The autonomous system for prevention and extinction of forest fires was created in first place to prevent outbreak of wild fires in all kinds of forests, which kills people destroys properties and causes environmental problems for decades.

After years studying different situations related to wild fires in different places, became clear that all equipment being used nowadays like planes, light, medium and heavy trucks, helicopters, are not enough to face fires that begin in the deep forest and finishes in villages dramatically.

This invention has a very acceptable level of sophistication, and the mainstream is not replacing the equipment currently in use in forest fire fighting so far, or even the firemen but, to serve as the first responder as fire fighting, due the fact that the system stays on the ground permanently with all technological advantages, and taking in consideration that this system starts before any fire starts, using water collected from rivers, lakes, underground (deep wells) and even from the sea after desalinization.

Beyond putting human lives and goods in danger, wild fires are also responsible by the emission of gases to the atmosphere, worsening the environmental conditions in a world claiming for behavioural changes.

The present invention will contribute greatly to the conservation of the forests and help decrease global temperatures. The other characteristic of this invention, which we can consider secondary, is that can be used for creating forest polygons, and to be used for agricultural purposes, once these activities have a common working base.

Technical field of the invention

The Autonomous system for prevention and extinction of forest fires, conceived to prevent the fire to spread in the forest essentially, is based on the electrical engineering. The sophistication created in this invention is all about prevention in fighting forest fires.

Can also be used for creating forest polygons (reforestation), agricultural purposes and will always be linked to the forest conservation.

Background of the invention

After the situations occurred in Pedrogao Grande (Portugal 2017), California USA 2017 Australia 2019 where we lost 10.7 million hectares, equivalent area to continental Portugal, Greece (2021), Spain (2021), Russia (2021), Algeria (2021) Morocco (2021), Portugal (2021), with negative environmental balance including many dead and destroyed properties, and the fauna was not spared. We all see that when planes and cars come to fight the fire, in most cases the situation is out of control. The attempts to fight the fire are made by air; because there are no roads, and is impossible to drive a car among all trees and the situation is the same year after year everywhere.

The creation of this system is intended to relieve the annual tragic outcome of forest fires, because this invention ensures that no one will be caught by surprise.

The present invention incorporates technical elements and technologies existing in our markets and being used in our daily life all over the world. Is a combination of elements designated to resolve a situation of great concern worldwide: forest fires.

The invention was designed to be autonomous, which means it follows adjustments, and, according the temperature set on the system it will start working avoiding the fire to start over dry leaves and grass. We all know that high temperature use to be one of the causes of deflagration of fires.

Dry leaves and grass are always the first step when a forest fire starts. Keeping the leaves and grass wet avoid any kind of fire. After approximately two months of water spreading, all protection zones will be completely green besides wet, reducing the possibilities to feed flames.

The capture of water from four possible sources already described, storage in large amounts in extensive areas of forest, automatic reposition of level in reservoirs, autonomous start of spreading of water in the forest according to the temperature believed to be critical before any fire starts, sound alert to the villagers if any around, warning by SMS (GSM) to the fire department, police, and civil protection, constitute the state of the art of the present invention in the fire prevention and fighting, besides the possibility to be used in other activity on the ground.

Revelation of the invention

This invention was created with purpose of preventing the start and spread of forest fires typically unstoppable or hard to fight It began in 2018 after years of studies of different situations and specific cases, considering factors as ground zero of the disaster, access point to de ground zero, notification time after starting of the fire, availability of equipment and men to fight the fire, availability of water to start the fighting and the extension of the front of the fire. These data are crucial to begin the job and, if we receive the notification late, we will not succeed.

The utilization of planes in forest fire fighting, was thoroughly studied and, was concluded that even the use of jumbo jet in fire fighting we can never expect best results, because of the following reasons:

1 ^st - Fires advance in line accelerated by wind in a wide extension greater than the coverage of the water launched by the plane, that will still have the same water diverted by the wind, since the launch will be made at a height of 70 (seventy) meters at least

2 ^nd - The time required to refuel the reservoir of the water inside plane, almost makes the second launch useless, because the fire keeps advancing. If the water hits the fire in one side, the fire advances freely at the other side .

3 ^rd - If the front of fire has an extension of IKm (one kilometre) and, in certain cases is much more, is not possible to cover this extension with one airdrop. If we use a small plane or helicopter in this scenario, the result must be lowly, given the small amount of water to be carried out, combined with low speed of the aircraft.

