A New Approach To Fighting Fires

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A New ApproachTo Fighting Fires
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Old Ways

• A new approach is obviously needed in the way we
  fight fires. A paradigm shift in thinking may be
  hard to sell, but I believe it's needed to solve
  a reoccurring dangerous and expensive problem.
  We're still using the same approach, and often
  times same equipment as we used 30 to 50 years
  ago. Even if we didn't have the threat of arson
  and terrorism, we need a better way to be in
  control of fire.

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• Regardless of whether people should build near
  forests, or whether forests need to be cleared,
  or whether fire is nature's way of clearing, it
  is necessary that we have a way of controlling
  fire.

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What we know about fire

• What we know about fire is that it's a relatively
  small problem when the fire itself is only a few
  acres, and it's basically out of control when
  it's large and consumes thousands of acres. We
  also know fire has no local or state borders and
  doesn't care about politics. We know that fire
  has it's way when local governments don't have
  the resources, the technology, the coordination
  or the delivery systems.

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What else do we know?

• We also know our military excels in air
  technology and delivery systems and our Federal
  Government has as it's primary mission to protect
  the people from danger to life and property
  foreign and domestic.

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The New Approach

• I'm suggesting that the Federal Government,
  namely the military, be in charge of regional air
  strike forces to fight initial fires with the
  intention that they are hit immediately, with
  overwhelming force, any time of day or night,
  regardless of weather-- and that the fires are
  put out when theyre small within hours of their
  detection.

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The Cost

• The military's budget would include enough to
  utilize high technology with infrared satellite
  information to show exact fire edges, the
  development of whatever state-of-the-art
  retardants and delivery systems are needed, and a
  fleet of planes ready for immediate launch in the
  different regions of the U.S. These are things
  each local government could never develop due to
  lack of knowledge, expertise, resources, and
  coordination and it shouldn't be left to the
  private sector on a 'for-profit' basis.

With our technology at work with the power of our
military air expertise, there is no reason why we
cant put fires out while they are small.
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Imagine

• Imagine a small fire is spotted in the middle of
  an area in the southwest region with no roads.
  Immediately an overwhelming force of military
  planes are scrambled from a centralized area
  within the region. Satellites give exact fire
  edges, the all-weather-day/night air support hits
  the fire with double or triple the amount needed
  within a few short hours while the fire is small.
  This involves drops of higher technology
  retardants (that may not yet be developed) with
  precision placement with incredibly quick
  response time.

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Brave Firefighters With Impossible Odds

• The men and women who fight the fires on the
  ground are brave and wonderful, but I'd like to
  prevent them from having to be called in to fight
  so many giant fires in which they are severely
  overmatched. There should no longer be excuses
  that we can't fly at night, we don't have the
  planes, we don't have the training, technology,
  or coordination, or that days are needed to get
  outside help. We have the technology, the power,
  the expertise to put the fires out within hours
  while they are small. But do we have the WILL and
  INTENTION to do it?

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Call To Action

• I believe that our homeland security and defense
  calls for this shift in responsibility and I hope
  we can muster the will to change our approach
  before we lose more lives and property more
  treasured forests and more of our ability to
  control our destiny-- especially in this day and
  age of terrorist threats.
• What can you do?

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What you can do!

• Spread this idea to your friends, to your
  governor, to senators, to representatives, to the
  President. Let it be known that you know there
  are solutions to this terrible yearly fire
  problem and you want a shift in approach and want
  better solutions than each locality battling with
  old technology and poor resources. That you want
  the Federal Government, namely the military, to
  be in charge of regional air strike forces to
  fight initial fires with the intention that they
  are hit immediately, with overwhelming force, any
  time of day or night, regardless of weather-- and
  that the fires are put out when theyre small
  within hours of their detection.

Presented by Cliff Durfee, designaffect.com
11/8/03 Some photos were obtained through
anonymous emails, please forgive any unauthorized
use due to the importance of this cause, and
please do not re-use these photos for other
purposes due to this unknown nature of the photo
rights. (all fire photos except for slide
4-(unknown) 8-Ventura county were of the San
Diego fires in the fall of this year.)
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