3.3 Aerial firefighting tactics

275 Pages·2014·5.98 MB·English

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Facoltà di Ingegneria Industriale
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali
Concept development and preliminary design of an innovative aerial component for
the Italian firefighting system
Relatore: Prof. Lorenzo TRAINELLI
Tesi di Laurea di:
Alessandro RAMAZZOTTI Matr.759967
Anno Accademico 2013 - 2014
Abstract
The present work deals with the firefighting system in Italy and in particu-
lar with the aerial support to the firefighting operations. Through an in-depth
analysis of the structure and operative procedures of the firefighting system in
Italy and in the major countries which adopt a significant aerial component in
the wildfire exinguishing activities, strong and weak points have been identi-
fied, as well as possible areas for improvement. A significant innovation would
be the integration of a new element in the scenario, based on a novel type of
spotter aircraft endowed with command and control capabilities in addition to
an appropriate sensor suite for wildfire identification and monitoring. These
new capabilities would provide a new figure, the COA (Coordinatore Operazio-
ni Aeree), with the necessary tools to greatly enhance the effectiveness of aerial
firefighting operations. The COA would operate strictly under the command of
the local Incident Commander, without conflicting with the current Italian law
and regulations. The work proposes the preliminary design of a special version
of an existing airplane, the Piaggio P.166, to fulfil the new role. On one hand,
the new airplane would be able to execute prolonged patrol missions, with a
dedicated remote sensing suite to spot wildfires in their initial stage, as well as
direct the firefighting units precisely and timely on site. On the other hand, the
same avionic dowry would allow the aircraft to become and integrated command
andcontrolairborneplatformcapableofcoordinatingthesubsequentoperations
from a favorable and safe position. The work includes the design of an appro-
priate workstation, the selection of the necessary avionic components, as well as
other implementation issues, with the aim of envisioning a viable improvement
to the current situation and its many limitations.
Keywords: firefighting, aerialfirefighting, spotteraircraft, disastermanage-
ment.
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Sommario
Il lavoro presentato verte sul sitema di antincendio boschivo in Italia, in parti-
colare del supporto delle operazioni di antincendio aereo. Attraverso un’analisi
approfondita della struttura e delle procedure operative del sistema di antin-
cendio boschivo italiano e nelle maggiori nazioni mondiali che adottano la com-
ponente aerea come mezzo di soppressione degli incendi boschivi, sono stati
identificati i punti forti e le debolezze nelle varie aree di interesse per un poten-
ziamento della struttura italiana per l’antincendio boschivo. Una significativa
innovazione potrebbe essere l’integrazione di un nuovo elemento nello scenario,
basato su un nuovo tipo di aereo di ricognizione con la capacit`a di controllo e
comando in aggiunta ad una suite di sensori remoti, atti all’identificazione ed
al monitoraggio. Queste nuove capacita` hanno bisogno di una nuova figura, il
COA o Coordinatore Operazioni Aeree, che con i necessari strumenti puo` in-
crementare l’efficenza delle operazioni aeree di spegnimento degli incendi. Il
COA operera` sotto lo stretto comando del Direttore Operazioni Spegnimento
presente nell’area dell’incendio, senza entrare in conflitto con le sue decisioni,
in accordo con la normativa antincendio presente in Italia. Il lavoro prosegue
con una proposta di progetto preliminare di una versione ad hoc di un veliv-
olo esistente nella flotta delle forze armate italiane, il Piaggio P.166, in modo
da coprire il nuovo ruolo proposto. Esso sara` in grado di portare a termine
missioni di pattugliamento prolungato, con una suite di sensori remoti dedicati
in modo da poter identificare gli incendi boschivi nella loro fase iniziale, allo
stesso tempo deve essere in grado di comunicare ai centri di controllo di quali
risorse antincendio ha bisogno in modo da guidare le unita` in modo preciso e
veloce. L’avionica installata a bordo permettero` all’aeroplano di diventare una
piattaforma aerea di controllo e comando, atta a coordinare le successive op-
erazioni di spegnimento da una posizione tattica favorevole e sicura. Il lavoro
include il progetto di massima di una postazione di controllo, con la selezione dei
necessari componenti avionici con le appropriate implementazioni, con lo scopo
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di prevedere un miglioramento della situazione corrente e delle molte limitazioni
che esistono ad oggi nell’antincendio boschivo.
Parole chiave: antincendio, antincendioaereo, velivolodaricognizione, ges-
tione dei disastri.
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Acknowledgments
The writing of this dissertation has been one of the most significant academic
challenges I have ever had to face. Without the support, patience and guidance
of the following people, this study would not have been completed. It is to them
that I owe my deepest gratitude.
(cid:0) Prof. Lorenzo Trainelli, who undertook to act as my supervisor despite
his many other academic and professional commitments. His wisdom,
knowledge and commitment to the highest standards has inspired and
motivated me.
(cid:0) Prof. Alberto Rolando, for his advice and inspiration for the avionics and
sensor integration for the work.
(cid:0) Cpt. Gianfranco Ferreri of Canadair Flight Group, for the hospitality at
the Genoa Base, the technical explanation of the CL-415 and the lacks of
the firefighting system, where the improvements proposed in this disserta-
tion were born.
