Fighting Small-Scale Fires: A mobile Alert System for Heat

Detecting UAVs
Maryam AlThani
Hania ElSayed
Hayyam Iqbal

Introduction
Qatar, being one of the most advanced countries in the Arab nation, has made sure
to take every measure, be it in terms of imposing laws or providing its residents with
the necessary regulation, to guarantee their safety. For the remote areas in Qatar,
which are in the middle of the deserts, the rules aren’t the same. People can light as
many cigarettes or have as many campfires as they want. There are many activities
that happen at campsites that lead to intense fires such as using lit candles at night
instead of having a torch. Also, sometimes while people are doing barbecue, they
can get rid of the ashes without making sure it's cooled down or put out, which can
also lead to fire and those hot ashes can lead to a larger fire if it gets caught in long
grass . Thus, treating this problem is important as fire can destroy a tent in 60
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seconds . The purpose of our problem statement is to develop a set of design

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constraints for a mobile alert system which would contain fires caused due to
campfires in Qatar.

Impacts
Cases of forest fires occur almost 14,700 times per year and burn 884,400 hectares
of forest areas every year in China . Recently, the wildfires in Australia (2019-2020)
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burned over 18 million hectares, destroying over 5,900 buildings, including 2,800
homes. In addition, many people and millions of animals were also reported to have
been killed. 
Also, an example of fire that happened in Qatar was at Villaggio mall where nineteen
people died, and it was due to an electrical fault. Another blast in Doha killed 12
people and injured at least 30 . It was the result of a gas explosion at a restaurant in
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a petrol station near the Landmark Mall. Those sudden fire accidents led to great
panic among the residents of Qatar especially that the people that died in the
Villaggio fire were due to smoke annihilation. Till this day those accidents have an
impact on the families of the people that died in the fire as they are psychologically
affected in terms of fear and anxiety. Also, residents lost their sense of security and
are more paranoid.  For example, whenever the fire alarm goes on in any mall
people will start looking around for the nearest exit because they remember the
Villaggio fire. In addition, another impact from the Villaggio fire was that after four
years Doha court ruled that the people that were held responsible for the fire will not
be placed in prison but instead they will jointly pay QR200,000 in blood money for
the families of each person that died .  5

Uncontrolled fires in China, Australia, and elsewhere have a huge impact on society
and the environment that can lead to both long-term and short-term effects. Erosion,
landslides, introduction of invasive species, and changes in water quality can occur
in areas which have been cleared by wildfires. Furthermore, wildfires increase the
chances of flooding and debris flows. In addition, a significant impact of wildfires
would be that the smoke has pollutants in it that leads to major health problems for
any residents.  Moreover, examples of short-term impacts would be destruction of
timber, wildfire habitants and scenic vistas. Long-term impacts would be destruction
of community infrastructure and cultural and economic resources. The table below
shows the top 20 countries that suffered economically from wildfires from 1900 to
2013 . 6

Country N. Events Damage (Million $)

United 64 17,787
States
Indonesia 9 9,329
Canada 20 6,463
Portugal 8 3,475
Spain  14 2,754
Australia 30 2,654
Greece 13 2,425
Russia  22 2,183
Mongolia 3 1,823
Italy 7 1,700
Chile 9 880
South Africa 9 440
Israel  3 315
Malaysia 4 302
Yugoslavia 2 200
China 6 110
Argentina 5 100
Mexico 3 91
Nicaragua 3 80
Croatia 5 38
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The traumatic, psychological, natural and fatal impacts aside, wildfires have cost
millions of dollars. Recovering from such incidents may take decades.

Fire Containment Methods

China is a country with developed technology that uses UAVs to contain fires. UAVs
are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which fly without a human operator based on its
programming. These drones can carry up to 50 kilograms of seeding agents and fly
for 125-150 minutes . The range for direct action is 200km but can be extended to
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300km+ . Upon researching the environmental impacts of the seeding agents, they
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were found to be hazardous and silver iodide was the least toxic . When the drones
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reach the area they were programmed to be at, they seed the clouds by injecting
silver iodide in them. After a while, immediately or 30 minutes maximum, it rains in
the area. There are a couple of advantages to this technique such as drones can
help identify areas of evacuation and most urgent needs for response or water
drops . However, these systems also can easily be affected by the weather.n rain or
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hot weather, the drones’ lithium powered battery gets ruined and in cold weather, the
drone requires more power to lift and control itself harming the electronic speed
control . Also, another disadvantage would be that drones have a problem in the
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frequency used in wireless communication. For wireless communication, each radio

frequency is assigned a bandwidth by the Government. This band means to assign
every means of communication a different frequency, so it is not interfered by the
other. This is not easy at all and thus the communication is interfered by child/parent
phones, radios, microwave ovens, Bluetooth, WIFI, etc .  13

