A very large chapter having serious consequences on the ecosystem, the human life and the floods caused following the loss of the forest, is the forest fires.
There is no need for any particular reference to be made to the existing firefighting means, both on land and on air, as the results of their use speak for themselves.
The issue for me, says John Krekoukis, is whether we are willing to move on to a completely new forest firefighting system, that apart from the efficiency it will have, will also highlight new FIREFIGHTING techniques not being used up to date.
The “TYFONAS-TYPHOON” firefighting system is fixed on a extendable arm, which according to one application may be lifted up to 16 m, and when it approximately reaches the 10 m high, due to the arm geometry that is being able to compensate for its center of gravity in relation to the vehicle, the vehicle is enabled to move safely.
This system is used for the first time in fire extinguishing field.
That the spray jet of “TYFONAS-TYPHOON” firefighting system acts over the treetops and this enables us to carry out, both extinguishing and pre-spraying on both roadsides prior to the fire arrival.
This technique is not used until today.
The use of retarders, that due to the throw structure, not one drop of water is lost on the ground, on the contrary a full wetting is achieved, both on the tree leafage and on the ground, results in a dramatic drop of the fire intensity due to moisture being increased and thus the fire can be easily extinguished.
Another method, being controversial and even prohibitive for many people, that I personally consider it as being the only one that can stop a big fire front, is no other than the backfire (anti-fire) method.
Here, the “TYFONAS-TYPHOON” firefighting system, as proved in practice during the big forest fires of Zakynthos in the summer of 2017, that took an active part, in two cases that I used the backfire (anti-fire) method to halt two large fire fronts the results were impressive.
Below I will describe the procedure and the new technique I used to halt a large fire front.
I started with wetting to the right and left of the road at about 1200 m long, where the fire front was expected to arrive and the amount of water required for this wetting was 8 tons. Then, I started a backfire (anti-fire), from the right corner at about 35 m away from the road up to the point where the moisture was high enough. There the backfire (anti-fire) burning, as you will notice in the video, was totally under control.
I must emphasize that I did not have to make any throws on the flames, the only thing I did was to keep the green material to be burned under increased moisture, as well as to blow and push the fire front towards the other fire front direction. It should be noted here that by the water amount being controlled, resulted in a minimum water consumption and this procedure lasted until the front moving towards the opposite direction to me, was pushed away in order to meet the other fire front.
Then, the last burns went out by the use of very small water quantities, since the corner from which I hit the fire, as you watch in the video, was located over the tree tops.
As a result, the fire not only did not cross the road to continue its burning course, but also an area, at a distance of 35 to 40 m away from the road edge and at a length of 1200 m, remained green.
I personally, felt very much satisfied having achieved these results.
I have to tell you that wherever the “TYFONAS-TYPHOON” system intervened, the fire not only did not go on towards the opposite direction, but the road edge remained green.
This makes me believe that by exploiting and supporting this system, I am sure that firefighting data will be changed, its contribution to the environment and to human life will be enormous, while the cost to extinguish a fire will be decrease dramatically, in relation to the high cost of today’s existing means.
Conclusively, the benefits that will come out of the use of this firefighting system will be multiple, for the environment, the human life and the economy.
It should be noted that some applications designed to be fixed either on the top and/or the front of a vehicle, can also be fixed to existing vehicles, e.g. the firefighting vehicles or snow-blasting vehicles, at a very low cost.
