Wildfire

Wildfire is a general term which includes forest fires, grassland fires, bushfires, brush fires and any other vegetation fire in countryside areas.^[1][2]

Wildfires occur in every continent except Antarctica. They can occur naturally and spontaneously, but many are caused by humans, accidentally or deliberately. Fossil records and human history show that wildfires do occur at intervals.^[3][4] The Great Oxygenation Event and the spread of land plants made Earth a planet of fire.

While some wildfires burn in remote forested regions, they can cause extensive destruction of homes and other property in the zone between developed areas and undeveloped wilderness.^[5][6]

Wildfires can cause extensive damage to property and human life, but they also have various effects on wilderness areas. Some plant species depend on the effects of fire for growth and reproduction,^[3] although large wildfires may be bad for other plant and animal species.^[7]

Strategies of wildfire prevention, detection, and suppression have varied over the years.^[8] One of the more controversial methods is controlled burn: People permit or light small fires to burn away some of the fuel for a potential wildfire.^[5][9]

1. ↑ "Federal Fire and Aviation Operations Action Plan" (PDF). National Interagency Fire Center. 2005-04-18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
2. ↑ Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. 2008. 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press. page 5. [1] Archived 2009-08-13 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 978-0-521-85804-5
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Pyne, Stephen J. (2002). "How plants use fire (and are used by it)". NOVA online. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
4. ↑ Krock, Lexi (June 2002). "The World on Fire". NOVA online - Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Retrieved 2009-07-13.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Interagency strategy for the implementation of the Federal Wildland Fire Policy, entire text
6. ↑ "Wildfires in Canada". Government of Canada. 2009-02-04. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
7. ↑ Flannigan, M.D.; et al. (2005). "Forest fires and climate change in the 21st century" (PDF). Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 11 (4): 847. doi:10.1007/s11027-005-9020-7. S2CID 2757472. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-26. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
8. ↑ "International experts study ways to fight wildfires". Voice of America (VOA) News. 2009-06-24. Archived from the original on 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
9. ↑ National Wildfire Coordinating Group Communicator's Guide for Wildland Fire Management, entire text