Another solution that was suggested to control wildfires was helicopters that are
flying over to dump water or annihilate foam on the fire. This foam that is being used
behaves like a shelter to put a stop to unburned fuels from catching fire . Helicopters
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whether small, medium, large can carry nearly from 100 to 3000 gallons of water or
foam in buckets beneath the helicopters . Furthermore, how far helicopters fly from
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their base depends on the type of the helicopter, the three most commonly used are:
Kaman K-MAX, which has a range of 494km , Bell 205 with a range of 318 km and
16 17

Sikorsky S-70C with a range of 830 km . Moreover, for helicopters there is a system
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called  HALTT which stands for helicopter alert and threat termination. This system
basically is a fire indicator that would inform the pilot if there is a fire attack and it will
show the location of the fire . An advantage to this technique is that it is more
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accessible to remote areas and mountainous areas. On the other hand, a

disadvantage to this technique would be the chances of crashing is high especially at
hours of darkness and in poor weather. As Helicopters tend to fly lower to the ground
(its maximum altitude without pressure is about 12,000 feet) thus they have a higher
chance of crashing into buildings or hills that suddenly appear. Due to also flying
closer to the ground the helicopters have a higher chance of experiencing
environmental crashes like power lines. Furthermore, a helicopter has a lot of
mechanical parts such as gearbox, main rotor, tail rotor, etc., which increases the
chances of malfunction. Thus, according to the federal aviation administration the
helicopters crash at a rate of 1.02 per 100,000 flight hours . 20

Other countries, for example UAE, Saudia Arabia and Russia- where the project is
called ‘cloud power’, produce artificial rain via another method; cloud seeding from
weather balloons. An outfitted weather balloon is floated in the sky, which takes 7-10
minutes. Hydrogen or Helium gas is used to lift the balloon which carries a cylinder
filled with a seeding agent. The cylinder, along with the seeding agent, carries an
inert gas to help release the seeding agents in the cloud and produce artificial rain.
The gas carries the seeding agent into the cloud on reaching 7000ft of altitude . The 21

advantages of this solution is that it is safer and in Saudia Arabia the rainfall was
boosted up to 20% . The rain produced was for about 13.7 million gallons making
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55,000 cubic metres making the total worth upto $33,543 . The disadvantage would
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be that over usage may bring hurricanes and hail may fall, making the weather
unstable especially in winter .24

In Addition, there is another solution which is air tankers, also known as fixed wing
aircraft, flies over the fire throwing flame retardant during aerial firefighting
operations . The aircrafts are designed to limit the spread of the fire until the
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firefighter arrives to extinguish them. In addition, the air tankers can carry 7,200
gallon of water or retardant and this can cover up to 4 acres. One of the main
advantages of this technique is that it can reduce fire intensity and spread up to
twice as effectively as water. However, disadvantages to this technique would be it is
expensive as for example helicopters cost up to 14,000 dollars a day to keep an air
tanker on call and also it costs around 4,200 dollars per hour to put it in the air. While
for fixed wing crafts it costs 32,000 dollars a day on standby and also 6,300 dollars
per hour of flight time. Also, another disadvantage would be that fixed wing craft
cannot be placed stationary as it needs air to move over the wings of the craft to
allow for lifting therefore they must stay in constant forward motion . 26

The purpose of the fire retardants is to slow the speed and the growth of a fire by
removing heat, coating the surface for the fuel in order to not to find oxygen, and
diluting the air near the fire. Those fire retardants are made up of detergent
chemicals that consist of a mixture of wetting agents (like anionic), foaming
chemicals (ammonium carbonate), fertilizers (ammonium phosphate or ammonium
sulfate specifically those compounds because they dissolve well in water) mixed with
thickeners (guar gum) and corrosion inhibitors and this is for aircraft safety.
Furthermore, those detergent chemicals are mixed with water to form the foam. In
addition, sometimes the fire retardants have a color in them which is usually iron
oxide, and this is done to help the firefighters what are the areas they exactly spread
the retardant. water and foam both great ways to contain the fire. However, for
intense fire the fire retardants are preferred because water runs off the fuel and
evaporates quickly in the heat of the fire and it can also soak into the ground. Thus,
the retardants are better because they contain sticky agents that stick in order to
coat the fuel. Also, during dry conditions where water is short on supply, they use fire
retardants instead .  27

Furthermore, if we were to compare both previous solutions according to the

economist, Edward G. Keating, fighting fires using air tankers could be quite
expensive as it approximately takes $6,000 US dollars to operate per hour . It is also
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claimed to be dangerous yet effective. On the other hand, helicopters can take up to
$4,200 US dollars per hour to put out a fire.  Having done our research we can
conclude that helicopters are cheaper than air tankers . When the world's biggest
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tropical rainforest that is in Brazil was burning, firefighters have reported that using
helicopters wasn't as effective as air tankers as helicopters can only put out the top
of the forest. The fire took approximately six hours to put out. Therefore, we can see
that air tankers would be a better solution for this situation . 
  30