4 ^th ■ Not all countries can have a plane to fight forest fires. However, the damages in human lives, properties and environment, is the same in all countries. Any country can adopt this system to protect his flora and fauna with an investment hundreds times inferior and operational costs much more attractive. Currently forest fires are a situation that transcends the country where the forest is located. It is a global concern and we have the example of fires in Amazonia, Brazil (August 2019) and the global alarm started in Europe.

5 ^th ' The analyses made to the aircraft benefits took us to the conclusion that we need help for the traditional systems of fighting forest fires. We have limitations on the airplanes, according to what explained before and, if we look at the vehicles, fire-fighters cannot drive them where they need, due to the disposition of the trees in one hand, and the geography of the terrain on other hand. These vehicles need to be refilled with water and they have to go back to the base, when the fire continues to wipe out the forest.

The way of implementation of the Autonomous system for prevention and extinction of forest fires make it possible any forest fire being limited within certain area in the forest than, traditional equipment can be used. The method of storing water in the forest and the communication between the reservoirs creates the possibility to work on prevention of fire spreading for many hours.

To prevent the forest fire, the system uses water from rivers, lakes, deep wells and from the sea if necessary. If the water to be used is from the sea, must be desalinated before stored to preserve the soil. Underground, we can find so much water and techniques for exploration are available.

When forest fire happen, usually nearby high voltage transportation lines are deactivated. Because of this situation, this system was conceived to work with a hybrid power supply source, being solar and eolic. The combination solar/eolic is perfect due the fact that if the sun does not shine, a wind with speed over lOm/s can move the eolic generator to produce and store energy to be used when needed.

The reason to use this method has to do with the fact that wind and sun together can generate the required power to work day and night. For each location will be designed a specific system according to the conditions on the ground like source of water, extension of forest to be protected, nearby villages, relief of the terrain of implementation. These points will made each system different from the other.

This system was not created to replace any traditional method of forest fire fighting but the way to make all ancient methods and equipments most effective.

On the environmental field, the Autonomous system for prevention and extinction of forest fires has extreme importance, since the global warming is filling many agendas and the deforestation is growing in many points of the world, raising concerns. The implantation in large scale of this system will result in lowering temperatures, as much as the system is implemented.

Once many countries do not have any programme to help lowering earth temperatures by improving the environment. The use of this system can help by the ways described before but, the used for agricultural purposes is also important regarding the social situation in many countries due to the lack of food which can be resolved using this system. Most of those countries depend on rain to produce food. Trees, rain and environmental temperature have connection.

Protecting the forests against fires in the present days, it is not guarantee to reduce the global warming. Therefore the present system serves to help reforestation and then conservation and that can guarantee reduction of global temperature. In the nineties, in Gangula and Cuacra community, municipality of Sumbe, Cuanza Sul province Republic of Angola, were created two forest polygons. The projected irrigation was by rain and, more than ninety per cent of the polygons were lost due to lack of water. The rest of the trees were used as wood by the population.

Some planting equipments must have been created to speed up the plantation of trees in very large numbers for example the 'forest bot, capable of planting about four thousand tress per hour. If we can secure this number of trees supplying necessary water, we will be doing progress in the reforestation mission worldwide.

Brief description of the drawing

The drawings and pictures show electric diagrams and implantation ways according to the place as conceived.

Figure 1 refers to the electric circuit to energize the water pump to fill the main reservoir.

Figure 2 refers to the electric circuit designed to energize the pressure pump.

Figure 3 this drawing portrays the Autonomous system for prevention and extinction of forest fires, implemented on a mountain zone. Figure 4 refers to the Autonomous system for prevention and fighting forest fires implemented on a plateau.

Figure 5 represents the block diagram, indicating the working steps of the system.

Detailed description of the invention

This invention was created to work with water captured from rivers, lakes, underground (deep wells) and from the sea if necessary, being desalinated before stored to protect the soil for eventual use for agricultural purposes. Is important to remember that part of the water from rains is stored underground. However, we can count on additional source of water for systems located near public water supply lines, if does not cause any overload to normal consumption of the inhabitants.

The collected water is stored in huge reservoirs capable of maintaining a complex aggregate of pumps and pipes installed 1 (one) meter above the soil and covering areas of thousands of square meters inside the forest.

The first step is finding the water source, following the assembling of pumps, piping and power source.

From now on, we call ‘system’ the set made up by one main reservoir (with a level switch installed to control the filling pump) and a set of reservoirs linked to the main reservoir and having each, one pressure pump connected to the tubing.

The reservoirs will be of great capacity, never less than fifty cubic meters each set, all connected by the method of communicating vessels.

