Historical behavior of forest fires in the Rocafuerte Canton, Manabí province, Ecuador, in 2016 – 2019 period

Abstract

The analysis of forest fires historical behavior provides essential information for the development of effective fire management programs in the territories. These analyzes allow to define where, when and why fires occur. The objective of this work was to analyze the forest fires historical behavior in the Rocafuerte Canton, Manabí province, Ecuador, in 2016 to 2019 period. The dates were provide by the Fire Department of Rocafuerte. The analysis was made considering the occurrences of fires in a spatio-temporal context (years, months, days of the week, hours and localities). Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 22.0). We worked with a significance level of 0.05 (p=0.05). In the analyzed period, 309 occurrences were reported, corresponding to 2018 the highest percentage (30.42 %). The average monthly occurrence was 25.75, exceeding this value in six months (December, January and June to September) corresponding to them 61.48 % of total fires. No statistically significant difference was found for the occurrences to the days of the week (p=0.650) according to the ANOVA results. The fires occurred in 51 locations, with 60.52 % of the total concentrated in six of them. The 52.43 % of fires was originated from negligence.