Fires in Los Angeles – lessons for Ukraine

Los Angeles is on fire, and the damage is enormous. This is bad from all sides, because, among other things, it diverts attention from Russia’s war against Ukraine. And we should at least draw conclusions. Why do these fires happen, what is the main factor behind them, and what consequences can we expect, particularly for the environment?
Let’s open Michael Connelly ‘s books about detective Harry Bosch, which take place in Los Angeles and Hollywood (Hollywood is a sacred forest; a neighborhood of this city), California. And we read (or watch TV series, which are very well filmed) that such fires are not uncommon there (for example, in the novel Black Echo, written in 1992). This is a fairly typical situation for this region. Hot, dry climate, mostly dry plantations. That’s why it burns very actively.
“The ecosystems of southern California are very vulnerable to fires, mostly of pyrogenic origin. Making large settlements in the middle of such ecosystems is like holding a fire show in a gunpowder warehouse and then wondering what could have gone wrong?”
– comments Ivan Khomyak, associate professor at the Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University.
At the same time, one of the world’s most powerful fire services operates in this region. The second most powerful is in Australia. If you remember, there were huge fires there in 2020. The Bush burned down, people died. California and Australia often reinforce each other’s fire brigades. I assume that they are already flying to help from Australia.
Regarding the environment and its impact. Of course, there is nothing good for society and the environment. Forests and property are burning, and unfortunately, people who do not have time to evacuate often die. Greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere. This, in turn, exacerbates climate change and global warming.
So why, despite all the efforts of firefighters, is the situation not improving? Yes, the weather, yes, the strong wind. But the main thing is that no matter how powerful the fire services are, the recipe for fighting fires is not only in equipment and training.
The same can be said about Europe. Greece, Spain, France, Italy – fires are always occurring there for the same reasons. Because of the climate and a certain nature of forest plantations. And despite very well-organized fire services, fires still occur and cause great damage.
Читайте нас у Telegram: головні новини коротко
Technique and training are important, necessary, and improve fire safety. And this is the way, in particular, our state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is going, increasing the capacity of its firefighting units. For example, I have seen their new firefighting modules (they were shown some time ago). They use video surveillance, and that’s also good. Early warning is an important element of fire safety. So if you notice a fire, you know the phone number, call the emergency service 101. This way, foresters with fire backpacks will quickly arrive on motorcycles and put out the fire as long as it is small.
However, even so, large-scale fires do occur. In particular, in Ukraine. Let’s recall the fires in Polissia in 2020. The Drevlyansky Nature Reserve, the Chornobyl zone, and the Chornobyl Biosphere Reserve in particular, were affected. All these areas are largely planted with pine monocultures, and these are often single-aged plantations. In such forests, fire spreads very quickly.
Therefore, to prevent such large-scale fires, it is necessary to change the type of plantations, to turn them into mixed or even deciduous ones.
Another reason why everything burns so actively is large-scale reclamation. For example, in the Uzh Valley in the Chornobyl Biosphere Reserve, swamps were once drained. Now there is a project to restore the swamps there, funded by international organizations. Similar projects are being widely implemented, for example, in the Czech Republic, as the Svit newspaper reported in the article “Romantics of the Wolf Pits.”
The methodology is not complicated. Smaller reclamation channels need to be blocked. Small dams are placed across them, either wooden boards or clay bridges, every 70 meters or so. The water returns, and the peat bog no longer burns. It is necessary to do this because a fire in a peat bog is even worse than in a forest.
You can’t see the fire, it smolders below, people fall in and can die, and unfortunately, there are cases of rescuers and firefighters dying. If we recall, this summer and fall (as almost every year) there was a constant stench from the north of Kyiv region – both forests and peat bogs were burning there.
Added to this, of course, is the Russian aggression. In the northern border area (Sumy region, in particular), Russia is shelling our forests, as well as in the war zone. It is impossible to extinguish them. As well as in the mined part of the territory where the Russians have been.
What should be done? First of all, we need to finally adopt the National Strategy for Landscape Fire Management, which was prepared and promoted by Dr. Serhiy Zibtsev and the Regional East European Fire Monitoring Center of the NULES. Next, we need to develop an action plan based on it and follow it relentlessly.