The fight against ground forest fires includes three measures: (1) preventing the occurrence, (2) limiting the spread, and finally, if the first two did not help, (3) extinguishing the edge of the fire. It is impossible to completely eliminate the factors contributing to the onset and development of fires in these territories. Therefore, measures to prevent the free spread of fire will be the most effective ones. A method is proposed to prevent and limit the spread of ground fire by creating

more »

... e-retardant strips. These are areas covered with grass and plant debris, treated (by spraying) with aqueous solutions of aluminum hydrogels. The efficiency of the flame retardant properties of such strips has been studied during field experiments. It has shown that obvious signs of fire-retardant effect of aluminum hydrogel begin to appear at a concentration of 7 g/l, with a flow rate of 1 liter of solution per 1 m2 of the treated area. In this case, ground fire loses its stability and its speed decreases 2-3 times. The treatment of the plots with hydrogel solutions with a concentration of 14 g/l or more completely prevented the spread of the flame over the grass cover. In addition, attempts to force the site to burn (28 g/l) were unsuccessful. A water-soluble compound of boron - sodium tetraborate - with concentrations of 3.5-28 g/l does not have sufficient fire retardant action to stop the spread of ground fire.