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Forest Fires facts

While investigating facts about Forest Fires Bc and Forest Fires Alberta, I found out little known, but curios details like:

There's a version of "The Tortoise and the Hare" where everyone dies in a forest fire because the tortoise, having won the race and therefore seen as the fastest, is given the job of warning everyone.

how forest fires start?

Civilian Public Service (CPS), a US government program that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. CPS draftees fought forest fires, helped reform an abusive mental health system, and even acted as test subjects in medical experiments.

What forest fires are near me?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what's forest fires. Here are 50 of the best facts about Forest Fires Ontario and Forest Fires Near Me I managed to collect.

what forest fires are happening right now?

  1. There are two types of lightning strikes - positive and negative. Negative accounts for 95% of lightning strikes, while positive accounts for 5%, and is much more powerful and dangerous, and is more likely to cause forest fires.

  2. California uses inmates to fight forest fires. Prisoners take the jobs because it reduces their sentence, gets them outside, and pays better than typical prison jobs.

  3. 7 members of an isolated Indian tribe emerged from the Amazon and made contact with people in a village near the Peruvian border because "violent attacks" by outsiders had driven them from the forest. Later, details emerged that their elder relatives were massacred and their houses set on fire.

  4. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service can summon any person aged 18 to 50 in their jurisdiction to help fight a wildfire or for use of their property in assisting, and it is a crime to refuse.

  5. A tortoise injured in a forest fire got a prosthetic 3D-printed shell. A Brazilian artist hand-painted the shell to resemble the original

  6. Slash and burn practices in Indonesia have essentially turned the whole country into a perpetual forest fire, causing widespread pollution problems across all of Southeast Asia every year in the dry season.

  7. Due to decades of fire prevention leading to an increase in fuel for forest fires, Smokey Bear has actually helped make forest fires more dangerous than otherwise

  8. Johnny Cash's truck caused a massive forest fire that nearly wiped out an endangered species of condor. Upon being sued by the U.S. national government, Cash proclaimed: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards."

  9. During the 1980s the Swiss army fired off shells during an exercise and mistakenly burned a patch of forest inside the country Liechtenstein. The incident was said to have been resolved "over a case of white wine".

  10. Smokejumper Wag Dodge survived being engulfed in a forest fire by lighting a fire and standing in the charred remains.

forest fires facts
What causes forest fires?

Forest Fires data charts

For your convenience take a look at Forest Fires figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

forest fires fact data chart about Forest fires burn out of control across the Amazon
Forest fires burn out of control across the Amazon

forest fires fact data chart about Effects of Indonesia's Forest Fire on Singapore's Visibility
Effects of Indonesia's Forest Fire on Singapore's Visibility

Why forest fires happen?

You can easily fact check why forest fires are bad by examining the linked well-known sources.

The famous "Uncle Sam Wants You" and Smokey Bear's "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" posters are both imitations of a British army recruitment poster from 1914.

Charcoal beetles fly into still-burning forest fires to mate and lay eggs because competition and predators will be low. They sense distant fires using infrared armpit sensors. - source

There was a time millions of years ago when trees would die but not decompose. Forests would become massive areas of dead wood. These would catch fire and created staggeringly large fires. Much of the coal we consume today formed as a result of this period. - source

When wooly mammoths went extinct, their territorial grassland was replaced with birch forests. This ushered in an age of forest fires so significant that it may have changed the global climate.

The forests of Chernobyl are not decomposing, making scientists concerned of a possible "nuclear forest fire." - source

When forest fires start?

Pine trees scatter their needles across the forest floor to make it easier for fires to burn all of the other trees - pine is fire resistant so it survives.

How forest fires are caused?

Melanophila beetles (known as fire chaser beetles) are able to sense forest fires from 80 miles away and seek them out since burnt wood is the source of nutrition for their young

The deadliest forest fire in history, the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, remains largely forgotten even after destroying over 1.2 million acres and 2,500 lives because on the same day, October 8th, the Great Chicago Fire happened.

Liechtenstein is so small Switzerland has invaded it 3 times by mistake. On one occasion the Swiss started a forest fire when they misfired a rocket in bad weather. Another time Swiss cadets stumbled into a Liechtenstein village and they didn’t find out until the Swiss formally apologized.

