The Kornati fire accident - Eruptive fire in relatively low fuel load herbaceous fuel conditions

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 1 badly injured fire-fighter. 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 independent scientific investigation performed. The accident was analyzed from meteorological, vegetation, thermodynamics and aerodynamic points of view, and several simulation models of fire propagation were used. This paper describes in detail one possible explanation connected with eruptive fire behavior. Eruptive fire behavior has been reported in many fire accidents in the past causing a lot of causalities. Based on the real Kornati accident data, the eruptive fire model was conceived and appropriate results derived. The paper describes them in detail. Our aim in studying this and other accidents is not to find who is guilty or to blame anyone but rather to find what happened and to extract lessons, to avoid future accidents.