Understanding Wildfire Fuels: State Forester Discusses Oklahoma’s Extreme Fire Danger

Listen to KC Sheperd talking with Mark Goeller about the extreme fire danger in Oklahoma.

While attending the Oklahoma Drought Commission Emergency Meeting yesterday, Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with State Forester Mark Goeller about the current extreme fire danger situation the state is in.

The dry weather pattern throughout the past couple of months has had a tremendous impact on wildland fuel throughout most of the state, namely grass, brush, and trees.  “For the most part, our wildland fuels statewide are extremely dry,” Goeller said. “We are not in the worst situation regarding the weather conditions yet, but those are coming.”

Goeller explained that Grassy fuels and other things near the surface of the ground are considered horizontal fuels and trees and brush are considered vertical fuels. He said how measuring the horizontal fuels can help predict how far a fire might spread, but the vertical fuels have a lot to do with how difficult a wildfire might be to fight, especially if the trees and brush still have leaves and live moisture.

Mark Goeller

Leaves and needles on all vegetation above ground during wildfires are subject to burning. Cedar trees are a common evergreen in the state, so they are always a source of fuel for wildfires, no matter the season.

He explained that the terms one-hour fuels, hundred-hour fuels, and thousand-hour fuels refer to how long it takes for the fuel to reach equilibrium moisture content with the surrounding atmosphere. He said that the moisture in one-hour fuels is always changing making them very volatile. As moisture builds in the atmosphere, they are absorbing moisture from it. They also dry quickly with drier atmospheric conditions.

“We can have a fire that will burn in grassy fuel all night long, but if we do have moisture coming in in the morning, the grasses may go out,” Goeller described. “But then you have the hundred-hour and thousand-hour fuels, the big stuff, that continues to burn all night long, then as soon as the air dries out again the next day, off the fire goes again. It’s a very dynamic situation that we face.”

Goeller said that landowners can be proactive by taking some preventative measures. He suggested making firebreaks, a minimum of 30 feet wide, around their properties.

“We need places where we can stop a fire,” he said. “Anytime that we have a problem fire, the way that we approach it is to find a favorable change in the fuels, weather, or topography and take advantage of it. A firebreak around a home or fields is a beneficial change in fuel to help us stop a fire or use it for a firing operation.”

He advised not to wait until there is smoke in the air to take action but to examine property lines and see if there is grass that can be mowed shorter, or coniferous trees that should be removed or limbed up at least 6 feet from the ground.

“Anything you can do to get that fuel off of the ground or to separate the ground from aerial fuels will be a benefit. If there’s brush underneath, clear the brush out. Make it as open around your home as you can. It doesn’t only help with keeping the fire low, but it also allows responding personnel a better opportunity to put that fire out,” he shared.

Goeller encouraged fire departments across the state to utilize the Oklahoma Forestry Services Wildland Fire Reporting Tool, an app called ArcGIS Survey123, so that the Forestry Department can accumulate data on the number of fires, acres burned, and revenue lost due to fire damage. Doing so would help the Oklahoma Forestry Service secure FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grants and Federal and State governmental Volunteer Fire Assistance Grants.

More information about the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry can be found here.

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