Eglin's controlled burns advance fire research

  • Published
  • By Randy Gon
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Members of the Air Force Wildland Fire Center here joined U.S. Forest Service researchers to collect data during two prescribed fires conducted Nov. 11-12 on the Eglin Air Force Base range .

Officially stood up on July 1, 2012, the Air Force Wildland Fire Center, part of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, is home to a specialized force that takes on about 125 prescribed burns along with more than 100 wildfires each year. This elite crew serves a mission of environmental sustainment alongside military mission support -- and demonstrates how both can thrive through careful fire management.

This month's burn "will allow researchers to collect information that will go into an integrated database, used world-wide to modify fire models that are currently used in controlled burns," said Roger Ottmar, of the Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team, who managed over 90 scientists from the Combustion-Atmospheric-Dynamics-Research-Experiments, or RxCADRE, team sent from institutions all over the world to gather fire data.

Data collection methods used in the RxCADRE experiment included ground LIDAR (similar to RADAR) raised over the fire on an 85-foot boom lift, cameras and air quality sensors mounted to a 20-foot weather balloon.

More than 590-acres of forest and grassland were burned under the control of Eglin's Jackson Guard while RxCADRE instrumentation recorded the fire's behavior, meteorology, smoke particulates and other fire phenomena.

"Eglin has one of the largest prescribed fire programs in the country, and we're very flexible with our ability to do controlled burns," said Brett Williams, fire ecologist for natural resources management. "We have a wide window for them (RxCADRE) to come down in a forum to reach their research needs."

As the "burn boss," Williams was in charge of lighting and containing the fire.

"This is a big deal, both for the Eglin Wildlife Fire Management program, as well as the fire science community at large," he said.

To choreograph all of the working parts of the operation, over 20 members of Williams' staff planned for the last six months for the two-day, controlled burn.

"Using air space not regulated by the Federal Aviation Agency allows unmanned aerial vehicles to gather valuable infrared imagery of the area," said Kevin Hiers, the natural resources management research branch director and UAV manager. "Imagery (collected from the UAVs) will be added to a repository of other test data obtained at Eglin and used by scientists around the world to gain a better understanding of fire behavior."

Eglin's range is the perfect environment to obtain prescribed fire data, Hiers said. Prescribed burning on Eglin's range helps the ecosystem by keeping combustible fuel amounts within safe levels and also clears the range for continued use by the 96th Test Wing here. (AFCEC Public Affairs contributed to this report)