Fire Type
Represents the potential fire type under the extreme percentile weather category.
Canopy fires are very dangerous, destructive and difficult to control due to their increased fire intensity. From a planning perspective, it is important to identify where these conditions are likely to occur on the landscape so that special preparedness measure can be taken if necessary. The Fire Type layer shows the footprint of where these areas are most likely to occur. However, it is important to note that canopy fires are not restricted to these areas. Under the right conditions, it can occur in other canopied areas.
Surface Fire - A fire that spreads through surface fuel without consuming any overlying canopy fuel. Surface fuels include grass, timber litter, shrub/brush, slash and other dead or live vegetation within about 6 feet of the ground.
Passive Canopy Fire – A type of crown fire in which the crowns of individual trees or small groups of trees burn, but solid flaming in the canopy cannot be maintained except for short periods (Scott & Reinhardt, 2001).
Conditional Crown Fire – A type of crown fire in which an active crown fire is possible but one would not be predicted to initiate. Two outcomes are possible in that situation: surface fire if the fire starts in the stand as a surface fire, or active crown fire if fire enters the stand as an active crown fire.
Active Canopy Fire - A crown fire in which the entire fuel complex (canopy) is involved in flame, but the crowning phase remains dependent on heat released from surface fuel for continued spread (Scott & Reinhardt, 2001).
The fire type map is derived at a 20-meter resolution and was estimated based on the extreme weather scenario (percentile 97th). This scale of data was chosen to be consistent with the accuracy of the primary surface fuels dataset used in the assessment. While not appropriate for site specific analysis, it is appropriate for regional, county or local planning efforts.
