Vietnam War: Forest Fire as a Military Weapon - Paperless Archives

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Spread Analysis:
Spread to Kahn Binh firebreak, as scaled from five possible points of origin, showed a maximum of 6 miles in 18 days or
1760 feet per day.
Calculated spread rates from the hourly burning indexes for the period 20 March through 7 April predict an average of
1960 ft. per day. Maximum rates 4.8 - 8.7 ft/min.
Excellent agreement considering distance of weather station from fire (52 miles) and uncertainty of a day or two in time
of arrival at firebrcak.
Applying same calculation procedure to all days from 10 March through 29 April we find only 7 days during which
spread rates would have exceeded one mile per day, and no days on which fire intensity would be great enough
for extensive crown fires to develop.
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SSECRET 4*.3