Forest Fires and Fuel Characteristics of Tyrol: Including Case Studies

Tyrol is one of the provinces of Austria with a frequent fire occurrence. On the base of past records from the federal forest ministry and the wildfire database of the Institute of Silviculture an analysis of forest fires in Tyrol was carried out for the period 1990 - 2010. For the same study period a cluster analysis was conducted. On the basis of 8 parameters, namely cause of ignition, size of burned area, seasonality, altitude, slope aspect, forest type, Fire Weather Indexes (FFMC, BUI, CFWI) the cluster analysis has been done. For each of the clusters one case study has been documented. Information about location, meteorology, fire behaviour and operations as well as ecology and economy of the event were collected by means of face-to-face interviews. The output elucidates what is essential to mind in the case of a fire event, in order to screen the emergency situation as fast and precise as possible and to start effective fire fighting operations.