Correlations of Major Flame Characteristics of Some Fire Tolerant Trees in South-East Nigeria by Coefficient of Determination (R2)

Background: Bush fire is a common hazard in South East-Nigeria as in other parts of the country during the harmattan. Every year, thousands of hectares of forests as well as suburban lands are severely burnt. These forest fires have been catastrophic, destroying large areas of tropical rain forests and in most cases have claimed many lives and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. However, some of these trees identified by local people and named by taxonomists as Daniellia oliveri, Anacadium occidentale, Vitex doniana, Lonchocarpus griffonianus, Gmelina arborea, Nauclea latifolia, Tectona grandis, Mangifera indica, Delonix regia, Newbouldia laevis, Azadirachta indica, Dialium guineense, Terminalia superba, Manilkara obovata and Irvingia gabonensis have proven to be fire tolerant.

Aim: The aim is to establish correlations among the physical properties (wood density and moisture content) and flame characteristics (ignition time, flame propagation rate, flame duration, afterglow time, ash formation and limiting oxygen index) of these fire tolerant trees.

Study Design: An item structured instrument was developed by the researchers which reflected the six points modified Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree and used to elicit information from the respondents who were mainly seasoned wood dealers of above 60 years of age. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was the major tool of analysis used to establish whether the tree species tolerates fire or not while correlation of the parameters was achieved by the application of R2.

Place and Duration of Study: Determination of both the physical properties and flame characteristics of the tree species was done at the Research Laboratory of the Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka between June, 2018 and April, 2019.

Methodology: The physical properties of the tree species as well as their flame characteristics were carried out using their standard methods.

Results: The values for these parameters vary among the tree species. Correlation among the parameters indicates a determination coefficient range from 0.000 to 0.637.

Conclusion: There are highly significant correlations between wood density and both ignition time and flame propagation rate as well as wood density and limiting oxygen index. There is also strong correlation between ignition time and both flame propagation rate and limiting oxygen index. Afterglow time depends on limiting oxygen index and vice versa.