The dynamics of fire interactions: Simulations of multiple fire lines using FIRETEC

Many wildfires and prescribed fires consist of multiple distinct regions of actively burning fuels, yet relatively little is known or understood about how the behavior of an individual fire is affected by the presence of another fire nearby. Moreover, operational tools for describing fire behavior are unable to represent the interaction between multiple fires that is characterized by potentially complex coupled atmosphere-fire dynamics. The goal of the present study is to investigate the dynamics of the interactions between multiple fires in an idealized context using the coupled atmosphere-fire model, FIRETEC. Idealized configurations consisting of several fire line ignition patterns (e.g., multiple lines perpendicular to the ambient wind direction, multiple lines parallel to the ambient wind direction, multiple lines in a grid pattern, ring fires) under varying ambient wind conditions and line spacing are investigated to assess the impacts of fires burning in close proximity to one another. Where possible, preliminary experimental burns designed to address the same questions will be presented and compared with the simulations.