Aloe Plantations as Fire Barrier Systems

Fire Fighting to Wild Fires - The Aloe Plantation as Fire Barrier Solution

Fire Fighting to Wildfires Requires a New Approach - Aloe Plantations are a New Fire Barrier Solution

The main issue of fire management is not only how to combat fire but fundamentally how to avoid it. Most policies are aimed to avoid fire.

Fire fighting wildfires has different solutions and different approaches to avoid or to fight the fire, with different results.

Aloetrade America is proposing a new approach. We are proposing a new form to fight wildfire: the use of aloe as fire retardant.

Aloe is a succulent. It is one of few plants used for years as fire resistant, sometimes in conjunction with other plants.

However, in many cases, it was used in a wrong way, without a right fire management system.

 

Our Fire Management Solution

We are now proposing a new solution in fire management.

Our solution combines the aloe properties as fire retardant and our vast knowledge and expertise into the aloe business.

With years of experience gained by assisting many aloe growers worldwide to establish aloe plantations, we have developed a fire management system which analyzes local environment factors, evaluating weather conditions (climate, moisture, humidity, rainfall, wind speed), type of vegetation (grass, savanna, chaparral, woods, etc) and soil characteristics (soil type, texture, pH) at any given location.

With such data, we extrapolate the information inputs in order to define potential fire risks and then choice the right solution.  


But what is the solution?

Our solution is a plantation with a mix of several aloe varieties.  Our solution defines a selection process of different aloe varieties to create the most appropriate fire wall to protect public or private assets, be located either at urban or rural areas. Our fire fighting solution is totally eco friendly and sustainable.

We have several options adapted to each eco-system and local environment. Rural environment have a different approach than urban cases. We define different combinations of aloe varieties considering the local conditions. Our combinations are based on our own developed models and uses different combinations of aloe barbadensis miller, aloe saponaria, aloe chinensis, aloe Arborescens, aloe ferox, aloe litoralis, aloe socotra, aloe secundiflora and/or aloe variegata, among other options.

These fire fighting models may be left at wild conditions or managed as a fire retardant system needing only a basic irrigation system.

Advantages of Aloe as Fire Retardant

Aloe means any species of the genus Aloe, succulent perennials of the family Lilaceae (lily family), native to the warm dry areas of South Africa and also to tropical Africa, but cultivated elsewhere.

The Aloe Barbadensis Miller, Aloe Saponaria, Aloe Ferox, Aloe Chinensis and aloe Arborescens, are the most commercially known varieties of more than 360 species of well-known aloes. Most aloe varieties are cultivated as ornamental plants, but all the above mentioned aloes are used basically in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, beauty, toiletry, food, beverage and apparel industry, as well as in other industrial sectors.

Our fire fighting aloe solution creates a very large natural firewall. With more than 12,000 plants and 175,000 leaves per kilometer, there is a strong fire barrier to protect assets. Aloe is a “water” barrier that must be broken by fire. On average, it means about 58,000 to 87,000 liters of aloe gel (98% water) per kilometer, based on leaves of 50 cm length, 9,5 cm wide and 2,7 cm thick.

The key issue to use aloe as fire retardant and to create fire wall is the fact that any aloe variety has more than 98% of water and 1.5%-2% of solids

This solid material contains over 75 different nutrients including vitamins, minerals, enzymes, sugars, anthraquinones or phenolic compounds, lignin, saponins, sterols, amino acids and salicylic acid.

The saponins are the more relevant constituent of aloe as fire retardant. Saponins are glycosides and represent about 3% of what is in the aloe gel. Saponins are chemical compounds abundant in different types of plant species. They are among the secondary metabolites and produce soap-like foam. Their structure is composed of one or more hydrophilic glycoside moieties held by a lipophilic triterpene derivative. Due to their surface-active properties, saponins produce stable foams. If there are about 87,000 liters of aloe gel diseminated along one kilometer, just about 2,600 liters per kilometer are saponins offering a foaming-like barrier against fire. All in a single plant.

There are some patented fire fighting foam formulation which includes a non-foam forming amount of a saponin, such as a tri-terpene type saponin.

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Wild Fires - A Great Problem for People

Wildfire is a big problem. Wildfire affects people, properties, crops and animals. Many wildfires have devastated enormous areas, damaging human assets.

 

For more than 400 million years, the Earth and the living species on it have known fire. When any form of fuel and oxygen meets each other and a spark is available, fire is started. So wildfire is very common.

Fire happens, and all the living systems adjust to its presence.

Fire is a natural circumstance in the living world, however some times it is created by humans, as a consequence of not caring environment, or just by human mistakes.

The main problem today is when wildfire burns large areas of natural eco systems, or when wildfires destroy areas with economic activity, creating a negative impact for people, living species, infrastructure and economic assets.

At some extent, fire destroys economic assets, create high risk for crops, woods, animals, and people, causing death at some extent. In conclusion, wildfires create important damage to governments, organizations and people, destroying both public and private assets.

There are hundred examples of wildfires along the last 100 years. Some cases had much media coverage because the fire destruction and consequent losses.

In 2003, wildfires in Canberra, Australia, destroyed over 500 homes, while Cedar Fire destroyed over 550 homes and many acres of land in Southern California, USA.

The State Forest of The Pilliga in New South Wales, Australia, suffered recently from wildfire destruction. In 1997 a major wild fire burned close to 1,435 km² of the forest. An extremely dry winter and spring in 2006 saw a number of large wild fires develop, including the Pilliga 4 Fire in November/December which burned out 740 km² on just its first day.

In 2009, at the end of a severe heatwave, wildfires swept across the Victoria state in Australia, killing 173 people, injuring around 500, destroying more than 2,000 homes and wiping entire towns off the map. They were considered the deadliest wildfires in Australia’s history and one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

Wildfires in Greece are a huge problem too. In August 2009, thousands of Greeks

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