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International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Deep peat fire persistently smouldering for weeks: a laboratory demonstration

Yunzhu Qin https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-8630 A B , Dayang Nur Sakinah Musa C D , Shaorun Lin https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4090-1148 A B * and Xinyan Huang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0584-8452 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Research Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

B The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.

C Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.

D International Tropical Forestry Programme, Faculty of Tropical Forestry, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia.

International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(1) 86-98 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22143
Submitted: 4 July 2022  Accepted: 17 November 2022   Published: 7 December 2022

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Background: Peatlands are becoming more vulnerable to smouldering fires, driven by climate change and human activities.

Aims: This work explores the persistent burning, propagation, and emission of the deep peat fire.

Methods: Laboratory experiments are conducted with a 1-m deep peat column, and smouldering fires are initiated at different depths.

Key results: We found localised burning and multi-directional smouldering fire spread in deep peat layers. The smouldering temperature first decreases with depths up to −40 cm (from around 550 to 350°C) and then remains at about 300°C in the deeper layers. High moisture content can slow down in-depth fire propagation and reduce the burning duration.

Conclusions: Peat fire can burn in deep layers for weeks, and its combustion is incomplete with small mass loss, because of a limited oxygen supply and low smouldering temperature. Measuring the carbon monoxide concentration near the surface can detect underground fire and monitor its intensity.

Implications: This work helps reveal the underlying mechanism of the in-depth smouldering wildfires in peatland and supports future larger-scale peat fire experiments in the field.

Keywords: burning duration, fire detection, fire emissions, fuel mass loss, peat soil, peatland wildfire, smouldering propagation, underground fire.


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