Wildfire is an uncontrolled fire occurring in combustible vegetation, typically in an wilderness area or countryside (Pyne, Andrews, & Laven, 1996). They are commonly referred to as forest fires, brush fires, or grass fires depending on the type of vegetation involved. Wildfires are characterized in terms of the cause of ignition, their physical properties such as speed of propagation, the combustible material present, and the effect of the weather on the fire (Pyne, Andrews, & Laven, 1996). A wildfire is distinguished from other types of fires due to its size, the speed at which it can spread, and its ability to suddenly change direction and traverse inflammable gaps like rivers (Pyne, Andrews, & Laven, 1996).
In the past wildfires were viewed as strictly a local phenomena; however, wildfires now are recognized as a comprehensive global scale environmental process (Collins, 2009). Wildfires have greatly influenced the biosphere and atmosphere of the world for literally hundreds of millions of years. Even now wildfires directly influence local and global human societies, flora, fauna, and continue to affect global climate. Wildfires occur on every continent except for Antarctica. Fossil records contain accounts of past wildfires and it has been hypothesized that wildfires strike in periodic intervals (Pyne, Andrews, & Laven, 1996). Moreover, a relatively recent increase in the global frequency of large and essentially uncontrollable wildfires has occurred in spite of local or national firefighting capacities (Collins, 2009). This...
However, it is still not clear whether climate change or direct human influences contribute more to determining global trends in wildfire incidence and prevalence (Pechony & Shindell, 2010).
Pechony and Shindell (2010) used sophisticated climate fire modeling methods along with land cover and population estimates in order to understand the historical trends and forces that have resulted in directing global wildfire tendencies and trends. Their findings suggested a precipitation-driven preindustrial fire course that shifted to a man-made-driven regime in the 18th century, but an imminent shift to a temperature-climate driven global fire incidence in the future. Their findings indicated the possibility that current and future wildfire management policies will have to become accustomed to a global environment where the climate plays a stronger role in driving wildfire trends. Thus, unless effective climate change measures are enacted on a global scale (a long shot at best), local communities will have to accept the fact that wildfires will occur more frequently and increase in their severity.
With this in mind the issue becomes what measures can be taken to lessen potential hazards and what are appropriate response measures? (Collins, 2009) suggests a long standing fire policy termed "prepare and stay or leave early." In essence this is a sound policy. If individuals and communities who are not prepared to…
