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Researched by Riley M. |
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Project
Report
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this to my mom and dad
because they helped me a lot with my report. They would also help me
when I would get stuck. I would also like to thank my mom for
volunteering in the SOAR room. So thank you Mom and Dad.
Why I Chose This Topic
I
chose this topic because I love to be outdoors. My family and I
go hiking and climbing often. I want to learn how to help the
forests. I also chose this topic to learn how to prevent
forest fires. Now you can probably guess
that my report is on forest fires.
Research Summary
Introduction
According to Kevin Hill the number one cause of
forest fires is here in Washington State are humans! I
volunteered at the Naches Ranger station to research more on forest
fires. Forest fires are very dangerous and can cause a lot of
damage, along with other things. Luckily, there are some simple
things you can do to prevent forest fires.
Fire fighting
When
most people hear the words, “Fire Fighter” they think of men who put
out building fires. Actually, there are many types of fire fighters.
Those who fight forest fires have to go through a lot of hard
training. Every year they have to do more training just to
refresh their minds. This job is not easy, it is actually very
dangerous. They risk their lives every time they go to fight a fire.
They do this to protect the forest from getting ruined, save animals’
lives, and shield people’s homes. If the fire fighters were not there,
we would be in a world of hurt.
Joining
The
fire fighters have to go through a bunch of training. In Ontario, you
must complete a minimum of 40 hours of fire fighting courses, valid
first aid certification and pass the physical fitness test.
Different places have different requirements. Like some places
you have to do different types of test because you live on different
types of terrain.
What are fires caused by?
Fires are caused by all sorts of things and some people think lightning
causes the most fires. When it’s in the middle of summer and the
weeds are dry, it makes it real easy for lightning to make a deadly
forest fire. Another thing is cigarettes. Cigarettes don’t
cause a lot of fires but they do cause some. I don’t know why
people don’t take the time to put them in an ashtray. Unattended
fires also cause a lot of forest fires. People don’t put them out
before they leave, then the wind picks up and you have a forest
fire. The last reason why forest fires start is from kids
playing with matches. They think they know how to use them but
then they start a forest fire.
How fires spread
One way that fires spread is the wind. The wind is a big factor
when there is a fire because the wind can fan the flames and cause it
to go out of control. The next thing you know, it will be destroying
houses. Trees will make it easy for fires to spread if they have
low branches. This is because the fire does not have to reach
high since the branches are low, which fuels the fire and allows it to
spread more easily. Firemen can stop fires from spreading by a
fire line. The fire line is a line of dirt so then the fire has
nothing to burn and they can calm it down.
Damage
Forest fires can do a lot of damage. They can kill people. In
Naches, four fire fighters died in the Thirty Mile Fire of July 10th
2001. It can also give people serious burns and the smoke can be
harmful. It can give people lung cancer. The fire can kill Plants
as well as wildlife. The fire could also destroy houses and
buildings. The fire can be pretty harmful but luckily we have
brave people who will step up to put out fires.
An example of what damage fires have done is it destroyed Lynx homes in
2006. It burnt 175,000 acres of wildlife. So now they have
to put a tracker on the lynx neck so scientist can learn there
habitats. They need to learn there habitat so then they can make
a safe habitat until the vegetation is good. After the vegetation is
good the lynx will be able to go live at there homes again. It
takes the vegetation 15-30 to come back good and healthy.
Thirtymile Fire
This fire was a very big and dangerous fire. It happened July
10th 2001. It ended up killing four people. The four
people were young and they were not experienced and got them self in a
bad situation. They went into the ravine and fire came down on
both sides. Then they tried to out run it but they did not make
it. So now they have four statues in honor of them.
Ways to put fires out
Do you know some ways to put out fires? They use one way in the
city and several different methods in the forest. The first way
involves fire trucks. Fire trucks spray out water and water puts
out fires. Another way involves helicopters. The helicopters
carry big buckets of water then dump them on the fire. Airplanes
can also do the same job that helicopters do. Another way is to
cut off the oxygen, but if the fires are too big, it’s difficult to try
to cut off the oxygen. The last one is the number one way
to put out fires, and that involves people. People control all of
these things that put out fires. If it wasn’t for people, everything
except for the water would be burnt.
How people can help
People can help by becoming volunteers. I volunteered at The Naches
Ranger District. You can help rebuild signs, rebuild trails, pick up
garbage, and trim trees. These are just some of the things you
can do. You don’t have to volunteer you could just simply not leave
cigarette butts on the ground. You could also make sure your fire is
out before you leave. If you don’t, the wind could pick up and start a
forest fire.
Conclusion
I researched about fires, fire
fighters and how people. The one that I thought was the coolest to
research was how people can help because I got to know what it is like
to help. Now that you also learned about my volunteering you can
do the same. The cool thing about volunteering is you can do it
anywhere. But the best part is that you get to help
people.
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