Fire Regimes Defined

A fire regime is the pattern, frequency and intensity of

the bushfires and wildfires that prevails in an area. It is an integral part
of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. If fires are too
frequent, plants may be killed before they have matured, or before they
have set sufficient seed to ensure population recovery. If fires are too
infrequent, plants may mature, senesce and die, without ever releasing
their seed. The ecological need to provide an appropriate fire regime is
often at odds with the principles and goals of bushfire management, which
aims to manage the human and financial costs of bushfires. One of the
strategies employed is frequent prescribed burns. By firing the bush at
frequent, regular intervals, the bush is burnt before much fuel has built up,
ensuring a low-intensity burn that is easily managed. Both the higher
frequency of fire, and the low intensity, may have ecological implications;
as may the tendency to burn off outside the usual bushfire season. A fire
regime is the term given to the general pattern in which fires naturally
occur in a particular ecosystem over an extended period of time. Scientists
classify fire regimes using a combination of factors including frequency,
intensity, size, pattern, season, and severity. Individual fires can vary
greatly in severity, and the specific effects and risks caused by a fire will
depend on the specifics of its fire regime. A classification system has been
developed to describe the characteristics of a particular fire, determine
which type of fire regime is common in a given ecosystem, and compare
present fires with historical norms.

Fire Regimes History

Fire regimes are a critical foundation for understanding and
describing effects of changing climate on fire patterns and characterizing
their combined impacts on vegetation and the carbon cycle (Grissino Mayer
and Swetnam 2000; Clark 1988; Schoennagel, Veblen, and Romme 2004;
Pechony and Shindell 2010). In general a fire regime characterizes the
spatial and temporalpatterns and ecosystem impacts of fire on the
landscape (Bradstock, Williams, and Gill 2002; Morgan et al. 2001; Brown
and Smith 2000; Keeley et al. 2009). The two most important factors for
determining fire regimes are vegetation type (or ecosystem) and weather
and climate patterns. Fire history provides evidence of past relationships
between fire and climate. That evidence makes it clear that changing
climate will profoundly affect the frequency and severity of fires in many
regions and ecosystems in response to factors such as earlier snowmelt
and more severe or prolonged droughts (Westerling et al. 2006; Bowman et
al. 2009; Flannigan et al. 2009; Littell et al. 2009; Morgan, Heyerdahl, and
Gibson 2008; Kitzberger et al. 2007). Changing climate will alter the growth
and vigor of existing vegetation, with resulting changes in fuel structure and
dead fuel loads.

Instrumentation
Fire Regimes
The fire sub-model has been designed to allow the fire spread rate to
partially depend on the main factors determining fire shapes in real
landscapes [6], [30]. More specifically, fire spread rate is calculated as a
function of fuel load (using time since fire as a proxy), topography or wind
direction and land cover category (Appendix S1). The shape of a fire arises
as a result of distinct rates of fire spread from one cell to adjacent cells. In
contrast, fire size is primarily determined by applying a top-down approach
in which the potential area to be burnt is chosen from an input statistical
distribution of fire sizes [44]. Different fire size distributions are used
depending on the climatic severity of the year. Adverse years are
characterized by a high number of weather risk days [30], [45]. Therefore,
the distribution of fire sizes corresponding to adverse years specifies a
higher proportion of large wildfires compared to the distribution
corresponding to normal (non-adverse) years [45]. The explicit inclusion of
processes leading to fire extinction may help in gaining insight into the
factors determining the effective fire regime [46]. Previous detailed
knowledge of the location and low fuel loads in these areas is assumed to
lead to a significant increase in firefighting capacity. The two suppression
strategies differ in the mechanisms driving such reductions in effective area
burnt: while the opportunistic suppression strategy takes advantage of
opportunities derived from past fire history (Figure 1), active fire
suppression mimics overall firefighting capacity under slow spread
conditions.

Figure 3. Description of the effects of opportunistic fire suppression on effective

fire size.

