In a new study, the authors discuss the role that poor forest management in protected areas, commercial plantations and fuel condition play in the spread of fire.
Scientists’ involvement in media reporting on fire leads to more nuanced and balanced messages.
Cathy Withers-Clarke via shutterstock
David Gaveau, International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Research found more than 3.11 million hectares of land burned in 2019 across Indonesia’s 34 provinces, nearly double the official estimate of 1.64 million hectares.
The majority of fire-related deaths that occurred in 2020 took place in people’s homes.
Ty O'Neil/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Last year, 3,500 Americans were killed by house fires. A former fire and explosion investigator has 10 tips to keep you and your children safe this holiday season.
Smoke rises from a wildfire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers, on August 10, 2021.
RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images
Smoke alarms are used extensively in formal buildings around the world to alert occupants to impending fires, but until recently they’ve not been used informal dwellings.
It’s a … fire!
Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; photo by milorad kravic/iStock via Getty Images
‘California is America fast-forward,’ writes one scholar. Does that mean that the dystopian infernos that have consumed parts of the state are simply a picture of what awaits the rest of America?
A fire rages through wetlands close to Cape Town in February 2017.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Climate change makes every risk factor for major bushfires worse, which means massive, intense fires will only become more likely.
Durban’s Bhambayi township was among the areas wrecked by heavy rains, mudslides and winds that have left more than 300 people dead.
RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images
Rebuilding informal settlements after a disaster must be done through learning from those who live in the settlements.
A burnt out property near Miena, Tasmania. The central Tasmanian house was fitted with roof sprinklers and surrounded by cleared land but succumbed to flying embers from bushfires.
AAP Image/Tasmania Fire Service
If you’re preparing to defend your home from fire, be aware of the vulnerable parts of your house.
2016’s warm winter meant not enough snow for the start of the Iditarod sled dog race in Anchorage, so it was brought by train from 360 miles north.
AP/Rachel D'Oro
For everyone from traditional hunters to the military, the National Park Service to the oil industry, climate change is the new reality in Alaska. Government, residents and businesses are all trying to adapt.
In South Africa, untamed fires are on the rise in informal settlements and low-income neighbourhoods.
Alpheus Mashigo/fireservices.gov.za
Paraffin stoves are used all over South Africa in millions of households and are the riskiest.
Wildland firefighters, like this crew heading into New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, in 2012, are equipped and operate differently from urban firefighters.
USFS Gila National Forest
A historian of wildfires explains the difference between urban and rural fire cultures, and what it means for protecting communities in fire-prone rural areas.
Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University