According to Wikipedia
free online encyclopedia a wildfire is also known as a “forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, peat fire … bushfire (in Australia), or hill fire” that is “an uncontrolled fire occurring in wildland areas, but which can also consume houses or agricultural resources.”
Wildfires could be caused by a lightning bolt striking a tree or human carelessness when smoldering camp fires are left unattended or by cigarette butts tossed mindlessly into dried vegetation that is grass, twigs, brush, leaves or pine needles.
About 5-million acres will burn every year in the United States. According to the National Interagency Fire Center website as of July 13th, more than 50,000 fires had burned 2,832,759 acres in 2007. The U.S. government costs in fighting these wildfires are an estimated $2-billion dollars per year.
Burning Guidelines
About 90 percent of wildfires are caused by humans whether unintentionally through carelessness or intentionally by arson. Some guidelines for preventing them are appropriate:
- Fires should not be left unattended
- Burning should be done about 200 feet from all vegetation
- Fires must be in a proper container preferably with a lid
- Water should be handy for an emergency
- If a full-blown fire develops a person must call the necessary fire units. It is unwise for him to try to put out a full-blown wildfire.
An individual could further protect his home by clearing all vegetation from around his house, using nonflammable materials in building materials and by attending preparedness seminars in his community.
Nature
Temperatures of wildfires could rise as much as 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. That is high enough to melt iron into steel.
The forward blasts could be as wide as 60 feet and flames could shoot up to 325 feet and move as fast as 100 miles per hour. This is especially so of violent crown fires - called “firestorms” or “blowups,” that engulf the top of huge trees as they sweep across the landscape. The landscape's topography also determines the speed a fire travels since it tends to move uphill faster.
Fire lookout towers are located in some wildfire prone areas. The Natural Weather Center for Atmospheric Research issues reports and computer models about the spread of these fires and their behavior e.g., the direction and force of the wind that is of great concern to this agency. It also looks at the humidity of the air. When there is more water in the air wildfires are unlikely to occur.
Firefighting
Wildfire firefighters undergo rigorous training. They have to be able to run an 11-minute mile, be able to fell trees with crosscut saws, carry 85-lb gear, learn to parachute and do fire management. They take precautionary measures by cleaning up leaves, brush, fallen trees and other debris that feed a fire in the forest.
They carry with them firefighting tools, drinking water, sleeping bags and portable fire shelters to protect them against life threatening situations. These shelters can protect firemen in withstanding temperatures as high as 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. They are especially good against explosive fires. Through these shelters 73 firefighters were saved in the Salmon National Forest in Idaho on August 29, 1985 when they were trapped.
The Fire and Aviation Management Program of USDA plays a big part in the advancement of technologies, the management and suppression of wildfires. It has developed an efficient way of mobilizing and tracking systems that reach out to support Federal, State, and International fire partners.
The U.S. continues to use paratroopers that are employed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the U.S. Forest Service . They are supported by air tankers that would transport thousands of gallons of water to the scene of wildfires. This water mixed with the chemical phosphate fertilizer is dropped in 2,200- gallon portions to retard the flame.
Last July, in a Black Hills tourist town in South Dakota a volunteer firefighter saturated 27 homes with a fire gel, a super-absorbent polymer that withstood a blaze and saved 25 of them. The gel which was mixed with water could be sprayed with truck mounted equipment or body pack. It is biodegradable and could be easily washed off from homes.
To add to the firemen's arsenals are computerized monitoring systems with infrared scanners to detect remaining heat in the forest. There is being developed a manned aircraft system to demonstrate improved wildfire imaging and mapping capabilities. It would provide real time data of all fires.
Ecological Benefits
Some ecologists believe that it is not wise to interfere with the natural processes that involve forest fires unless people in the neighboring areas are threatened. Since 1982 this has become more of a problem since an estimated 8.6 million houses and cabins have been built within 30 miles of national forests.
Wildfires and torching some argue are not necessarily bad. They reduce the buildup of dead decaying leaves and clear the thick overhead canopy of the forest. As a result sunlight is able to stimulate the seeds and the roots of the undergrowth.
Lodge pine and jack pine benefit. They have resin-sealed cones that the heat of forest fires melts. These cones open and the seeds are scattered only to grow again as new pine trees. Woodpeckers feed on insects that later colonize burned out trees of the forest.
Eagles, scrub jays and wood storks thrive in habitats of burned prairies in the Disney Wilderness Preserves in Florida. In other places like Oklahoma fire is used to maintain the grassy lands for bison herds.
With new sprouts after a wildfire there would be lupine plants that have a chance to grow. Without lupines there would be no New Jersey tea that provides nectar that attracts butterflies.
A “let burn” policy was criticized when the Yellowstone National Park was allowed to burn in 1988 at a cost of $120 million. The eight fires that firefighters had to fight raged through 1.4 million acres of the park's 2.2 million acres.
Although some ecologists see wildfires as providing richer nutrients such as phosphate, calcium and protein, others see problems. They warn that wildfires cause damage to the elements such as iron, aluminum and mercury that accumulate in the watershed system after a fire. Such imbalances they say adversely affect the rate of the vegetation's regrowth.
