Wild Fires

Wild Fires

A wildfire is one of the most destructive natural disasters known to man. Even though a wildfire is called a natural disaster, nine out of ten wildfires are caused by humans. Other causes of wildfires can include lightning strikes and arson, just to name a few. A wildfire is an uncontrolled or unwanted fire burning in a forest, shrub, or grass area. Recently, the United States has had an ever increasing amount of wildfires across the country. This year alone has set new records for the number of fires and the number of acres burned.

There are a few explanations to why there has been a steady increase in the instances of wildfires this year:

1) Past fire suppression policies, including one of "total suppression," which allowed for the accumulation of fuel in the form of fallen leaves, branches, and excessive plant overgrowth in forest and wild land areas.

2) Increasingly dry, hot weather.

3) Changing weather patters across the United States.

4) Increased residential development in the wild land & urban interface.

These reasons, from a "Wildfire Science" website can help explain why there have been so many fires occurring this year.

The National Fire Information Center (NFIC) keeps daily track of wildfires burning throughout the United States, and detailed statistics of how many fires there, as well as the number of acres burned. As of 9/14/2006, there have been 81, 961 fires across the nation, with 42 large active fires still burning. The states with active burning fires are California (5), Idaho (15), Montana (9), Oregon (6), Washington (9), and Wyoming (2). Also, as of 9/14/2006, 8,716,342 acres of land have been consumed by wildfires across the nation. This amount of wildfire destruction has never been seen before, and the year is far from over. With new records for number of fires and acres burned, this will be a year for the record books.

To understand what takes place during a wildfire, one must understand what needs to happen to have fire. The word "fire" refers to the natural phenomenon that occurs whenever a combustible fuel comes into contact with oxygen at an extremely high temperature. This means that whenever there is a combustible fuel, such as wood or brush in a forest, comes into contact with an extremely high temperature, such as temperatures created by a lightning strike, the possibility of a forest fire is extremely high. Hot temperatures and little moisture in the atmosphere make the possibility of ignition skyrocket.

Natural scientists have created a "fire triangle" as an easy way to understand the factors of a fire. The interaction of the three equal sides of the fire triangle: heat, fuel, and oxygen, are required for the creation and maintenance of any fire. If you remove any of the sides of the fire triangle, the fire is suppressed. For an example, if there is not enough heat generated to sustain the fire, the fire will be extinguished or fizzle out. Likewise, if there is not enough fuel for the fire to burn, or the oxygen supply is limited, the fire will die.

Although wildfires can be devastating to a human population, fires can be a great help to the forest and surrounding wildlife. Fires have always burned regularly,