Fire Break Construction Robots: A New Era in Forest Fire Prevention and Ecological Protection

In forestry ecological protection, forest fire prevention and suppression has always been a core task crucial to the safety of forest resources and green development. With the progress of the times, the limitations of traditional forest fire prevention and suppression models have become increasingly prominent. How to transform this work towards modernization, efficiency, and safety in the new era has become a key issue that the forestry system urgently needs to address.

Looking back, traditional mechanical equipment such as wind-driven fire extinguishers, chainsaws, and Type-2 fire-fighting tools have long been relied on in forest fire prevention and suppression work. While these devices played an important role in fire prevention and suppression during a certain period, the corresponding operational model of "controlling open flames, clearing fire lines, and guarding fire sites" has many insurmountable bottlenecks. In terms of human input, every time a fire breaks out, a large number of forestry workers, firefighters, and even local residents need to be mobilized for fire fighting—ranging from dozens to hundreds of people. This not only occupies a large amount of labor resources but also significantly increases the risk of personnel injuries. In terms of equipment and funds, the maintenance cost of traditional equipment is relatively high, and the consumption during fire fighting is substantial. For a medium-scale forest fire suppression, the fuel for wind-driven fire extinguishers, the chains for chainsaws, and the wear of Type-2 tools alone can result in material costs of tens of thousands of yuan. Over the long term, this has imposed considerable financial pressure on forestry bureaus. More critically, traditional fire suppression methods struggle to completely eliminate hidden dangers in the fire site. Especially in the humus layer under the ground, unextinguished embers may remain. Once strong winds occur, these embers can reignite, leading to the resurgence of forest fires. According to historical data statistics from forestry bureaus, secondary fires caused by rekindling accounted for 23% of the total number of fires in the past, causing additional losses to forest resources.

To break through the predicament of the traditional model, great efforts have been made to promote the upgrading of fire prevention and suppression machinery and equipment. Among these efforts, the research, development, and application of fire break construction robots have become a major breakthrough in forest fire prevention and suppression work in the new era. This type of robot adopts a crawler-type walking design, enabling it to easily adapt to complex terrains in forests—whether it is a hillside with a large slope or a forested area full of tree roots and rocks, it can travel stably. Its core working components include a high-performance cutting saw and a cleaning device. Through remote control, the robot can quickly cut down trees and shrubs according to the set width and route, forming a safety barrier free of flammable materials. Compared with the traditional manual method of constructing fire breaks, the work efficiency of the robot is increased by more than 10 times. In the past, constructing a 1-kilometer-long fire break manually required 10 workers to work continuously for 8 hours, while a fire break construction robot can complete the task in only 1.5 hours. This greatly shortens the time for fire break construction and gains valuable opportunities for quickly controlling the spread of the fire.

In terms of safety and environmental protection, the advantages of fire break construction robots are particularly prominent. When constructing fire breaks manually in the traditional way, workers need to be in close proximity to the edge of the fire site, facing the risks of being burned by flames and hit by fallen trees. However, the robot can be remotely controlled within a safe area 200 meters away from the fire site, fundamentally ensuring the life safety of personnel. Since the fire breaks constructed by the robot have uniform width and neat edges, they can completely cut off the channel for the fire line to spread outward, effectively eliminating the possibility of the fire breaking through the fire break and greatly ensuring the safety of forest resources.

The innovative application of fire break construction robots in forest fire prevention and suppression work not only adds a vivid footnote to forestry ecological protection but also injects sustained impetus into forestry green development in multiple aspects. In terms of ecological benefits, the efficient operation of the robot reduces fire damage to forest vegetation, helps maintain the integrity of the forest ecosystem, and provides a stable living environment for wild animals and plants. In terms of economic benefits, the use of the robot reduces the consumption of human resources and materials. In terms of social benefits, the efficient and safe fire prevention and suppression work has enhanced the confidence of local residents in forest ecological protection, and also provided replicable experience for forest fire prevention and suppression work in surrounding areas, promoting the improvement of the overall level of forestry fire prevention and suppression in the entire region.

In the future, Huaying Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. will continue to deepen technological innovation to meet the needs of fire suppression in different scales and terrains, contributing greater strength to safeguarding the green homeland and promoting the high-quality development of forestry.