The extension of each system on the ground depends on the availability of water, determining the balance between the amount of water captured and the amount of water scattered on the safety zone in the same period of time.

The implementation area will be divided in sections. The systems will ensure that the fire do not pass from one section to another. The separation between sections must be at minimum 100 (one hundred) meters and can be extended if decided by any specific reason. This is the safety zone, avoiding the fire to pass from one section to another. The safety zone will be wet every time as the programmed temperature is reached.

The forests have different characteristics but, the fire spreads on the same way, catching dry leaves and grass on the ground, then the stalk and finally the leaves already dry because of the high temperature generated by the surrounding fire.

The implantation of this system differ based on the characteristic of the terrain, which means, each area has his specific design according to the geography of the terrain. This invention is designed to work with hybrid power being solar and eolic by two reasons:

1- There is no power lines in the forest.

2- Under intense fire, we deactivate nearby power lines.

On this way, the Autonomous system of prevention and extinction of forest fires do not depend on public power system. The system was created to avoid fires to start and spread, which is why, is called prevention system. The ferocity of the fire, beyond destruction generates extreme panic, and there is no time to think how to act safely.

Thus, the system begins to scatter water as soon the critical temperature is reached in order to avoid fire to spread. There is a possibility to switch on and off by an application via SMS (GSM), because not all fires will begin due to high temperatures. Also by human hands. Thus, we start and stop the system manually. All systems installed in the same region must be set with the same critical temperature so they start on the same time and soon the result can be achieved. Lowering the temperature.

This system does not need to be operated. Needs to be monitored. We performed a test, using dry leaves of casuarina (casuarinaceae). This needle shaped leaves, are very quick catching fire. The result was conclusive. After two minutes with contact with water, they could not catch fire. The system was created to keep dry leaves and grass wet, whenever the ambient temperature rises to levels perceived as critical given the history of the region in question.

People will not be caught up in surprise at day or night. If a fire starts at night, the increase of temperature starts the systems and, messages will be sent to several official entities whose numbers are listed on the system, with the location of the incident.

In the event of a fire, it is kept between two sections. Because the system is working, the safe zone is wet; fire will not pass from one section to another. Then, the traditional equipment can be used to fight the fire, considered under control because is burning inside the boundaries.

When the fire reaches the safety zone, even when there was no chance to use any other equipment to fight the fire, it will be stopped by the wet barrier, because the extension of the forest, the geographical conditions, the source of water, the human resources, response time, are a set of situations to be overcome and the advancement of fire does not give time.

The system was created to work with the same efficiency in all kind of forest, considering the fact that in the forest the fire spreads on the same way all the times. According to the drawing, it works as the following:

Figure 1, represents the electric circuit A or ElsA, designed to supply electricity from a hybrid power plant, solar/eolic (1), stored in super UPS (2)380/415 volts* of alternating current (AC) to the water capture pump (7), that has the function to fill the main reservoir, in this diagram represented by two lines.

Super UPS is a storage device designed for electrical current of huge capacity, considering the fact that without power, systems cannot work. Double source grants security in the operation at day or night.

The main switch (3) is ON, if the level switch (4) is down (reservoir empty), electric current will pass to activate three-phase switch contactor (5) which function is activating the capture water pump (7) through switch (6).

When the main reservoir is full, the level switch (4) is up, no current flow to the three-phase switch contactor (5). Water pump (7) is OFF.

Figure 2 represents the electric circuit B or ElsB. Is designed to supply electricity from a hybrid power plant, solar/eolic (1), stored in super UPS (2)380/415 volts* of alternating current (AC) to the pressure pump (14). That has the function of taking water from secondary reservoir, and spread on the safety zone, in this diagram represented by two lines.

The electric current starts at the storage device (2) through main switch (3), reaches the manual three-phase changeover switch (11) to be sent to the device receiver of smartphone signal to switch ON or OFF the system (5)**. If critical temperature is reached, the temperature sensor (4) turns ON, and a monophasic current flows to activate the timer switch (10) through switch (6), that will activate three-phase contactor switch (12), to drive 380/415 volts AC to the pressure pump (14) through switch (13).

The pressure pump (14) will be ON or OFF, according to the interval table set on the timer switch (10), and this serves to avoid water depletion. The program is X minutes working, Y minutes stopped. The interval time allows the possibility to refill the main reservoir, and this program is made in order to create a balance between water collected and water to spread on the safety zone at the same period.

On the other hand, the device (5) is intended to receive signals of ON and OFF to start or stop the system when a fire is started in conditions of normal temperature, due to an accident for example.

