Forest fire in Kråkshult, Lidhult. Photo: Bengt Nilsson.

Doctoral project: Fire and rescue services and forestry in collaboration

Within the project, two studies are carried out. The first study describes the individual private forest owners' experiences of forest fires on their own property. The second study describes the fire and rescue service's experiences of contact with forest owners during forest fires on private property.

Project information

Doctoral student
Frida Björcman
Supervisor
Åsa Blom
Assistant supervisors
Bengt Nilsson, Anders Svensson
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University; LTH, Faculty of Engineering; Räddningstjänsten i Västra Blekinge, Räddningstjänsten Ljungby, Förbundet Sveriges frivilliga brandkårer, Region Kronoberg
Financier
The Kamprad Family Foundation
Timetable
1 Oct 2020–1 Dec 2024
Subject
Forestry industry production systems (Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Technology)

More about the project

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that we will be faced with severe climate-related challenges. For the countryside, which is largely forested, one of these challenges will be forest fire. The summer of 2018 brought extreme drought, forest fires ravaged the entire country and the fire and rescue services were on their knees because there was a lack of both materials and personnel. At the same time, forest owners were hit hard financially, but also emotionally, as for many individual forest owners the forest is also often described as their life's work.

Much indicates that in the future there will be even higher demands on the individual forest owner and the forest industry to be able to prevent forest fires, but also to contribute to managing them. Already today, the forest owner has an obligation to help the fire and rescue service if the property is hit by a forest fire, but the possibility of being able to help varies greatly depending on whether the land is owned by a large forest company or by an individual private forest owner. When the fire and rescue services leave the fire area, the forest owner also has a responsibility to take over the surveillance to prevent the fire from flaring up again, which may have to last for days or weeks depending on the extent of the fire.

Understanding what it is like to be a forest owner and be affected by a forest fire can give us insight into how the forest owner has the opportunity and willingness to contribute during the extinguishing work, what the collaboration with the fire and rescue service looks like, but also to find out how the forest owner experiences the subsequent monitoring responsibility.

The doctoral project is part of the research in the research group Centre of Interprofessional Collaboration within Emergency care (CICE) and the research project Sustainable co-operation of rescue actors in the Swedish countryside.