IN MEMORIAM OF N.P.KURBATSKY
(IFFN No. 11 - July 1994, p.30)
Professor Nikolai Petrovich Kurbatsky, a well-known Russian forest fire scientist, Dr. Sci. Agr., a highly competent specialist in forestry and forest inventory, died on 18 February 1994.
In 1949 N.P. Kurbatsky established a Forest Fire Protection Department affiliated to the St. Petersburg Institute of Forestry. This was one of the earliest forest fire research institutions established in Russia. N.P.Kurbatsky's department became the leading scientific and technical center focusing on the development of methods and equipment for forest fire control.
In 1959, N.P. Kurbatsky moved from St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and founded a Forest Fire Research Laboratory in the V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. In time, the Laboratory grew to become a large and important scientific center of forest fire investigations. N.P. Kurbatsky contributed much to forest fire science. He was the author of a theory of forest fire occurrence, spread and growth, including forest fire danger factors, and fire and forest fuel classifications; he systematized the main forest fire concepts and terms, developed the strategic line of forest fire protection progress in our country, and worked on many other problems. As to practical application of scientific findings, he was deeply engaged in developing fire-fighting techniques by water bombing and chemical retardants. He gave very valuable recommendations on how to contain fires using explosives and backfire or by distributing fire breaks over a forest area. Problems of fire fighting tactics never fell out of his area of interest. N.P. Kurbatsky's original ideas were based upon when developing "Recommendations on Forest Fire Detection and Fighting" (Gosleskhoz 1976), which still enjoy wide use in forest fire protection activities.
N.P. Kurbatsky summarized his experience of working on problems of forest fire protection in his monograph titled "Techniques and Tactics of Forest Fire Fighting"; the monograph is nowadays very popular among fire scientists. Soon after it has been finished, the monograph was translated and published abroad.
The results of his investigations in the field of forest fires allowed him to successfully defend his doctor's thesis on "Fires in the Taiga Forests. Patterns of Their Occurrence and Growth" in 1966. In 1968, N.P. Kurbatsky was conferred a Professor's degree. He is the author of more than 150 papers which made him widely recognized as a highly professional specialist, both in Russia and abroad. His life and activity show that he was a big scientist and the founder of forest pyrology.
N.P. Kurbatsky was a brilliant teacher. He was the leader of the school of Siberian forest fire scientists that includes three Doctors and many masters. He was not simply the supervisor of young specialists' work, but had a talent to deeply understand their problems and could find ways to cope with any difficulties, however big they were. Successes of his pupils always filled his heart with real happiness. Forest fire scientists of different generations currently working at the V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest are N.P. Kurbatsky's followers. Up to the very last days of his life N.P. Kurbatsky continued to work on the problems of forest pyrology. Shortly before his death he had finished his last book dealing with the history of forest fire science in Russia, as well as with the policies of forest fire protection practiced in this country.
All N.P. Kurbatsky's pupils and followers will always have the brightest memories of him in their hearts.
Valentin Furyaev and Peter Tzvetkov
Forest Fire Laboratory, Institute of Forest
Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
RU - 660036 Krasnoyarsk