FIRE EFFECTS GUIDE - National Wildfire Coordinating Group

c. Fuel chemistry. Application of long term fire retardants inhibits fuel
ignition and hence fuel consumption.
2. Ignition.
a. Backing vs. heading fires. Backing fires usually result in more
complete fuel consumption, particularly of litter and duff layers, than
heading fires.
b. Mass firing. Use of mass firing techniques, such as center firing or
concentric firing, may result in more complete consumption of fuels, for
a given moisture regime, than if a backing or heading fire were used.
c. Ignition devices. Use of ignition devices such as a heli-torch that
can apply a lot of fire in a short period of time can result in a fire that
causes more woody fuel consumption than if surface ignition were
used.
D. Methods To Monitor Fire Effects
Fuels inventory data are collected to facilitate accurate prescription
development, to determine if fuel consumption objectives are met, and
to relate fuel reduction to fire effects on other resources. Fuel moisture
data can determine whether prescribed conditions are met, and
document the conditions that correlate with specific amounts of fuel
consumption and related aspects of the heat regime of the fire. If smoke
emissions are a critical factor in a prescribed fire program, both fuel
moisture and fuel consumption data can be used to predict emissions,
refine prescriptions, and obtain an accurate estimate of the amount of
emissions produced by a particular prescribed fire. While mineral soil is
not a fuel, soil moisture data can provide important information for
documentation and interpretation of fire effects that are related to subsurface
heating.
1. Fuel Loading. The type and amount of fuels inventory should match
the objective for
doing the inventory, because fuels data can be expensive and time
consuming to collect. Specific techniques have been developed for
inventorying or estimating living and dead biomass in forest and
rangeland vegetative types, many of which were developed specifically