The Smokey Bear effect which was an indirect result of the Smokey Bear campaign. The Smokey Bear campaign has been so successful at preventing forest fires that it has allowed trees and debris to pile up on the forest floor, indirectly resulting in forest fires that burn larger and hotter.

Redwood Trees need forest fires to germinate their seeds.

Forest fires infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Forest Fires numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

forest fires fact infographic about Hey! Here is some historical data on the number of satellite

Hey! Here is some historical data on the number of satellite detected fires in the amazon rain forest, and why all series you see start only in 2013.


forest fires fact infographic about Which countries have more and less fires and acres of burnin

Which countries have more and less fires and acres of burning forest in Europe (1980 - 2015)


When did the forest fires in australia start?

On October 8, 1871, three of the worst fires in American history began. The Great Chicago Fire displaced 100,000, the Great Michigan fire burned 2.5 million acres of forest, and the Peshtigo fire remains America's deadliest with 1200-2500 killed.

Near-surface fires (like a campfire)can catch and burn underground for years, destroying the complex root systems of trees. In addition, these fires can pop up in places miles from its origin and cause a forest fire.

In 1993 the state of Idaho billed a retired couple $1.3 million dollars to put out a forest fire that was ignited when a car towed by the couple's RV blew a tire and caught fire, with the sparks and burning debris left along the road for eight miles until they noticed a problem.

The introduction of the Smokey the Bear fire-suppression mentality has led to larger, more dangerous forest fires, and regular moderate forest fires are healthy for many species of trees.

The Peshtigo Fire a forest fire so hot it spawned fire tornadoes (fire whirls), and people that jumped in wells to escape the blaze were boiled alive.

How forest fires are good?

Not so long ago, people tried to keep the forest fire under control to protect remaining sequoias. Without knowing that fire plays crucial role in the life of sequoia, people actually prevented successful regeneration of sequoias in the wild.

During the 1980s the Swiss army fired off shells during an exercise and mistakenly burned a patch of forest inside Liechtenstein. The incident was said to have been resolved "over a case of white wine".

Eucalyptus tree has unique strategy to survive fires that are usual for the Australian forests. Deep inside the tree and inside the roots, eucalyptus has dormant shoots. They will germinate only under the influence of hormones that are triggered by heat (of the fire).

Bark of sequoia is resistant to fire. Traces of forest fire can be seen on the trunk of some old trees, but those trees are healthy beneath the surface.

Forest fires are a constant threat to Kootenay National Park. Lightning started one of the largest forest fires in the province's history in 2003 and burned 17,000 hectares in the Rockies.

Helicopters can help fight forest fires as they can carry helibuckets full of water to be dropped on strategic areas.

Smokey Bear was a real bear who was rescued from a forest fire in 1950, and later became a living mascot for wildfire prevention.

Fighting fire with fire isn't only a metaphor, but an actual tactic that's used in combatting forest fires by burning a controlled strip of land and using up fuel that could have otherwise been used to spread the fire.

Martin Fletcher, who survived the 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire that killed 56 fans, including four of his family. Four years later he attended the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, and witnessed the horror as 96 fans lost their lives in a crush

While living alone in the woods, Henry David Thoreau accidentally started a major forest fire that destroyed 300 acres of forest; he would later write that he felt no guilt about the incident.

Like many other plant species, monkey puzzle depends on the fire to "make a room" for the slow-growing plants in the forest. Too much fire on the other hand can be devastating for the survival of the monkey puzzle in the wild.

Wag Dodge who survived the Mann Gulch forest Fire by burning a patch of grass land, laying down and letting the fire pass over him.

The main threats to Mochima National Park include highway construction, forest fires, tourism (poorly controlled), resource exploitation, low environmental awareness, pollution, the illegal hunting and fishing, agriculture, and problems within the communities and the uncontrolled urbanization within the region.

Surveyors and construction workers had to push through many hardships to Build the railway, including the dense bush, extremely rugged land, forest fires, mosquitos, and wildlife such a grizzly bears, moose, wolves, and coyotes.

In the artillery barrage prior to the United States' primary offensive in WWI, the Battle of the Argonne Forest, more ammunition was expended in three hours than both sides managed to fire throughout the entire four years of the Civil War.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Forest Fires. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Forest Fires so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor