Influencing Factors for Stage Transition from Ignition to Early Stage of Spread of Forest Fires: A Case of East Coast of Gangwon State, South Korea

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Identifying the key factors that influence the transition from ignition to the early stage of spread is important for effective early response to forest fires. This study aimed to identify the factors influencing the stage transition of forest fires, focusing on those that occurred in five cities along the east coast of Gangwon State in South Korea from 2007 to 2019. The study analyzed the association of factors including terrain, forest characteristics, social and geographical factors of the burned areas with the transition from ignition to early stage of spread, using independence tests and logistic regression. The results showed that elevation, slope and the distance to the nearest initial firefighting resources were highly associated with the stage transition. Forest type, crown density and the number of fire monitoring resources observing burned area showed relatively low association with the stage transition. However, these factors had a relation with the frequency of forest fire occurrences. These findings are expected to be helpful in establishing strategies for early response to, and initial suppression of, forest fires.