Notes

Fires can start based on three main factors: dry fuel such as dry leaves and vegetation, dead trees and other organic matter; dry air and an abundance of oxygen supply; and heat and ignition sources including high temperatures. In the presence of strong winds, wildfires can spread further and faster, making it more difficult to suffocate it. These combined conditions have led to countries like the US to be more alert during ‘wildfire seasons’, typically between late summer and early autumn when weather conditions are hotter and drier. One of the key conditions for a wildfire to start is an ignition source, and lighting strikes are often responsible for a vast majority of wildfires from strong electricity currents landing on forests and vegetation. There are two types of lightning: cold and hot. Cold lightning is usually of short duration and thus rarely ignites a fire. Hot lighting on the other hand, though has less voltage, occurs for a longer period of time, therefore increasing the risk of a blaze. But climate change is amplifying the rate and intensity of lightning strikes, triggering more extreme lightning storms. According to a 2014 study, for every one-degree Celsius rise in temperature, it results in a 12% increase in the frequency of lightning strikes. A report found that careless human activities are behind about 84% of all wildfires in the US and accounted for 44% of total area burned. This includes abandoned cigarettes, campfires and barbecues that were not put out properly, as well as so-called gender reveal parties – particularly popular in the country where expectant parents use pyrotechnic devices to reveal a baby’s gender. One notable example is the El Dorado fire, where a smoke bomb led to a fire that lasted more than two months and covered over 22,000 acres of southern California. Another study showed that human-sparked fires typically spread about 1.83 kilometers per day, more than twice as fast as lightning-induced fires. Polluted Water Resources: Forested water bodies account for 80% of the United States’ freshwater resources, and 3,400 public drinking-water systems derive from watersheds within national forests. With each wildfire, watersheds grow more vulnerable to stormwater runoff and erosion. Following a wildfire, the soil’s capacity to absorb water is significantly compromised, which can lead to post-fire flooding. Watersheds may retain higher levels of nitrogen and dissolved carbon dioxide for 15 years after a wildfire, reducing drinking water quality within surrounding communities. Elevated nitrogen and phosphorus from burned vegetation result in harmful algae blooms, which can cause severe health problems 1.

Vegetation: The loss of vegetation can significantly alter an ecosystem by increasing erosion, reducing nutrient availability in the soil, and posing a heightened risk for disease and pest infestations. In turn, these may prolong regrowth or impact what grows in the area affected by the fire. Forest vegetation can absorb 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, making it vital to protect one of the world’s largest carbon sinks from further destruction 1.

Endangered Wildlife: Impaired water and land have dire effects on wildlife. The subsequent consequences are critical to natural selection. Wildfire effects on herbivores such as grazing mammals and insects are particularly troubling, especially since the latter drive essential ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling and pollination 1.

It is important to note that climate change exacerbates the factors that create perfect fire conditions. Lower precipitation and warmer air temperatures dry the forests and other vegetation. Add strong winds and decades of fire suppression into the mix, and you have a dangerous recipe for wildfire 2.Let’s take a closer look at common ways wildfires stop naturally:

1. Wildfire Runs into a Natural Barrier A natural fire barrier is any area that obstructs the spread of wildfires due to the lack of flammable materials. 5 In other words, wildfires will burn until they reach an area that is too damp or lacking fuel to allow the fire to grow. ...
2. Weather Helps Put the Fire Out ...
3. Wildfire Runs Out of Fuel Finally

Finally, a Way to Predict a Wildfire's Behavior in Real Time

Scientists have developed a new technique to predict the behavior of wildfires, using high-resolution satellite imagery to periodically check and revise computer simulations.

The work, which was carried out in collaboration by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and the University of Maryland, appeared yesterday in an online issue of the Geophysical Research Letters.Wildfires are uncontrolled fires that occur in areas of dense combustible vegetation, most commonly in forests. Usually wildfires therefore primarily occur in rural areas and mostly affect the wild animals living there. However, once in a while a wildfire will spread to human-populated areas such as villages, towns, or even big cities. Wildfires can arise from entirely natural causes. Nowadays, however, around 85% of all wildfires are either indirectly or directly caused by humans. It is therefore no surprise that wildfires are becoming more and more common, especially in regions where a relatively high amount of people settled in a relatively short amount of time. The effects of these wildfires can be devastating and deadly.The Peshtigo Fire of 1871 was the deadliest wildfire in recorded human history. The fire occurred on October 8, 1871, on a day when the entirety of the Great Lake region of the United States was affected by a huge conflagration that spread throughout the U.S. states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois. No place got hit harder than Peshtigo, however. The small town in northeastern Wisconsin counted around at least 1,500 deaths which represented around 85% of the town’s population at the time.

The wildfire began as several small fires, which were then likely spread by the strong wind on the day, paired with the extreme heat and drought that the region experienced in October 1871. Peshtigo just happened to be in the place where the winds most impactfully spread the fires into one large wildfire.The second deadliest wildfire in human history had the same cause and occurred on the same day as the deadliest one in Peshtigo, while being a separate fire, however.

The Great Michigan Fire began on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan on October 8, 1871, and then spread throughout much of the Northern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula as well as throughout Michigan’s upper peninsula, killing 482 people. No single town was as badly affected as Peshtigo in neighboring Wisconsin, but Michigan experienced the biggest losses in terms of burned land. This was largely due to the huge logging industry in the region at the time, which deforested much of the land and also left behind high amounts of slash and unused wood. The deadliest wildfire in the 20th Century occurred in October 1918 in Carlton County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. With 453 casualties and around 2,000 people affected, it is also the deadliest disaster in the entire history of Minnesota. The affected area of Carlton County in Northeastern Minnesota, near the state border to Wisconsin, was known for its logging industry in the early 20th Century. By the late 1910s, the area subsequently consisted of large amounts of harvested land which in turn attracted a big number of farmers who bought the open lands in the county.

This rapid harvesting in connection with the rapid population growth in the area and the unusually hot and dry October of 1918 led to the historically deadly catastrophe. On October 10 railroad workers in the area noticed a passenger train that sparked a small fire in the fields. The fire smoldered for two days before spreading rapidly throughout Carlton Country. While many towns were affected, no one got hit harder by the fire than the town of Cloquet, for which the fire has been named after.

Largest Wildfires In the World

There’s no denying the fact that wildfires can wreak havoc for wildlife, but although some have proven to be extremely deadly, like the one in 1825 which went through Maine and New Brunswick and burnt 3 million acres of forest, most do not directly harm or kill a large number of human beings. Indeed, some fires are actually triggered by forest officials on purpose as a forestry management tool known as “controlled” or “prescribed burn”.Historically, there have also been wildfires that have claimed the lives of many humans. The International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) has presented a list of wildfires across the world as of 2015 that led to the most fatalities. The list includes major forest, brush or wildfires that killed the most people between 1900 and 2015.