(A) Historic fires in a region, where black patches show recent burns with
time since last fire values lower than 15 years and grey patches correspond
to older fires. (B) Fire spread of a new simulated fire in the area. Potential
target area (black thick line) is larger than the effective area burnt (white
filling within the target area) because of opportunistic firefighting
opportunities generated by recent fires in (A). Suppressed areas are shown
in grey and main spread axes are shown in arrows. Spread occurring within
effective area burnt (black arrows) and potentially, within the suppressed
area (white arrows) is shown.
The MEDFIRE model shares many characteristics with other
landscape simulation tools accounting for spatial interactions, such as the
LANDIS model [39], because multiple processes are simulated iteratively in
a spatial raster framework for fixed time discrete steps. Similar to other
landscape models (e.g., the Mauricie Model [40] and the Vermillion
Landscape Model [41]), the MEDFIRE model was implemented using the
spatio-temporal modeling tool SELES [42]. We follow the updated
Overview, Design concepts, and Details (ODD) protocol of [43] to describe
the MEDFIRE model in further detail.

Figure 2. Conceptual design of the MEDFIRE model.

Land cover type and time since last fire are state variables. The fire submodel is responsible for updating time since last fire, whereas land cover
type is updated in the vegetation dynamics sub-model. Fire processes
occur sequentially until the annual target area is burnt. After that, the
vegetation dynamics sub-model takes place to complete the annual cycle.

Causes and Effects of Fire Regime

The total amount of area burnt was highly dependent on
climatic treatments as tested.Scenarios involving an increase in the
proportion of adverse climate years (C1 and C2) and no fire
suppression (treatment 0) resulted in strong increases of up to 64% in
the total area burnt compared to the corresponding scenario without
climate change (C0). Fire suppression had also a strong effect on the
total amount of area burnt. However, the degree to which fire
suppression compensated for the effects of climate change depended
on the firefighting strategy. Strong opportunistic fire suppression
(treatment iii) had a relatively weak effect on the total area burnt.

Significance
The fire suppression era continued, and probably accelerated,
a significant fire regime conversion process throughout most of the
Eastern US that began during the European settlement era. With the
onset of the fire suppression era in the 1900s, fire steadily declined
across the Eastern US. This extensive shift and conversion in fire
regimes had unanticipated ecological consequences. A cascade of
compositional and structural changes took place whereby open lands
(grasslands, savannas, and woodlands) succeeded to closed-canopy
forests, followed by the eventual replacement of fire-dependent
plants by shade-tolerant, fire-sensitive vegetation. This trend

continues today with ongoing fire suppression. (Nowacki and Abrams

2008).

How Fire History, Fire Suppression

Practices and Climate Change Affect
Wildfire Regimes

History of Climate Change in National Fire Policy

Before we address Eastern and Western fire history in more detail we
need to briefly examine the history of recent national level fire management
policy regarding climate change. Over the past 16 years, Federal wildland
fire management policy has evolved in response to fire suppression
management technology and continuing growth in the scientific
understanding of wildland fire and its interaction with ecosystems and with
the human environment. These changes, for the most part, began with
issuance of the Federal Wildland Fire Policy (1995), and include the
National Fire Plan (2000), The Healthy Forest Initiative (2002), Healthy
Forests Restoration Act (2003), 10 Year Comprehensive Strategy (2006),
and the FLAME Act (2009). Over this period fire policies have incorporated
an increasingly broader understanding of the natural role of fire in
ecosystems, the effectiveness of fuel management at reducing wildfire
severity and improving access for suppression, the need to protect
communities and resources, and the need for a comprehensive
intergovernmental strategy to encompass federal, state, tribal and private
lands. Further, the development of polices and legislation supports direct
participation, at the broadest reach of the fire management community, at
the state, county, local, and tribal government level, conservation
organizations, and private landowners. However, only recently, in the
updated A National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy28
(March 2011) was climate change specifically noted as a factor to be
considered in fire management planning.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ISABELA CITY FIRE STATION

