A seminar focusing on determination of the size of firebreaks called DIMZAL, developed by researchers of the "Fire" Project was held on 12 January 2017 at the University of Corsica within the framework of the "Scientists and Firefighters Partnership" Research Group.
These support zones lie on strips of land that have been cleared of bush and that are used as firebreaks for firefighting. Currently, all zones, irrespective of their geographical positioning, have a 100m thickness standard applied. The DIMZAL tool allows for the size of all areas to be predicted by calculating the heat output released by a potential fire that could start in the region and the safety distance from the fire to maintain to avoid the risk of injury. This therefore represents a real step forward in terms of supporting firefighting efforts and protecting the physical integrity of firefighters.
The purpose of this seminar was to launch the second phase of this tool’s development focusing on improving the accuracy of the prediction.