Wild Fire Emergency Term Paper

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Emergency Management

A wildfire is an uncontrollable fire that commonly occurs in vast areas and wild lands. This wildfire ignites quickly and can the agricultural resources and houses. There are many other names associated with the term "wildfire" such as bush fire, vegetation fire, hill fire, grass fire and forest fire (Perona and Brebbia, pg. 45). Wildfire mostly occurs in forested areas of Canada and United States. Some other vegetated areas of South Africa and Australia are highly susceptible to wildfire. It also occurs in grasslands and scrublands. The risk of wildfire is high when the climate is dry. Leaves and branches fall in this climate and become highly flammable. According to research, in ninety percent cases, the cause of wildfire is human carelessness. There are some other reasons as well such as volcano eruption, cyclical climate changes, heat waves, arson, droughts and pyroclastic clouds. These actions do not necessarily result in wildfire, but high risk of wildfire is associated with them.

Thus, wildfire causes an emergency condition and may cause death of human beings as well as of animals. For this scenario, there should be a contingency plan that can properly address and manage the situation. Some actions should be decided in advance and proper actions are required from government as well as from an individual level. This paper will shed light on the operations, emergency and centralized management, and communication system in wildfire. It will further describe the plan to deal with the emergency situation of wildfire so that the lives can be saved and the destruction can be mitigated (Perona and Brebbia, pg. 82).

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Emergency management, Central management, Communication and Operations in Wildfire

For effective emergency management, states that have high risk of wildfires are guided to take prompt measures in emergency conditions. Citizens are trained to help each other and save the resources by providing training in advance. Some communications connect the citizens to the fire fighters and let them know how to protect their property from wildfire. These communities also provide resources to secure the citizens from wildfire and make emergency plans to deal with such situation (Goldammer and Ronde, pg. 102).

The emergency management of a wildfire is divided into four distinct steps:

Mitigation

Preparation

Response

Recovery

In the first step, efforts are made to avoid the events that can cause a wildfire. In this case, citizens belonging to those states that have high risk of wildfire are trained to prevent the man-made causes of wildfire. On the other hand, some natural causes of wildfire are uncontrollable but for these cases, security measures are planned. In the mitigation process, citizens are taught to avoid throwing lighter debris that ignite easily, prevent leaving cigarette on vehicle ashtrays, crushing the cigarette properly before throwing it.

The second step is the preparatory step. People who live in areas having high risk of wildfire should prepare themselves mentally that such event may occur at any time (Goldammer and Ronde, pg. 112).They can learn to deal with this situation only after realizing the height of the destruction it can cause. Therefore, information is essential for this step. On the other hand, people should have good knowledge of their landscape. It will create a special bond between the people and their landscape and after this; they will be able to make a good contingency plan for a sudden wildfire. Communities also play an active role in this regard. They hire trained and professional teachers that teach individuals to deal with this situation. A team arranges workshops and spread awareness regarding wildfire. Communities work for the welfare of these states and their ultimate aim is to save lives and minimize destruction caused by wildfire.

The third part is a response. It is related to taking quick action right after the wildfire. In order to get safe from the outcomes of wildfire and further destruction it is necessary to give quick and actionable response.

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People who have experienced wildfire before, give better response than those who are facing it for the first time. However, the response may vary from one situation to another. Therefore, people should be vigilant and careful whenever they face the wildfire instead of becoming haphazard and confused. The response should include prompt calling to the fire fighters, filling up the containers with water, wetting the roof, opening the lights of the house, placing a ladder at the side and in front of the house. After wildfire, other destructive events may also occur such as landslides and floods. According to research, there is a probability of occurring flash floods until five years after a wildfire. It is due to the reason that there is no vegetation and because of this rainwater can cause floods (Bormann, pg. 99).

The last step is of recovery. It refers to take actions so that the community can come back to its original position and carry out the routine operations. The recovery strategies mostly depend upon the intensity of the event. If the wildfire is of high intensity, it will affect almost the entire forest as well as the people living there. On the other hand, if it is a low intensity wildfire, it will affect only some of the trees and not the entire forest. Trained personnel observe the area and then advice the citizens when to return their home (Wuerthner, pg. 213). Citizens are advised to wear a mask so that the dust and smoke of debris do not result in any infection. Fire fighters and inspection team should guide the citizens on quick recovery techniques.

Centralized Management

Centralized management is always good in these sudden mishaps such as wildfire. In centralized management, there is one central reporting authority. This reporting authority takes all the decisions, guides others and assigns duties. Since wildfire can cause great destruction people get confused in it and everyone comes up with his or her own ideas to deal with it. In this scenario, organized steps are necessary to take. Therefore, centralized management always results in proper outcomes. It is the responsibility of government to make sub-bodies in each state and then make a central authority that monitor the entire system. People should report this centralized authority whenever they face wildfire and should listen to the instructions given. Contact number of this central body should be given on television networks and in newspapers after every short interval of time so that people can get aware of it. (Wuerthner, pg. 211).The central body should have all data of the states and the citizens, as well. There should be a proper database. This database is very useful in case of loss of life due to wildfire. Thus, only centralized management can handle situations like wildfire because, in these sudden mishaps, organized and systemic approach is needed and that is only possible with centralized management.

Communication

Communication should be very prompt and proper in wildfire. The aforementioned central management will be of no use, if there is no information system because if people are unable to tell the central authority regarding the wildfire how will they take action. For proper information system, there is a need to develop some device, which can connect the citizens with the firefighters and the central body. On the other hand, this device will have numerous advantages. For example, firefighters can draw maps and the citizens will be able to view them with that device. It will help the citizens to get out of danger and to reach a safer place.

On the other hand, it will be better if the government will also have access to this device. However, the main problem is of internet connectivity because in most of the cases of wildfire internet also suffers and people face great difficulty (Perona and Brebbia, pg. 42). If the internet is working, a….....

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