Wildfire

"Brushfire" and "Forest fire" redirect here. For other uses, see Wildfire (disambiguation), Brushfire (disambiguation), and Forest fire (disambiguation).
Wildfire burning in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, United States, in 2020. The Mangum Fire burned more than 70,000 acres (280 km2) of forest.

A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation.[1][2] Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire (in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire.[3] Some natural forest ecosystems depend on wildfire.[4] Wildfires are different from controlled or prescribed burning, which are carried out to provide a benefit for people. Modern forest management often engages in prescribed burns to mitigate fire risk and promote natural forest cycles. However, controlled burns can turn into wildfires by mistake.

Wildfires can be classified by cause of ignition, physical properties, combustible material present, and the effect of weather on the fire.[5] Wildfire severity results from a combination of factors such as available fuels, physical setting, and weather.[6][7][8][9] Climatic cycles with wet periods that create substantial fuels, followed by drought and heat, often precede severe wildfires.[10] These cycles have been intensified by climate change.[11]: 247 

Wildfires are a common type of disaster in some regions, including Siberia (Russia), California (United States), British Columbia (Canada), and Australia.[12][13][14][15][16] Areas with Mediterranean climates or in the taiga biome are particularly susceptible. Wildfires can severely impact humans and their settlements. Effects include for example the direct health impacts of smoke and fire, as well as destruction of property (especially in wildland–urban interfaces), and economic losses. There is also the potential for contamination of water and soil.

At a global level, human practices have made the impacts of wildfire worse, with a doubling in land area burned by wildfires compared to natural levels.[11]: 247  Humans have impacted wildfire through climate change (e.g. more intense heat waves and droughts), land-use change, and wildfire suppression.[11]: 247  The carbon released from wildfires can add to carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and thus contribute to the greenhouse effect. This creates a climate change feedback.[17]: 20 

Naturally occurring wildfires can have beneficial effects on those ecosystems that have evolved with fire.[18][19][20] In fact, many plant species depend on the effects of fire for growth and reproduction.[21]

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  6. ^ Graham, et al., 12, 36
  7. ^ National Wildfire Coordinating Group Communicator's Guide For Wildland Fire Management, 4–6.
  8. ^ "National Wildfire Coordinating Group Fireline Handbook, Appendix B: Fire Behavior" (PDF). National Wildfire Coordinating Group. April 2006. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  9. ^ Trigo, Ricardo M.; Provenzale, Antonello; Llasat, Maria Carmen; AghaKouchak, Amir; Hardenberg, Jost von; Turco, Marco (6 March 2017). "On the key role of droughts in the dynamics of summer fires in Mediterranean Europe". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 81. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7...81T. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00116-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5427854. PMID 28250442.
  10. ^ Westerling, A.L.; Hidalgo, H.G.; Cayan, D.R.; Swetnam, T.W. (18 August 2006). "Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity". Science. 313 (5789): 940–943. Bibcode:2006Sci...313..940W. doi:10.1126/science.1128834. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16825536.
  11. ^ a b c Parmesan, C., M.D. Morecroft, Y. Trisurat, R. Adrian, G.Z. Anshari, A. Arneth, Q. Gao, P. Gonzalez, R. Harris, J. Price, N. Stevens, and G.H. Talukdarr, 2022: Chapter 2: Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems and Their Services Archived 21 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Archived 28 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, pp. 197–377, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.004.
  12. ^ "Main Types of Disasters and Associated Trends". lao.ca.gov. Legislative Analyst's Office. 10 January 2019. Archived from the original on 3 June 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  13. ^ Machemer, Theresa (9 July 2020). "The Far-Reaching Consequences of Siberia's Climate-Change-Driven Wildfires". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  14. ^ Australia, Government Geoscience (25 July 2017). "Bushfire". www.ga.gov.au. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  15. ^ "B.C. wildfires: State of emergency declared in Kelowna, evacuations underway". Global News. Archived from the original on 18 August 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  16. ^ D’Angelo, Gennaro; Guimond, Steve; Reisner, Jon; Peterson, David A.; Dubey, Manvendra (27 May 2022). "Contrasting Stratospheric Smoke Mass and Lifetime From 2017 Canadian and 2019/2020 Australian Megafires: Global Simulations and Satellite Observations". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 127 (10). Bibcode:2022JGRD..12736249D. doi:10.1029/2021JD036249. hdl:11603/27223. ISSN 2169-897X.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference IPCC-2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Heidari, Hadi; Arabi, Mazdak; Warziniack, Travis (August 2021). "Effects of Climate Change on Natural-Caused Fire Activity in Western U.S. National Forests". Atmosphere. 12 (8): 981. Bibcode:2021Atmos..12..981H. doi:10.3390/atmos12080981.
  19. ^ DellaSalla, Dominick A.; Hanson, Chad T. (2015). The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-12-802749-3.
  20. ^ Hutto, Richard L. (1 December 2008). "The Ecological Importance of Severe Wildfires: Some Like It Hot". Ecological Applications. 18 (8): 1827–1834. Bibcode:2008EcoAp..18.1827H. doi:10.1890/08-0895.1. ISSN 1939-5582. PMID 19263880. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  21. ^ Stephen J. Pyne. "How Plants Use Fire (And Are Used By It)". NOVA online. Archived from the original on 8 August 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.