Bushfire Case Study

Cigarettes are one of the main cause of wildfires, the other is camp fires not being extinguished properly, that is 90% of wildfires are caused by human mistakes Joyce (2017). The Texas Panhandle is going through a drought, while everyone is praying for rain. Once a wildfire starts it is very hard to control, even with the hard-working fire fighters. There are many other helpful individuals that track the signs of wildfires, such as the National Park Service.

The preconditions of the area where the fire occurred were very dry land with “whipping seasonal gusts known as the Santa Ana winds and the Diablo winds” (mnn.com). The fire was started by a hunter who was lost in the woods. He believed he could be found easily if he started a small signal fire however, because of the preconditions, this small fire would spread and become the “largest single fire in California’s recorded history” (mnn.com)

The county fire marshal Alan Carson, saw the fire around 1.30 am and he defined the fire was a big one. Added that the weather and

There was also a subtle breeze. That was a major part of the fire because it is number one it fed the flames so they could grow and get bigger and spread faster. Number two the wind would carry embers everywhere that would, if hot enough, would catch another house on fire and then another until the whole town was in flames. The wind could also tale like burning cloths and through them to house to house. Also the light breeze would carry the embers across the river and catch even more on

Lightning from summer storms in addition to abnormally dry weather is responsible for the increase of fires.

When considering what results in a higher magnitude bushfire, it is also important to consider the longer term events leading up to the disaster. Figure 11 illustrates that the weather events that occurred before leading up to Black Saturday can be strongly linked to the large amount of destruction caused. From both figures, it can be noted that a wind change affected the path and development of fires. In the case of Black Saturday, this extended the fire front, increasing the magnitude of the disaster. It is believed that the wind change of the Crib Point fire helped to prevent a large amount of destruction in some areas, while causing it some in others. With this being said, the wind change in Crib point prevented it from advancing so quickly,

The analysis has answered the research question as it has highlighted the health, economic, environmental and social short and long term implications. It also mentions how individuals and the environment have responded to the devastating fires of Black Saturday. The analysis can be applied to future events and other communities as it shows what caused the fire to occur, why so many individuals were affected, and what can be changed in order to reduce the impacts of large scale bushfires to the environment and nation. Communities need to be informed of bushfires through education so that younger generations can be fully aware of the circumstances they are living in and the risks associated with continually living in a bushfire prone area. The

The summer of 1871 was unusually dry, leaving Chicago in a drought. A hot, dry wind would blow in from the planes at around 20 mph. The dry air and a scorching breeze made the wooden structures of Chicago as dry as tinder, making fires almost impossible to prevent from happening and making a large unstoppable fire completely inevitable [Charles, 2003]. All summer long, firefighters were working nonstop trying to keep fires from blazing and ripping through forests and farms [History, 2016].

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, Wildfire means “a sweeping and destructive conflagration esp. in a wilderness or a rural area.” Also according to the same dictionary, wilderness means “a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings.” Forest Fires happen when there is a drought because branches and twigs die and dry out creating plenty of fuel for a fire. According to the NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center) there are about 105,534 wildfires that occur each year.

A wildfire is any instance of uncontrolled burning in grasslands, brush, or woodlands. Wildfires destroy property and valuable natural resources, and may threaten the lives of people and animals. Wildfires can occur at any time of the year, but usually occur during hot, dry weather. Wildfires are usually signaled by dense smoke which may fill the air for miles around. The National Weather Service, U.S. Forest Service, and State forestry agencies combine to give wildfire probability forecasts. Local radio and television stations broadcast information and warnings on local fire conditions. Wildfires pose an increasing threat to the residential United States. In 1987, 53,000 fires consumed more than two million acres. By October 1988, almost

In post-independence, the Government of Indonesia had created rules to manage forest and land fires disaster. The disaster management of forest and land fire could be seen from the establishment of institutional Directorate of Forest Fire Control in particular a Section of Forest Fire Control in 1983, Sub Directorate of Forest Fire Control in 1994 and the third the Directorate of Forest Fire Control in 2004. The Government of Indonesia also had cooperation with some foreign donors like FAO, GTZ, and JICA, to improve human resource capacity on fire disaster control. The training programs were held both inside and outside of the country. Furthermore the Government of Indonesia also established Forest Fire Control Brigade named Manggala Agni. Each set of history presented that the Government of Indonesia had been learning and seeking to improve performance in the control of forest and land fire in the future. Furthermore the appropriate forest and land fire records are well-documented by the Government of Indonesia, ranging from reports of incidents of forest and land fire area, hotspot trends, dynamics of the community in area, dynamics of spatial plans and trends that may be driving forest and land fires. The documents are necessary for the mitigation and adaptation procedure of forest and land fire.

Much like all events and natural phenomena that pose a threat to civilization, humans have learned to cope with and prevent the loss of human life and destruction of property in devastating blazes that can break out seemingly at random. Fighting fires was not always the science it is today, but due to the use of new technologies and the fundamental understanding of what fire is, how it spreads, how it can kill, and how it is stopped, our protocol when dealing with fires has increased our success rate and continues to grow with applications of engineering, chemistry, and meteorology.

Over millions of years, Australian forests have seen many bushfires, and accordingly, many have developed a range of survival mechanisms. Before human settlement in Australia, fires started by lightning storms burned large areas of forest. Consequently, trees that had the ability to survive and regenerate after a fire began to dominate the landscape. These were mainly the eucalypts.

Australia is a dry continent, with high climate variability, and is continually vulnerable to natural hazards like bushfires. The nation’s capital, Canberra which also well known as Bush Capital is within the vicinity of the several national parks and is prone to the frequent bushfires in severe climatic conditions and also has a strong history of catastrophic bushfire events. Canberra is a city designed and built within a bush and grass landscape where residents are able to live, work and play among nature so bushfires are an inevitable fact of life in the ACT (ACTESA). In the year 2003 bushfire event heavy damage was done and the communities had experienced huge loss of life and their property. The bushfire extent was more than 70% of the

The weather conditions on Black Saturday were some of the worst weather conditions ever recorded. In the weeks preceding the bushfires, there had been a series of exceptional heatwaves in south-eastern Australia and particularly Victoria. The heatwave that accompanied the bushfires on the day broke records. Much of Victoria, including Melbourne and 20 other centres registered unprecedented maximum temperatures. Melbourne reached 46.4° Celsius, the highest in 154 years of record keeping. The causes of these heatwaves were blocking high pressure systems over the Tasman Sea, which channelled hot, dry tropical air over south-eastern Australia.