Wildfires

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Wildfires
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Wildfire History
When the native people were living in tribes,
wildfires were very common. They would occur
around grassy and forested areas. Before the
Europeans came and settled, the wildfire would
occur in the woodland areas every 10-30 years.
Then, every 2-10 years they would occur in the
pine communities, and every 5-25 years in the
forests. The forests on the highest part of the
mountain that are cooler and wetter would burn
every 150 years or more. After the Europeans came
and brought their livestock, the number of fires
started to decrease. This happened because of the
livestock eating the grassy areas that fires
generally fed on.. Then the people had to make
roads, so they cut through some of the forests.
Having a reduction of forests decreased the
amount of wildfires.
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How Do Wildfires Occur?
Wildfires can be started by just heat from the
sun or by a lightning strike. The ground can get
so dry due to drought because of a combination of
a dry period and high winds. After the sun dries
up all the moisture, it just starts heating the
ground. When the sun heats the ground, at a
certain temperature a fire begins.
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How Fires Begin to Spread

There are three ways that help a fire spread
faster. They are the following 1. Fuel 2.
Weather 3. Topography
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Fuel
One thing that helps a fire spread faster is
their fuel. The word fuel in this case means all
the trees, bushes, dry fields, and even homes.
People recall a fuel load as the amount of
material that is flammable that surrounds the
fire itself. They measure the fuel load by how
much there is available per area and per acre.
When a fire burns and spreads slowly with a low
intensity, this is a small fuel load. When there
is a larger fuel load , it still causes a fire
to burn (of course) but it spreads more quickly,
at a faster speed.
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Weather
Another thing that helps a fire burn is the
weather. Some types of weather that effect the
fire are winds, temperature, moisture. WINDS help
the fire spread faster. It does this because it
is giving the fire extra oxygen. The fire will
spread at faster rate with a higher wind speed.
The direction of the fire can be changed with the
direction of the wind. Sometimes the wind causes
the fire to throw embers in the air. Where these
embers land, they usually start a new fire. These
new fires are called spottings.
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Temperature
Temperatures are one of the weathers aspects. It
also helps to start a fire. The warmer the
temperature the easier it is for a fire to burn.
The trees and everything on the ground get heat
from the sun, then they start up. Fires usually
start in the afternoon because they have warmer
temperatures. In the cold temperate areas fires
dont usually occur.
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Moisture
Moisture is the last one of the weather aspects.
The more moisture the less chance of a fire. If
there is a fire and it starts to rain then, the
rain works against it. If it doesnt rain then
the fire will keep on spreading unless the wind
changes direction and blows back over the burned
out area. With the fuels of a fire, in order for
them to start up, they have to be dry, no
moisture. That is why after it rains, the fire
hazard alert goes down.
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TOPOGRAPHY
With certain topography, such as mountains,
rivers, and valleys, they help move the fire
faster or slower.
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Mountains
Mountains are a type of topography that help move
fires faster. Fires moves faster going uphill,
rather than downhill. So, the steeper the slope
on the route the fire travels, the faster it will
move. Wind usually travels uphill, so that it is
one of the reasons that fire spreads faster. Also
the smoke and heat from the fire rises up to the
sky. When its raising, it heats up the fuel on
the mountain. After the fire burns all the trees
and the bushes in the mountain the effects of
that dont come until a while later. As the fire
is burning down all the trees and bushes, it is
weakening the soil underneath. Then when it
rains, the water breaks down the soil, which
because of this we have an erosion of rocks,
soil, and other things to that extent.
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Rivers and Valleys
Rivers dont really have any effect on how the
wildfires spread. If you live close to them then
that is good because if a wildfire started near
you, then go into the river and keep dosing
yourself with water so you can stay moist. If
the river water is lower than usually, then it is
more of a risk for wildfires to spread. With
valleys , if the fire starts then it will move up
the mountains. If the fire starts on the
mountain, then you will have time to see it and
move. It takes longer for the fire to move down
than to move up.
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What Could You Do When a Wildfire Comes Near You?
If you know of wildfire that is coming your way,
and it isnt a very large fire then you can take
a hose and wet down your house and roof. If it is
an extremely dangerous fire, then evacuate. Dont
stay around.
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How Does it Effect You?
Wildfires can effect people in many different
ways. They can burn your land and house with all
your possessions. If you are a farmer, and your
land burns then that is really bad. Your crops
are no longer there, so that can put you on hold
for awhile until you can re-grow, if that is
possible. If you just live in a town and a fire
burns down your house plus many others, and all
the businesses in that town then there could be a
lot of people out of business, jobs, homes.
Wildfires effect people though by not just taking
their jobs away, but also taking the lives of
some of their families and friends.
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Emergency Teams
The emergency teams consist of the firefighters
in the area of the fire. If it is an extremely
large fire then they will call in back up from
other firehouses. Also there are people called
smokejumpers. These are firefighters who will
jump out of planes. They jump into the area of
the fire and try to stop it before it can move
any where further. Another thing that helps to
put out the fire are Air Tankers. These are the
people who control the helicopters that get
gallons of water from other lakes, then dump the
water over the fire.
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Average Number of Fires and Acres Burned By
Decade Dates Average Number of Fires
Average Acres Burned 1919-1929 97,599
26,004,567 1930-1939 167,277 39,143,195
1940-1949 162,050 22,919,898 1950-1959
125,948 9,415,796 1960-1969 119,772
4,571,255 1970-1979 155,112 3,194,421
1980-1989 163,329 4,236,229 1990-1999
106,306 3,647,597
This chart is showing you the number of fires in
the decades, and how many acres of land they
burned.
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Colour Map
On the next slide there is a map that was colour
coded to show you the different areas of the
United States that are affectd by Wildfires. The
different colours show how much of a risk that
place is.
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Government Help
Within your own countries, there are certain
places that will give money to families that have
lost their houses and possessions. Also, there
are certain companies that give money to
organizations that have been burned or damaged
from a wildfire. In the chart in the next slide,
it is showing how many organizations received
money from federal agencies and the amount of
money received.
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The Chart
Year Bureau of
Bureau of Fish and National
Park USDA Forest Totals
Land Management Indian Affairs
Wildlife Service Service
Service 1994 98,417,000
49,202,000 3,281,000
16,362,000 678,000,000
845,262,000 1995 56,600,000
36,219,000 1,675,000
21,256,000 224,300,000
340,050,000 1996 96,854,000
40,779,000 2,600
19,832,000 521,700,000
679,167,600 1997 62,470,000
30,916,000 2,000
6,844,000 155,768,000
256,000,000 1998 63,177,000
27,366,000 3,800,000
19,183,000 215,000,000
328,526,000 1999 85,724,000
42,183,000 4,500,000
30,061,000 361,000,000
523,468,000 2000 180,567,000
93,042,000 9,417,000
53,341,000 1,026,000,000 1,362,367,000 200
1 192,115,00 63,200,000
7,160,000 48,092,000
607,233,000 917,800,000 2002
204,666,000 109,035,000
15,245,000 66,094,000 1,266,274,000
1,661,314,000
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Before This picture was taken in Colorado.
The fire had started in the mountains.
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During This picture was taken in Colorado.

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After The results from the fire.
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Pictures
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