The switch (8) energizes the SMS*** generator and, when the switch (15) receives electric current through switch (6), short messages are sent to listed telephone numbers, giving the exact location of the system now ON. If the system is installed nearby streets or villages, a siren (9) will be heard.

For maintenance purpose, the electrical current will be diverted from the device (5) to the pressure pump (14) to perform tests and, switches (6), (8) and (15) are open.

For use the system in agriculture, the warning device has no function. Figure 3 this drawing shows the autonomous system for prevention and extintion of forest fire implemented on a mountain area. To put water on the top of the mountain, must be used the technique called inverse cascade. The water is transferred from one reservoir to another until the top of the mountain.

On the drawing, the capture pump (2) sends the water to the main reservoir 1(3), from where will follow to the main reservoir 2(3) and then to the reservoir 3(3). These reservoirs named (3), all have characteristic of main reservoir by having level switch each one, to control the flux of water, switching ON and OFF the set of water pumps (2). On the top, the connection between reservoirs is made by communicating vessels. Among the main reservoirs (3), on the filling pipe (8), there are retention valves (6) to prevent water to return. On the connection between there are mounted security valves (7) as well on communication pipe (9), very useful in case of maintenance.

The capture pump (2) will be powered by a hybrid electric system, here denominated 'power system A’, numbered (1), and the capacity of this system depends on the power required to energize a pump that fits in this complex set. Each reservoir has a pump to send water to the next reservoir of the chain from the source of water (12).

To energize the pressure pump (10), the 'power system B’ numbered (5) will supply electricity from double power source.

Figure 4 This drawing represents the Autonomous system for prevention and extintion of forest fires, implemented on a plateau.

The water is captured at the source (1), by the capturing pump (2), energized by the power source (3) here designated 'power system A’. The main reservoir (5) has the level switch (10) to control the start and stop of the capture pump (2). The 'power system B’ (4) serves to energize the pressure pump (8). The reservoir (5) and (6) are connected by the method of communicating vessels, through the pipes (7) and (9), so that the level of water will be equal among them, regardless the distance among them.

The main reservoir has the level switch inside. All the others are secondary with specific name like secondary 1, secondary 2, to ease the identification in the set.

The tubes to use in the system are all galvanized to resist the temperature and the corrosion. The aspersors must be also metallic by the same reason. The aspersors to be used beyond metallic must form a circular figure when spreading water, to cover completely the safety zone.

This drawing shows three sections of forest separated by the safety zone of one hundred metres wide. This safety zone can be widened if required by circumstances. For example, nearby villages and roads.

When the system starts working, the safety zone stays completely wet avoiding the fire. If happens somewhere in the forest, will not pass the safety zone to burn the forest of other section. The system was conceived to start working before any fire by adjusting the temperature believed to be critical in a given region due to the level of temperature, combined with humidity and type of forest After two working months, the safety zone will be completely green with fresh grass and wet The possibility of fire in the safety zone is reduced to zero.

Figure 5 represents the block diagram, indicating the working steps of the system. Reservoirs full of water, electric power ready, switches ON.

The raising of temperature to 34°c**** (hypothetical critical temperature), turns ON the temperature sensor (4) and subsequently the pressure pump: electric system B-ElsB block diagram (frame 3). The start of pressure pump causes the lowering of the level of water in the main reservoir, and the level switch activates the capture pump: electric system A-ElsA block diagram (frame 3). The activation of the (frame 3) on the ElsB, also activates the (frame 4) of the same electric system with the activation of the siren, including dispatch of SMS’s for the authorities on the event

The chain operation of the systems will lead to the lowering of temperatures and we will have the (frame 5) of the ElsB, followed by (frame 7) of the ElsB.

The (frame 3) of the electric system A will be active until the main reservoir is completely full.

If we have fire of human origin, not necessarily criminal, there will be no autonomous start of functions. The system will be started manually after the identification of the sinister area using surveillance methods, by sending the signal start to systems nearby the point of fire.

This signal starts the ElsB (frame?) to isolate the fire. To initiate the system manually means that the environmental temperature is considered normal. Thus, all systems are stopped. An application gives us the condition to start the system in emergencies.

*380/415 volts depending on the electric tension of each country. This value is three-phase in a country where electric tension is220voltseach phase-neutral.

**Remote switch device (5) receives signal to start or stop the system via smart phone application when the environment temperature is normal.

***SMS is an equipment incorporated to the system, when it receives electric signal, emitted by the heat sensor via switch (6) and ( 15), sends text message numbers registered on the system specifying the location of the system now active.