blazes

Hurricanes and wildfires

April 3, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Early March saw more than 200 wildfires break out in the southeastern U.S. – a busy start to the region’s annual fire season. One fire in the Carolina Forest near Myrtle Beach scorched over 2,000 acres over a two-week period and firefighters were busy containing it and many other blazes.

Strong winds and an unusually long dry period have made fires more likely to ignite and be spread. Lightning strikes, power line sparking, backyard fire pits and leaf burning all can lead to wildfires under these conditions.

A weather disaster last year may be helping to make this fire season worse than usual. Hurricane Helene ravaged the Southeast last September, dumping more than a foot of rain in some locations and knocking over hundreds of thousands of acres of trees across the region.

Lots of dead trees lying on the ground allow sunlight to reach the ground and dry out all the biomass, including the trees. All of this desiccated plant material acts as kindling, providing fuel for wildfires. Fallen trees can be a fire nuisance for years after a hurricane, especially in the Southeast, where dried out pine needles are highly combustible. All it takes is an ignition.

In addition, all the fallen trees represent an access issue for firefighters as the logs block roads needed to reach the fires.

Research has shown that climate change is fueling more intense fires in the West. Whether the changing climate is having a major effect in the Southeast isn’t clear. But droughts are expected to become more intense and more frequent in the Southeast because of climate change and that isn’t good news for the likelihood of wildfires.

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How Hurricanes Can Fuel Wildfires in the Southeast

Photo, posted March 5, 2025, courtesy of the U.S. Army National Guard / Roberto Di Giovine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fighting fires with man-made wind

March 12, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a new portable tool that may help firefighters battle blazes more efficiently and with less risk.

Traditional firefighting methods include chemical foams – which are toxic – and the use of hydrants, which can strain water resources. The recent fires in Southern California demonstrated the need for efficient fire suppression methods. The new device works to suppress flames using conductive aerosols, which are small particles that can direct electricity.

The device uses vortex rings – small donut-shaped bands of air – that transform the aerosol particles into short pulses of wind that convert nearby oxygen into ozone. This accelerated airflow generates rapid turbulence, which disrupts the natural combustion process and quickly extinguishes the target fire.

The device resembles a small bucket, attached to an arm brace. Firefighters would aim the bucket toward the fire, and it would use bursts of compressed air to deliver aerosols in an electric arc to fight the fire.

Testing identified a coarse copper solution for the vortex ring material and simulations showed that the device would succeed in suppressing fires. They then worked on optimizing the power and range of the device.

Depending on the size of the fire and number of firefighters, it is likely that several of the devices would be required in a real emergency. According to the developers, the design of the vortex launcher is actually very simple and is very scalable. The device is maneuverable in tight spaces and could be taken through doors and indoor environments. Vortex rings can carry chemical payloads over longer distances than other methods, making firefighters safe by staying further from flames.

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Web Links

New device uses electrically assisted wind to fight fires

Photo, posted November 12, 2024, courtesy of the USDA Forest Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Canadian wildfires and global emissions

October 14, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The wildfires that burned vast amounts of Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced enormous amounts of smoke that found its way into American cities, working its way down the eastern seaboard and even producing unsafe air in Florida.

Researchers at Cal Tech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed the carbon emissions associated with these fires last year and found that they were greater than those of all but three countries: China, the US, and India.

Boreal forests have historically been a natural defense against climate change by storing carbon in trees rather than adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The fires in Canada, fueled by hot and dry weather, were extraordinary when compared with historical records. But such fires are likely to be increasingly common as the climate continues to warm.

However, the hot and dry weather that fueled the 2023 fires was exceptional in many ways, involving early snow melt and so-called flash droughts. This year’s fires in Canada are still bigger than average, but so far have not been as destructive as last year’s.

Canada has been warming at about twice the global rate. The extreme temperatures last summer were a major factor in the fueling of the fires, which burned an area almost the size of Florida.

Forests absorb about a quarter of global carbon emissions, but the increasing frequency and intensity of fires are calling into question their ability to continue to do so. Parts of the Canadian forests are not regrowing after fires as they have in the past, partly because blazes burn trees so frequently and intensely.

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Web Links

Canada’s Wildfires Were a Top Global Emitter Last Year, Study Says

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio