Blending Existing Fire Research To Operationally Support Incident Management Teams And Their Ability To Respond To Wildfire Smoke Issues—A Case Study of the Pains Bay Fire/Dare County/Stumpy Point, North Carolina

Smoke has the potential to cause safety hazards for vehicle traffic in the vicinity of spreading planned ignitions (prescribed fires) or unplanned ignitions (wildfires) that have extensive smoldering combustion. Smoke of this nature is also a serious health hazard to the public, first responders, wildland fire fighters or prescribed burning crews. On the Pains Bay Fire in eastern North Carolina existing fire research was applied operationally to provide guidance to the Incident Management Team. Smoke Analysis provided much needed intelligence concerning road closures or the need for traffic control. Pains Bay Fire smoke emissions affected road visibility, safety of motorists, 1st responders, incident management personnel, scheduling of local community events and tourism.

Smoke plume drifts from the Pains Bay Fire where tracked using the HYSPLIT atmospheric dispersion model to identify roadways and population areas likely to be impacted. Smoke is an issue that extends beyond natural resource management agencies and Incident Management Teams. Wildfire incidents that have smoke impacts require interagency management response. These agencies can include National Weather Service, State Highway Patrol, the local Sheriff Department, Emergency Management, Air Quality, Health Department, etc. Each agency and their respective jurisdictional responsibility need to be engaged for the well being of the affected public and wildland fire fighters. The Pains Bay Fire Smoke Analysis was an integration of existing research (Super-Fog, Low Visibility Occurrence Risk Index, Atmospheric Dispersion Index, Turner's (or Pasquill's) Stability Class, Rawinsondes). The research along with the use of emission information (Fire Emissions Production Simulator, Estimated Smoldering Potential, etc.,) and atmospheric dispersion models (VSMOKE, HYSPLIT, etc.,) led to the development of two products: 1) Daily Message for the Low Visibility Plan and 2) Area of Smoke Drift and Effect on Highway Visibility. These products allowed for appropriate and timely response by predicting when Super-Fog events and road closures were likely to occur.