Wildfire Behavior and Ember Generation of Dryland Wheat
ISSN 2158-9429
Volume 18, Issue 2 - December 2025
Editor: Bindu Poudel-Ward
Abstract
Farmers are increasingly dealing with wildfires burning in wheat and other dryland (non-irrigated) crops due to increased crop residue from no till farming practices and additional human ignitions from sources other than farming. Fire managers and wheat farmers want to better understand fire behavior of dryland wheat to inform fuels management and fuel break construction. Fuel breaks can be an important tool to break up continuous fuel to improve firefighter safety and suppression effectiveness. However, there is limited research on flame height and ember generation to support the ideal width of fuel breaks near wheat fields. The goal of this study was to quantify fire behavior in wheat to better inform farmers and fire managers on the ideal width of fuel breaks and expected fire behavior. Unharvested dryland wheat was collected and burned in controlled experimental burns under fire season conditions in August 2022 in North Central Oregon to determine flame height, time to ignition, duration of combustion, ember generation, and distance of ember travel. Six different small scale burn tests were completed with an average flame height of 11.0 ft with a maximum height of 14.5 ft. On average time to ignition was 3.7 seconds and duration of combustion was 113 seconds for 20.5 sq ft of wheat. On average 110 embers were produced from 13 lbs of wheat with most embers travelling 3.0 ft with a maximum distance of 7.3 ft. Ember generation and flame height suggest that fuel breaks need to be at least 45 ft wide to aid in fire suppression efforts and likely need to be considerably wider under windy conditions or in steep terrain.
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