China has spent over $150 million from 1999 to 2006. It created over 55 Billion tons
of rain every year . The cost covered the burning chambers for silver iodide, UAVs,
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maintenance, contracts, satellites, employment, etc. Over 500 burners have been
installed on the alpine slopes of Tibet, Xinjiang and other areas and 15,000 UAVs
are being used. 10,000 more chambers are being built, where each installation
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costs about $8000, to cover 1.6 million square kilometers of area and 30 weather
monitoring satellites are being used . Evaluating from the numbers we have we
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know that $2400 ($36 million/15,000) was spent over one UAV- maintenance
included, where a single UAV costs $2000 .  34

The other mentioned cloud seeding project has the lowest cost from all other
solutions, seeding agent silver iodide costs about $6.8 per gram and a weather35

balloon which can carry 200 grams cost $20 making the total cost $1380 where one
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gram carries as many as ten trillion artificial crystals . 

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User Needs and Factors that lead to Fires

There are common causes of wildfires such as arson, campfires, discarding lit
cigarettes, improperly burning debris, equipment failure or engine sparks, and
playing with matches or fireworks. The fire can also be caused due to natural
reasons; lightening, low humidity, hot wind, etc. The fire may spread if the weather is
in its favor, such as environments with high temperatures or strong winds . The chart
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below is an example of the causes of wildfires done by the Office of Fire Marshal and
Emergency Management in Ontario, Canada .  39

The reason for the occurrence of fire in the outdoor areas of Qatar are very limited.
We have picked campfires to narrow down our scope as Qatar has camping spots at
places and these places tend to be far away from the city. Upon interviewing three
campers in Qatar, we found out that many Qatari citizens have faced wildfires that
start out of burning wood or useless resources in areas far from the capital. The
main reasons these fires can’t be controlled is because campers panic when the
weather is windy, and oxygen causes the fire to double. Another reason would be
that campers usually go far from the capital and it takes 25 minutes to arrive in
Mukiynes. Usually these fires take place in farmlands. Farmers intentions are not to
create fire although these fires go out of control with an increased rate of oxygen.
These fires cause damage to trees and pollute the air. Having created these fires,
people need to be in an area where nothing can catch fire like trees or grass. They
also need to have matches in order to light the useless resources on fire. 

According to Gulf Times, the civil defense in Qatar has set some rules and
regulations for their citizens to follow. These rules were given to avoid fires in
general . The safety tips given by the civil defense in Qatar are advising people to
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not overload electricity, keep a fire extinguisher in reach and to know the exact
location including building number in order to reach faster. Unfortunately, these rules
aren't followed by the majority. According to Qatar Living, Most fires that happen in
Qatar are due to electricity being overloaded . 
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Furthermore, the civil defense has advised all citizens to be aware of how to use fire
extinguishers in case of any emergency. As soon as the civil defense is informed of
a fire, they send out fire trucks with the necessary amount of fire fighters depending
on the explanation of the fire reporter. The fire reporter is also automatically located,
that way the nearest station would arrive to them faster . 
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The only two cars that campers can drive through desert land are any type of Toyota
Landcruiser or Lexus Landcruiser. This is because these two cars are manufactured
to a specific height from the ground and these cars also come with fire extinguishers
placed right below the passenger's seat. Campers in Qatar often stay at their
farmhouse or portacabins. When fires go out of control mostly damages happen on
trees and that’s because they’re aligned next to each other. The importance of a fire
extinguisher existing in these cars could save lives. 
We know that fighting these fires, let alone facing them on our own can cause panic
to the campers. The fires need to be put out faster as the furthest fire station from a
camping site is 77km away and a truck with its average speed of 60km/h will take
over an hour, especially in remote areas where taking a truck itself can be a huge
struggle and hence we can save lives. Camping besides the trees, though more
preferable because of a cooler and more hospitable environment, is more
dangerous. To keep the environment healthier, campers want a clean surrounding
so it does not impact their health. 

Design Constraints
If we were to provide an integrated weather balloon- mobile application system to
contain small fires in Qatar’s campsites, we would need to design this device
according to the following guidelines: 
1. The weather balloon should be able to carry more than 200 grams of silver
iodide to seed the clouds.
2. The weather balloon should be placed at the areas where the possibility for
the fire to spread is high. 
3. Our system will only use silver iodide as a seeding agent as it is the least
harmful to the environment. 
4. The languages used for the application will be Arabic and English.
5. Through the app, with a tap the seeding agents should be released
immediately. 
6. The app should be available for android and apple.
7. The app will be used by owners of camping sites or civil defense.
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