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Pressures brought about by severe fire loss, increasing fire control costs, and restricted budgets are causing some Canadian forest fire control agencies to consider new ways to improve efficiency. One attractive alternative, currently being pursued by several provinces, is the restructuring of their three-level, decentralized organizations to a provincial-regional, centralized fire management unit.Under a centralized system relatively few people manage the necessary resources to handle a fire situation for a huge area. To attain this capability, they require the support of a computerized system designed to collect and process information on weather, fire occurence and behaviour, and the status of detection and suppression resources.Such a system has been developed and is undergoing operational trials at the centralized fire centres of both the Société de Conservation de l'Outaouais at Maniwaki. Quebec and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at Timmins.
Peter Kourtz (Sat,) studied this question.