Russia: The 1991 Forest Fire Season (IFFN No. 6)
The 1991 Forest Fire Season in the Russian Federation
(IFFN No. 6 – January 1992, p. 6-9)
The area of the Russian national forest lands is 1.161 million ha, including 730 million ha of lands covered with forests. 76.2 per cent of the forested area are occupied by coniferous species, among which the most important are Siberian larch (40 per cent), pine (16.5 per cent), and spruce and fir (14 per cent). The most important deciduous species are birch, aspen and oak.
The dominance of conifers preconditions high forest fire danger in Russia. Depending on the current weather conditions, there are usually 3 or 4 geographic forest regions per a fire season with areas of persistent droughts and hence, mass forest fire outbreaks.
In Russia, forest fire control is the responsibility of forestry enterprises and other agencies managing the forests. Within the whole system of forest fire control, a special place is occupied by the aerial fire control service, established in 1931. The activities of this specialized service cover 95 per cent of the national forest lands. In the sparsely populated and almost inaccessible regions of the North, Siberia and the Far East, aerial forest fire control is the main means of fire detection and suppression.
To detect and to fight forest fires the service uses from 470 up to 880 aircraft, including 220 to 360 helicopters. Fire fighting operations are performed by more than 7000 smokejumpers and helirappellers who are employed on a permanent (all-year round) basis. The management and the performance of the flights to detect and suppress fires are imposed on the aerial fire observers. They are forestry experts, trained and educated additionally in aviation disciplines; they are required to have forest fire fighting experience.
In 1991 the most complicated fire situation was in the forests of the Urals, Western Siberia (may-June) and especially in Yakutia and the Magadan Region (from July throughout September). According to the fire statistics for the protected lands of Russia, 15,019 forest fires occurred and burned on an area of 573,000 ha (the average annual number of fires over the last 5 years being 15,142 on 939,000 ha). The average area of one fire in 1991 was 38 ha.
To assist fire-fighting operations, interregional movements of means and forces had to be performed. 2600 smokejumpers and heli-rappellers were moved in the regions of the most severe fire situations.
Fig.1. Forest fires burning in the Krasnoyarsk Region near the Yenissei River. Photograph taken by Russian stellites are an important tool in locating fires in assessing the extent of burned areas.
Fig. 3 and 4 Russian smokejumpers (above) and rapelling from a MI-8 helicopter in the Urals (below) in summer 1991.
Fig.5 Map of the territory of the former USSR showing the locations of the aerial fire centres. The headquarters Avialesookhrana is located at Pushkino, Moscow Region.
Tab.1 Number of forest fires and forest area burned on the territory of the Russian Federation in the period 1981-1990
| Year |
Number of Fires on the Area Served by the Center |
Aerial Detection |
Number of Fires Extinguished by Aerial Means |
Large Forest Fires |
|||||
| Number of Fires |
Burned Area (1000 ha) | (%) | Number | Area (1000 ha) |
(%) | Number | Area (1000 ha) |
||
| Forest | Non Forest | ||||||||
| 1981 | 14,821 | 206.5 | 210.0 | 89.2 | 8,104 | 151.4 | 54.6 | 327 | 140.5 |
| 1982 | 13,165 | 325.3 | 138.1 | 90.4 | 7,827 | 282.2 | 59.4 | 372 | 229.7 |
| 1983 | 10,141 | 151.4 | 83.9 | 89.4 | 5,738 | 139.7 | 56.5 | 143 | 111.4 |
| 1984 | 12,953 | 309.9 | 181.6 | 87.8 | 6,472 | 262.2 | 49.9 | 300 | 258.1 |
| 1985 | 10,200 | 483.0 | 201.8 | 90.6 | 6,204 | 447.3 | 60.8 | 247 | 426.5 |
| 1986 | 13,296 | 646.2 | 445.1 | 86.4 | 4,845 | 520.6 | 36.4 | 231 | 615.5 |
| 1987 | 11,304 | 502.7 | 715.0 | 90.0 | 6,186 | 332.8 | 54.7 | 404 | 434.9 |
| 1988 | 16,432 | 732.5 | 227.0 | 90.8 | 9,472 | 649.9 | 57.6 | 354 | 655.4 |
| 1989 | 18,751 | 1425.1 | 405.9 | 91.6 | 9,735 | 1176.0 | 51.9 | 735 | 1341.8 |
| 1990 | 14,950 | 1339.1 | 302.1 | 91.9 | 7,721 | 868.2 | 51.6 | 732 | 1228.2 |
| Anual Average (10 years) |
13,601 | 612.1 | 291.0 | 89.8 | 7,230 | 483.0 | 53.3 | 384 | 544.2 |
From: Edward P. Davidenko
Address:
P.A.Avialesookhrana
Gorki Str. 20
141200 Pushkino, Moscow Region
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
