FIRE ROADS AND SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLES FOR FIGHTING FOREST FIRES

Abstract

In 2009, the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia, the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (ACPDR), issued the “Atlas of fire protection facilities”. In addition to the standard data included in the national topographic map DTK 25, the Atlas, on its 75 maps in the scale 1:25.000, depicts all forest roads and fire roads2 with numbers. Other infrastructure essential for fire extinguishing that is worth mentioning are the high and low-voltage transmission lines, transformer stations, hydrants and fire protection CCTV cameras, which are also depicted on the map. The traffic routes presented on the maps are categorized for specific firefighting vehicles based on the typification of vehicles, and marked with different colours and a written annotation. The article presents the useful value of the maps and other firefighting units’ materials gathered in the Atlas of fire protection facilities. The overview of firefighting vehicles showed which groups of vehicles are assigned to which type of road category. During the overview, some anomalies in group classification were identified. Following this, passability of roads for special purpose vehicles was verified. Comparison of map material with the actual passability of roads showed how effectively the vehicles can be used on the terrain. The main emphasis was put on fire roads. The results revealed that the map material provides a good basis for the distribution of small special purpose vehicles on fire roads. The ability of distributing bigger vehicles on fire roads was lower. In 82 % the higher category fire roads couldn’t accept bigger vehicles, while on the other hand the lower category fire roads, which were not intended for those vehicles, could accept them in 57 %.