The enactment of R.A 6975 also known as the Department of Interior and
Local Government act of 1990, which took effect on January 1,1991 The
DILG act Created three(3) Bureaus, The Philippine National Police(PNP),
Bureau of Jail management and Penology (BJMP), and Bureau of Fire
Protection (BFP) in Mindanao, specifically in the Province of Basilan,
Provincial Capitol. There are twenty-three (23) former Fire Officer of Isabela
Municipal Fire Station Headed by; FINSP. Juan Lim (Ret), FINSP Melanio
Mancenido (Ret), FINSP Reynaldo Irong (Ret), FINSP Wilfredo Balansag
(Ret), FINSP Ramon Seneca (Ret) FINSP Nestor Garcia (Ret), FINSP
Rolando Atilano (Ret), FINSP Eleno Aroy (Ret), FINSP Recardo Estrada
(Ret), SFO4 Roberto Ong (Ret), SFO4 Edgardo Mirasol (Ret), SFO3
Arhusar Edris, SFO3 Ignacio de jesus, SFO3 Benjamin Jaafar (Ret), SFO3
Edgardo Molina (Ret), SFO3 Mario Fernando (Ret), SFO3 Celso Garniel
(Ret), SFO2 Ernesto Luna (Ret), FO3 Legaspi Bohong. When the Basilan
Provincial Capitol building was razed down by fire to include surrounding
government building; Fire Station, Police Station, Provincial Jail, Provincial
Telephone System in 1993, the Isabela Fire Station was temporarily
transferred at Strong Boulevard, Barangay Seaside Isabela Basilan. In
1994, During the time of former Mayor Leonardo Pioquinto, the Municipal
and Provincial Government donated a lot for the establishment of new
Isabela Fire Station building
at Barangay Sunrise, Isabela City.
Construction of the said building was funded by the Bureau of fire
Protection in 2001, when the Municipality of Isabela became a chartered
City, the Fire Station was separated into two, the Office of the Provincial
Fire Marshal Basilan and the Isabela City Fire Station. The Isabela City Fire
Station was retain in region IX and under OPFM Zamboanga Sibugay. The
Former Fire Officials in Isabela City Fire Station are; FINSP Melanio
Mancenido (Ret) (Oct. 24,2000-Dec. 3, 2002), FINSP. Virgilio Alvarez (Ret)
(Dec. 4, 2002-June 15, 2006), FSR.INSP. Dionisio T. Cayudong (Ret) (June
16, 2011-Jan. 15,2014) and now the present Fire Marshal is FINSP. Usman
A. Husin who was assume last January 16, 2014.

Table of Content
I.

Introduction
History Of Bureau of Fire Protection
Brief History of Isabela City Fire Station
History of Fire Regimes
History of Climate Change

II.
III.
IV.
V.

Instrumentation
Causes and Effect
Recommendation
Conclusion

The Bureau of Fire Protection was created by virtue of RA 6975

primarily to perform the following functions:

Be responsible for the prevention and suppression of all destructive

fires on:
Building, houses and other structures;
Forest;
Land transportation vehicles and equipment;
Ships and vessels docked at piers or wharves anchored in major sea
ports;

Petroleum industry installations;

Plane crashes; and
Other similar activities

Be responsible for the enforcement of the Fire Code of the

Philippines (PD 1185) and other related laws;
Shall have the power to investigate all causes of fires and if
necessary, file the proper complaint with the city or provincial
prosecutor who has jurisdiction over the case;

In the time of national emergency, all elements of the BFP shall upon
direction of the President, assist the AFP in meeting the national
emergency; and
Shall establish at least one (1) fire station with adequate personnel,
firefighting facilities and equipment in every provincial capital, city and
municipality subject to standard rules and regulations as maybe
promulgated by the DILG.

THE COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION A STUDENT OF

BASILAN STATE COLLEGE: A CASE ANALYSIS

Presented to the
Faculty of College of Criminal justice Education of Basilan State College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of Practicum 2

(On-the-Job Training)

Presented By:
Alih, Abdurahman A.