Production Rates for Crews Using Hand Tools on Firelines

摘要

Reported rates at which have crews construct firelines can vary widely because of differences in fuels, fire and measurement conditions, and fuel resistant-to-control classification schemes. Real-time fire dispatching and fire simulation planning models, however, require accurate estimates of hand crew productivity. Errors in estimating rate of fireline production affect estimates of fire size in simulation models predicting fire suppression effectiveness. Productivity rates, therefore, are crucial for such models and the high variability makes choices difficult. Studies of crews using hand tools to build firelines were compared. Approaches showing the most promise are those that measure probability distributions of productivity.