An experimental method to investigate the water-based suppression of smoldering peat fire

Abstract

Smoldering wildfire in peatlands is one of the largest and most persistent fire phenomena on Earth, which contributes importantly to global carbon emissions. However, very few studies are available on how to extinguish these smoldering wildfires. Herein, we develop an experimental method to explore the effectiveness of the water-based suppression on smoldering peat fire, and the proposed method can also be used to simulate fire suppression by rain. The low-temperature drying process avoids the variation of hydrophobicity of peat soil. The validation shows that the proposed approach can provide a wide range of water-spray intensities with time variation, and two examples of successful suppression of smoldering peat fire and flaming wood crib fire were presented. • The design of small-scale combustion reactor for peat can mimic the smoldering peat fire in the field. • The effectiveness of water-based fire suppression technologies on peat fire are explored in the lab. • The proposed method can evaluate the effect of rain and weather on suppressing the smoldering wildfire.