The Examination of the Economical Effectiveness of Forest Fire Suppression by Using Theoretical Fire Spread Models

Abstract

It is commonly known that firefighting is very expensive solution; therefore it isn’t useless to study it by the criteria of efficiency. But the meaning of efficiency for fire managers can be different from the meaning of efficiency for economists. From an economic viewpoint, it is stricter than from a technical view. Method: this research used geometric aspects of the fire spread created rectangular and concentric circles models and used basic mathematic calculations and logical conclusions. Results and discussion: The rectangular model shows the criteria of economic efficiency of firefighting. Moreover, the results from rectangular model can be transferred also to the section of concentric circles model. Based on the concentric circle model we can define both the economic efficiency of fighting forest fire and minimal criteria of successful suppression expressed by the elementary information we have regarding the actual fire.