Wildfire

//What is a wildfire?//
A wildfire is a fire that is uncontrolled fire, typically happening in the countryside or a wilderness area. These fires can be called many different names, such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and wild land fire. Over the past years people have begun to expand housing developments and other housing resources into more woodland landscapes. The initial draws of this situation are the beauty and serenity of the environment as well as the seclusion. The more woodland areas are developed the more people and residents begin to realize the danger of Wildfires. Although the definition of a wildfire is "a large, intense fire, usually in an uninhabited area, that is difficult to bring under control" wildfires still remain an environmental issue that our society is faced with directly.

Wildfires are most prone to happen in dry hot seasons like in the middle of summer. Researchers have discovered that lots of Wildfires start on the forest floor destroying small trees and plants but begin to spread rapidly the higher it gets and is fastest spreading in the tree tops of thick forest. There are several causes of wildfires but the majority of them are started by humans. Although we would like to believe they are all accidental most of them spark from human negligance or arson. In order to fight wildfires there are many groups involved because wildfires are considerably different than other fires. They are fast spreading and can easily jump gaps due to their size. When trying to control the fire firefighters most surround it on ground and in the air

__//What makes a wildfire different from any other fire?//__
A wildfire is a huge uncontrolled fire. A wildfire is different because of the size, the speed that it spreads, and the ability to change the direction the fire is moving. It moves fast and they can jump over things that are harder to catch on fire, or canít such as a river, or a road.

//__How do wildfires start?__//
Wildfires can start a few different ways, they can start by dry lands such as grass being struck by lightening, by carless human beings who forget to put their campfires out all the way, cigarettes or a match thrown into grass or dry lands, and there are some wildfires that are started intentionally set. Wildfires can also start naturally with lightening, volcanic eruption, sparks from rock falls, and spontaneous combustion. The thousands of coal steam fires that are burning around the world can also flare up and ignite flammable materials.

__//What increases the risk of a wildfire?//__ Heat waves, droughts, cyclical climate changes, and other weather patterns can increase the risk of a wildfire. It can also change the behavior of the wildfire after it has started. The time of day can affect the impact of a wildfire, during the day the sunlight makes things warmer making a wildfire five times more likely, this is because of the lower humidity, increased wind speeds, and increased temperatures.

__//How do wildfires affect humans?//__ The smoke from wildfires is a mixture of gases and fine particles from plants and trees. This smoke can irritate your eyes, your respiratory system, and some heart and lung diseases.

__//How can we prevent wildfires?//__ Because many wildfires are caused because of open burning of debris and brush, if people changed to safer alternatives such as chipping compositing, or just simply waiting for green vegetation instead of dry vegetation.

**Helpful Websites**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/ http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/wildfires/ http://science.howstuffworks.com/wildfire.htm