Wildland Fires in the Czech Republic—Review of Data Spanning 20 Years

Abstract

The following article deals with more than 20 years of historical wildland fire data from the Czech Republic, logged in the databases of the operational centers of the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic (FRS of CR). First, the definition of the term wildland fire is introduced. After that, the locations of wildland fires are discussed, from the point of view of their introduction into the information systems. Next, as the FRS of CR is organized on a regional basis, the number of wildland fires is analyzed regionally. On the basis of this analysis, some advice concerning the preparation for and prevention of wildland fires is provided—for example, focusing fire prevention campaigns in regions where the wildland fire incidence per inhabitant is high, planning aerial firefighting asset coverage with respect to the occurrence of wildland fires, or deploying the necessary fire suppression equipment according to the dominant wildland fire fuel type. Finally, questions concerning the homogeneity of groups of wildland fires which naturally emerge during the process of selection from the emergency database are discussed.