By Jessica Innis

AndAndrea King

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.

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.

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

FuelOne 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.

WeatherAnother 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.

TemperatureTemperatures are one of the weather’s 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 don’t usually occur.

MoistureMoisture 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 doesn’t 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.

TOPOGRAPHYWith certain topography, such as mountains, rivers, and valleys, they help move the fire faster or slower.

MountainsMountains 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 it’s 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 don’t 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.

Rivers and ValleysRivers don’t 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.

What Could You Do When a Wildfire Comes Near You?

If you know of wildfire that is coming your way, and it isn’t 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. Don’t stay around.

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.

Emergency TeamsThe 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.

Average Number of Fires and Acres Burned By DecadeDates Average Number of Fires Average Acres Burned1919-1929 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.

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.

Colour Map

Government HelpWithin 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.

The ChartYear 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

2001 $ 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

BeforeThis picture was taken in Colorado. The fire had started in the mountains.

DuringThis picture was taken in Colorado.

AfterThe results from the fire.

Pictures

ConclusionWe hope that you have enjoyed our presentation and learned the different aspects of a Wildfire.

Have a great day.

Bibliography

http://www.howstuffworks.com/wildfire.htm

http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/Biota/wildfire.htm

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/coloradofires/index.html

http://www.nifc.gov/stats/wildlandfirestats.html

http://www.greenforests.com/video.html

http://sofia.er.usgs.gov/…/

http://www.nps.gov/…/wilderness_travel.htm

http://www.positive-inside.de/Bambous-Mountains.html