Latest Wildfire Stories

The FireWhat App collaborates with NASA and Weather Underground to bring critical, accurate, current information about wildfires to those who need it most. Dunsmuir, CA (PRWEB) February 22, 2012 Every year, much of the arid western United States goes up in smoke. Houses, property, and lives are lost in this deadly force of nature. Some 83 million people live in the ten states that receive the most wildfire activity, and millions of dollars are spent fighting fire annually, especially as...

Satellite images, air quality measurements and smoke forecasting models are useful tools to help individuals and public health professionals prepare for smoke episodes in areas at risk from forest fire smoke, according to University of British Columbia researcher Michael Brauer. Brauer shares his insight into the health impacts of smoke exposure and suggests effective strategies to mitigate them today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in...

Worldwide, smoke from landscape fires contributed to an average of 339,000 deaths per year between 1997 and 2006, according to new research published in Environmental Health Perspectives and released today during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia were the hardest hit by fire-smoke deaths, with an estimated annual average of 157,000 and 110,000 deaths, respectively, attributable to landscape fire smoke...

In 1997, a forest fire in Indonesia ignited an area of peatlands that smouldered for months. By the time it was over, the fire had released greenhouse gases equal to 20 to 40 percent of the total worldwide emissions that year from fossil fuels. But that could be a drop in the bucket compared to future emissions from peat fires. Indonesian peatlands are dwarfed by Canada's. The total area of all peatland in Canada is estimated to be about twice the size of Saskatchewan. At this week's...

University of Oregon-led research team urge a retooling of thought on fire-management practices The American West has seen a recent increase in large wildfires due to droughts, the build-up of combustible fuel, or biomass, in forests, a spread of fire-prone species and increased tree mortality from insects and heat. In a paper appearing online Feb. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a 12-member research team warns that these conditions may be "a perfect storm"...

TAU researchers use organic polymer to protect scorched soil from erosion Wildfires cause tragic losses to life, property, and the environment. But even after the fire rages, the damage is far from done. Without vegetation, bare, burnt soil lies vulnerable to erosion, which can impede efforts towards natural forest regeneration. Now Assaf Inbar, a graduate student at Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies, together with his supervisors Prof. Marcelo Sternberg of...

Forest thinning to help prevent or reduce severe wildfire will release more carbon to the atmosphere than any amount saved by successful fire prevention, a new study concludes. There may be valid reasons to thin forests – such as restoration of forest structure or health, wildlife enhancement or public safety – but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, scientists say. In research just published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Oregon State University...

Ecologists show for the first time threshold values for natural wildfires Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due to climate change. As a result both the area burnt down annually and the average size of the fires would increase,...

SANTA ANA, Calif., Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its first ever Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis detailing the record-breaking natural disasters that struck the United States in 2011. The report provides an analysis of significant hurricane, wildfire, tornado, flood and earthquake events, as well as a summary of potential risk in 2012 and the implications...

Interactive Online Map Shows Potential Long-Term Climate Impact in Every State; Prompts Calls for Action NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2011, there were at least 2,941 monthly weather records broken in communities throughout the U.S., as detailed in a new interactive extreme weather mapping tool and year-end review released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The powerful web-based tool allows Americans to draw the connections between climate change...