The numbers of fires detected on forest, savanna and transition lands during the 2002–10 biomass burning seasons in Amazonia are shown using fire count data and co-located land cover classifications from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The ratio of forest fires to savanna fires has varied substantially over the study period, with a maximum ratio of 0.65:1 in 2005 and ...

Electrical fires—fires directly caused by the flow of electric current or by static electricity—are one of the important types of structure fires. The subsequent development of an electrical fire is generally no different than that of any other type of structural fire. But the mechanisms leading to ignition of an electrical fire are, in many cases, uniquely specialized and in need of specific r...

Fire as a natural disaster plays a major role in deforestation; is a major source of trace gases, aerosols and carbon fluxes. Approximately 7 percent of Iran area is covered by forests/and wooded lands. According to the ECE/FAO database on forest/other wooded land fires in Iran (1982-1995), the number of fires per year is 130 and the average area burnt per year is 5400 ha, but fires are not lar...

In less than 15 years, the Amazon region experienced three major droughts. Links between droughts and fires have been demonstrated for the 1997/1998, 2005, and 2010 droughts. In 2010, emissions of 510 ± 120 Tg C were associated to fire alone in Amazonia. Existing approaches have, however, not yet disentangled the proportional contribution of multiple land cover sources to this total. We develop...

This circular provides an overview of the use of fire in grassland management. It describes the history and importance of fire in the grassland ecosystem, how plants respond to fire, and the uses and potential benefits of prescribed fire. It also summarizes fire planning and legal and safety considerations. And finally, it provides guidance on some special uses of fire. when burning conditions ...

Disturbances are important in creating spatial heterogeneity of vegetation patterns that in turn may affect the spread and severity of subsequent disturbances. Between 1997 and 2002 extensive areas of subalpine forests in northwestern Colorado were affected by a blowdown of trees, bark beetle outbreaks, and salvage logging. Some of these stands were also affected by severe fires in the late 19t...

The local and regional impacts of open fires and trash burning on ground-level ozone (O3) and fine carbonaceous aerosols in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) and surrounding region during two high fire periods in March 2006 have been evaluated using WRFCHEM model. The model captured reasonably well the measurement-derived magnitude and temporal variation of the biomass burning organic ae...

A steadily increasing number of fires and the high intensity of fire seasons every 4 to 5 years have marked the last two decades in Spain. A generalized first attack system supported by aircraft and new technologies has achieved a main goal: more than 70 percent of fires burn less than 1 ha. Nevertheless, fuel accumulations on large areas because of rural land abandonment have increased the ris...

The subject of petroleum storage tank fires has gained a great deal of attention due to the high cost of petroleum, and the consequent disruption of petroleum production; therefore, much of the current research has focused on petroleum storage tank fires. Also, the number of petroleum tank fires is oscillating between 15 and 20 fires per year. About 33% of all tank fires are attributed to light...

The quantitative study of wildfire data world wide revealed that wildfires exhibit power-law like frequencyarea distributions. Although models exist to predict the spread of a specific fire, there is as yet no agreement on the mechanism which drives wildfire systems on the landscape scale. A classical model in this context is the Drossel-Schwabl cellular automaton (DS-FFM) which robustly produc...