Fires are the major threats to forest ecosystems. In the years 1990-2008 a total of 168.2 thousand forest fires were recorded in Poland over a total area of 170.3 thousand ha. Only in 2008 a total of 7850 forest fires broke out and 2514 ha stands burned down. In the same year in forested areas administered by the State Forests National Forest Holding there were 3306 fires, covering the area of 663 ha. This amounts to 42% in terms of the number and 26% in terms of the af-flicted area of the total number of forest fires in Poland. The forest hazard for for-est complexes forces the entities managing them to undertake actions required by the Polish regulations, consisting in e.g. the establishment and maintenance of an adequately dense network of roads, referred to fire roads. They are an important component of the forest fire hazard monitoring system as well as have a consider-able effect on the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of the conducted fire-fighting activities. This study analyzed the technical condition of almost 50 kilometers of roads considered to be fire access roads in a state forest division in southern Po-land. As a result of the conducted survey it ...
