Wildfires

WILD FIRES-YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Wild firesPg . 3

Causes of wildfires Pg . 3

1 .2 .1 . Natural causes Pg . 3

1 .2 .2 . Artificial Causes Pg . 4

1 .3 Report Aim Pg . 4 2 . Fire Process and Behavior

2 .1 . Fuel Pg . 6

2 .2 weather Pg . 7

2 .3 Topography Pg . 7 3 . Linkages with other Natural Hazards

3 .1 Natural hazards Pg .8

3 .2 climatic changes

Pg .9

3 .3 Biological effects Pg .10

4 . Case Study : Yellowstone National Park 1988 Pg 10-11

5 . References Pg . 12

Illustrations

Figure 1 - spread of fire from ground fuel to aerial fuel . Pg . 6

Figure 2 - Extreme fire behavior in a dense , mixed conifer stand Pg . 8

Figure 3 - An accretionary lava ball . Pg . 9

Introduction

Wildfires

There are three components needed for ignition and combustion to occur A fire requires fuel to burn , air to supply oxygen , and a heat source to bring the fuel up to ignition temperature . Heat , oxygen and fuel form the fire triangle . These are prerequisite conditions for any fire . A spark or even the sun 's heat alone sets off an inferno . The wildfire quickly spreads , consuming the thick vegetation and almost everything else in its path . What was once a forest becomes a virtual powder keg of untapped fuel . Wildfire overtakes thousands of acres of surrounding land , threatening the homes and lives of many in the vicinity . For instance , the October 2003 fires in South California burned approximately 742000 acres and destroyed about 3 ,361 homes and about 26 lives were lost

Most of the Native Americans history is told and thought to be one that was characterized with fires , which used to burn down forests . These stories illustrate the threat posed by wildfires

1 .2 Causes of wildfires

There are various causes of the wild fires while some of the causes are natural others could be considered artificial . Artificial in the sense that they are triggered by human activity

1 .2 .1 . Natural causes

The existence of fire within a landscape has been at least one of the greatest evolutionary factors influencing the composition of flora and fauna . More often than not , the natural fire causes include : lightening sparks of fire originating from rocks , volcanic activity as well as the spontaneous combustion of organic substances and plant materials . Of these , lightening is considered the most effective factor in almost all the fires that have hit Southern California and anywhere else in the world . This is so because the rate at which lightning strikes the earth is about 100 times a second averaging to about over 3 billion strikes per annum (Barbour , Burk Pitts 1980

It is said that there has been a dangerous mix of drought and wind which has constantly hit for instance , the Southern California region for ages . According to a study carried out in 2006 , researchers established that western federal forests had been burned about seven times more in 1987-2003 than...