The Kornati fire accident – aerodynamic and thermodynamic aspects of the accident

Abstract

The biggest fire fighting accident in the history of Croatia happened on August 30, 2007. The routine fire fighting operation ended with 12 dead and one badly injured firefighter. That was the biggest human loss in the history of fire fighting in Croatia. In order to understand the Kornati accident, a research team was formed and an independent scientific investigation was performed. The accident was analyzed from meteorological, vegetation, thermodynamic and aerodynamic points of view, and several simulation models were used. This paper describes the Kornati accident from aerodynamic and thermodynamic points of view and gives one possible explanation for the Kornati accident. Based on the actual Kornati accident data and observations of the accident site, qualitative and quantitative analyses have been performed and a few interesting conclusions have been derived.

The Kornati fire accident facts and figures – configuration, vegetation and meteorology

“…In this analysis of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System for the Zadar station it can be noted that FWI and ISI reached their maximum precisely on August 30th 2007 (66. 6 and 31.8, respectively).…”

A review of forest fire research directions

“…Besides meteorological conditions, Stipaničev et al (2008) included terrain configuration and vegetation with the aim to explain the fire. Another independent investigation tried to explain aerodynamics and thermodynamics aspects of the accident on the Kornat island (Klarin et al, 2008). Another group of authors performed independent investigation in order to expand the aforementioned analysis with several model simulations of the fire propagation (Viegas et al, 2008).…”

The Kornati fire accident – eruptive fire in relatively low fuel load herbaceous fuel conditions

“…According to reconstruction [1][2][3], the helicopter with fire-fighters has landed at the north side of Sipnate canyon on the top of Meja hill at 14:58. After landing the fire-fighters were on their way to water reservoir left by the same helicopter previously on the south slope of hill Veli vrh.…”