspended substances, and phenols.
Carbon monoxide. Among the products that pollute the atmospheric air, carbon monoxide is the most common. In its pure form, this chemical is a colorless, odorless gas. When high concentrations are inhaled, the gas enters the blood, where it displaces oxygen from oxyhemoglobin, as a result, the organs and tissues of the body experience oxygen deficiency, which is expressed in a deterioration in general well-being, headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, general weakness, increased heart rate, nausea, etc. . The sequence and degree of manifestation of these symptoms depend, first of all, on the concentration of carbon monoxide in the inhaled air, the duration of inhalation, and the state of human health. The maximum permissible concentration of carbon monoxide in atmospheric air is 5 mg/m 3, for air working area- 20 mg/m3. U healthy person any significant changes in health can occur with prolonged inhalation of concentrations of 20 mg or more per 1 cubic meter. Sick, weakened people, as well as children, are more susceptible to exposure to polluted air. During massive forest and peat fires in the Nizhny Novgorod region in July 2002, the maximum content of carbon monoxide in the atmospheric air of cities reached 2 maximum permissible concentrations (MPC), i.e. 10 mg/m 3 , while no cases of acute poisoning of the population have been registered. Nitrogen oxides have a mainly irritating effect on the mucous membranes of organs. In large quantities they can form nitrites and nitrates in the blood and form methemoglobin, leading to oxygen deficiency. Manifestations - cough, shortness of breath, burning of the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth, respiratory tract, sore throat, difficulty breathing, pallor skin, weakness, headache.
Maximum permissible concentration nitrogen dioxide in atmospheric air - 0.085 mg/m 3, in the air of the working area - 2.0 mg/m 3. The maximum content of nitrogen dioxide in the atmospheric air of the region's cities in July 2002 did not exceed 4.2 maximum permissible concentrations. Suspended substances formed during the combustion of wood are mainly particles of ash and soot. At high concentrations in atmospheric air they lead to irritation of the respiratory tract, difficulty breathing, and can settle on the mucous membrane of the trachea, bronchi, and lungs; are released from the lungs when coughing.
Suspended substances. The maximum permissible concentration in atmospheric air is 0.5 mg/m3. During the period of forest fires (July 2002), the content of suspended substances in the atmospheric air of cities reached 2.5 MAC on some days, which did not pose a real threat to a healthy population. Symptoms associated with the entry of suspended substances into the respiratory tract - sore throat, cough, irritation of the nasal mucosa.
Phenols have an unpleasant pungent odor. At significant concentrations in the atmospheric air, they can have an irritating effect on the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause nausea and headaches. The maximum permissible concentration of phenol in the atmospheric air is 0.01 mg/m 3 , in the air of the working area 0.3 mg/m 3 , the content of phenols in the atmospheric air of the cities of the region during the period of massive forest fires did not exceed 1.3 of the maximum permissible concentration. Which did not pose a threat to public health.
During massive forest fires, the resulting concentrations of pollutants in the atmospheric air of cities and towns in the region can affect the population in the following ways:

create discomfort in the conditions of stay and residence, the degree of which depends on emotional state each specific person;

reduce visual acuity, slow down reaction time to external stimuli;

aggravate the adverse effects of other environmental factors and working conditions;

lead to a deterioration in well-being, primarily in persons suffering from chronic diseases of the respiratory system and cardiovascular system in the form of exacerbations of bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, hypertensive crises, destabilization of angina, and attacks of arrhythmias.

In case of smoke in the atmospheric air of populated areas as a result of massive peat and forest fires, it is recommended:

If possible, leave the populated area affected by smoke, or limit the time you spend in it;

take out children, elderly and weakened people, chronically ill people;

do not open windows, especially at night and early in the morning;

Whenever possible, use air conditioning and air purification systems in everyday life and in the workplace;

curtain the places where atmospheric air enters (windows, etc.) with a moistened cloth;

carry out wet cleaning in residential premises and workplaces;

limit physical activity incl. shorten the working day for those working with significant physical activity;

Limit smoking as much as possible and avoid drinking alcohol.

Conclusion.
Since ancient times, fire has played the role of an important natural factor in the life of the forest. With the advent of man and the development of civilization, fire in the forest turned into a destructive factor, and the protection of forests from fires became the most important component of nature conservation on our planet.
Despite the fact that recently new causes of forest and peat fires have appeared, such as global warming, the greenhouse effect, main reason Humans are still responsible for causing forest fires. Therefore, it is very important to pay special attention to fire prevention: outreach to the population.
The most important thing: when fighting fires, the main emphasis was not on active methods fire extinguishing, but passive. This is due to various reasons. Firstly, there is a lack of financial resources to purchase not only new special equipment, but also to repair old ones. Secondly, this is the untimely response of special services, delaying the situation with extinguishing the fire until the moment when it was no longer possible to extinguish the fire. Thirdly, the low level of fire prevention among the population.

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2. Civil defense.” Edited by A.T. Altunina
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3.V.G. Atamanyuk, L.G. Shirshev, N.I. Akimov. "Civil defense".
Publishing house "Higher School", Moscow, 1986.

4.Ed. N.S. Nikolaev, I.M. Dmitriev.
"Civil defense at agricultural facilities."
Agropromizdat, Moscow, 1990.