(cid:0) Dr. Alessandro Gigli-Cervi of Piaggio Aero Industries, for the hospitality
and the exchange of ideas about the work.
(cid:0) Mr. Ennio Troiani of Rockwell Collins, for the long phone calls and the
evaluation of the remote sensor suite idea.
(cid:0) Colonel Ettore Antonio Storti of the Italian Air Force, for the invitation
to the headquarters of Dipartimento della Protezione Civile in Rome, Lt.
Colonel AAran CSA/DA Salvatori Peri of the Italian Air Force and Con-
stable Chief Renato Sciunnach of the Corpo Forestale dello Stato, for the
help, the explanation of the firefighting system in Italy and the review and
support of the dissertation ideas and concepts.
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(cid:0) All the other water bomber pilots and incident commanders for the pa-
tience and the precious data.
(cid:0) My NEOS ex colleagues from the Engineering Department, for the good
times and the encouragement in continuing to do what I love, aeronautics
and all the flying stuff. A special thanks to Natalia Gioia, Alberto Vago,
Emiliano Ciani, Federico Cortelazzo and Andrea Bellesia, for the wisdom
and the introduction to a real aeronautics job.
(cid:0) My collegues Andrea Procopio, Demetrio Marcian`o, Federico Rossi, Gi-
anfranco Vitucci and Riccardo Tettamanti, part of the team“OWL Pro-
gram”, the essay for the course“Progetto di aeromobili”in the Academic
year 2011/2012, the project from which this dissertation was born.
(cid:0) My family, Roberto Ramazzotti and Daniela Bettoni, for supporting me
throughout my student career.
(cid:0) My girlfriend, Sabrina Chiarini, for tolerating my bad moods during the
exams.
(cid:0) All my friends, because real friendship lasts forever.
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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 3
I MISSION ANALYSIS 7
2 HYSTORY OF AERIAL FIREFIGHTING 9
2.1 The dawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 A new era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Helicopters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Preface to the aerial firefighting techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 WILDFIRES ENVIRONMENT 17
3.1 Wildland fire behaviour and effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.1 Heat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1.2 Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1.3 Oxygen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.4 Fire behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 Description of a fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.1 Parts of a fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3 Aerial firefighting tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.1 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.2 Tactics in firefighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.3 Aerial firefighting techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.4 Aerial fighting materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.4.1 Fire retardants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.4.2 Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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4 AIRCRAFT USED FOR FIREFIGHTING PURPOSES 41
4.1 Fixed-wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.1.1 Air tactical aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.1.1.1 Command planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.1.1.2 Lead planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.1.3 Transport aircraft for smokejumpers . . . . . . 43
4.1.2 Water bombers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.1.2.1 Very large airtankers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1.2.2 Type I – The“large airtanker”. . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1.2.3 Type II – The small“large airtanker” . . . . . . 46
4.1.2.4 Type III – The“medium airtankers” . . . . . . 46
4.1.2.5 Type IV – The“small airtanker” . . . . . . . . 47
4.2 Helicopters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.1 Size classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.2 Mission classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.2.1 Fire helicopters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.2.2 Helitanker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.2.3 Helitack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5 FIREFIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS: MAIN CASE STUDIES
IN THE WORLD 51
5.1 Incident command system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.2 United States of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.2.1 Firefighting organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.2.2 Aviation operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2.2.1 Aerial resource management . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.2.3 Financial arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.1 Firefighting organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.2 Aviation operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.2.1 Aerial resource management . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.3.3 Financial arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4 Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4.1 Firefighting organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4.2 Aviation operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.4.2.1 Aerial resource management . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.4.3 Financial arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.5 France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
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5.5.1 Firefighting organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.5.2 Aviation operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.5.2.1 Aerial resource management . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.5.3 Financial arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6 THE ITALIAN CASE 81
6.1 The italian forest fire organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.1.1 Italian agencies cooperating in wildifre suppression . . . 87
6.2 The aerial component in italian firefighting . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7 MISSION ANALYSIS CONCLUSIONS 95
7.1 Managing firefighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.1.1 Scientific approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
7.1.2 Continous training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.2 Fire operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7.2.1 Aviate, navigate, communicate and manage – In that order100
7.2.2 Wildfire environment for air traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2.3 Italian utilization of the aerial component in firefighting . 103
7.2.4 Processes optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.2.4.1 Aerial surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.2.4.2 Aerial survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.2.4.3 Command chain optimization . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.3 Information flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
8 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS 117
8.1 Coordinatore Operazioni Aeree (COA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
8.1.1 The right size of aerial supervision in Italy . . . . . . . . 118
8.1.2 COA duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
8.1.3 Suppressionorganizationimprovementswithcoafigurein-
troduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
8.1.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
8.2 Environment incident aerial surveillance aircraft . . . . . . . . . 123
8.2.1 Wildfire figthing mission scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.2.1.1 Patrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.2.1.2 Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.2.1.3 Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.2.2 Remote sensing suite solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.2.3 Alternative missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
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