U.S. Fire Administration

TOPICAL FIRE RESEARCH SERIES

Volume 1, Issue 3

October 2000 (Rev. December 2001)

Wildland Fires: A Historical Perspective

FINDINGS

S The first wildland fire control program, established in 1885, prescribed

extinguishing all fires. Since then, the policy has changed many times,

such as allowing fires from lightning to burn as natural prescribed fires.

The debate on whether to allow prescribed burning to lighten the fuel

load or to allow mechanical thinning continues.

S Human activity is 7 times more likely to be the cause of a wildland fire

than that of lightning strikes.

S As more people build homes in wildland areas, the job of the wildland

firefighter becomes more complex.

S The primary classes of wildland fires are surface, crown, and ground,

determined by the types of fuels involved and the intensity of a fire.

Fire is a natural environmental phenomenon and has been an integral part of our ecosystem for millennia. The population and development of North America has repeatedly

brought humans into contact with fire in all manner of circumstances including wildland

fires. Over the past 400 years, Americans as a society have grown to fear all forms of fire

and have sought ways to suppress it as completely as possible. Wildland fires, however,

pose unique challenges to the fire service and require vastly different approaches to its

prevention, mitigation, and suppression. As more people choose to leave the cities and

build their homes in the “wildland/ urban” interface, it is critical that these concerns are

addressed.

Natural wildland fires are generally caused by lightning, which strikes the earth an

average of 100 times each second or 3 billion times every year1 and has caused some of

the most notable wildland fires in the United States (e.g., Yellowstone in 1988). Other

natural causes include sparks from falling rocks and volcanic activity.

Human activity, however, is the primary cause of wildland fires. Some of these fires

are intentional, such as those that were used by Native Americans as signals or to drive

game, those set by forestry experts, or those set by arsonists. Others, however, have been

accidental, caused by carelessness or inattention by campers, hikers, or others traveling

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through wildlands.

2 Figure 1 illustrates the 10-year average of fires by their cause and

acreage burned.

Figure 1. 10-Year Average of Wildland

Fire Causes (1988-97)3

HUMAN CAUSE LIGHTNING

CAUSE

Number of Fires 102,694 13,879

Percent of Fires 88 12

Acres Burned 1,942,106 2,110,810

Percent of Acreage 48 52

The three primary classes of wildland fires are surface, crown, and ground. These

classifications depend on the types of fuels involved and intensity of a fire. Surface fires

typically burn rapidly at a low intensity and consume light fuels while presenting little

danger to mature trees and root systems. Crown fires generally result from ground fires

and occur in the upper sections of trees, which can cause embers and branches to fall and

spread the fire. Ground fires are the most infrequent type of fire and are very intense

blazes that destroy all vegetation and organic manner, leaving only bare earth.

4 These

largest fires actually create their own winds and weather, increasing the flow of oxygen

and “feeding” the fire.5

There is a dichotomy associated with wildland fires: they threaten resources we

value, yet they are an essential part of most ecosystems. Several plant species even depend on it to reproduce. Some pinecones require fire to melt away a resinous coating

before the seeds inside are released, while others produce seeds that lie dormant in the

seedbed and germinate only after exposure to the heat from a fire.

6

Recovery from a wildland fire begins even before the last of the flames are extinguished. After a wildland fire, essential nutrients are released back into the earth through

the burning of mature plants and organic litter.

7 Additionally, wildland creatures have

learned to adapt to fires. Small

animals generally hide in burrows, birds fly away, larger mammals run away, and

fish are protected by the water in which they live. These animals are capable of adjusting

to radical changes in their habitat, which endure until the next fire in that area.8

Erosion is a critical concern as heavy rains in the wake of a wildland fire can cause

landslides or debris flows, and runoff can have damaging effects on water sources. In

some areas, if the fire was intense enough, the soil actually becomes hydrophobic and

cannot absorb water, exacerbating the situation.9

The first wildland fire control program was established in 1885 in the Adirondacks

Reserve in New York. By the following year, a program was established in Yellowstone

Park. Both were modeled on practices in use in Germany, considered the model for forest

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management, which were to extinguish all fires regardless of severity. In 1910, these policies were reexamined after catastrophic blazes burned 5 million acres and killed 79 firefighters. As a result, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) “declared war” on forest fires and

launched an aggressive campaign of fire prevention and control.

In 1926, after questions arose regarding the merits of light burning, the USFS

adopted a policy that would allow areas of 10 acres or less to burn, but required the suppression of all fires over 10 acres. The Tillamook burn in 1933 destroyed 3 million acres

of virgin timberland in the Northwest. In its wake, the USFS reverted to an even more

stringent “no burn” policy and mandated that all fires were to be extinguished during the

first duty shift after its discovery or by 10 a.m. the following day. This policy remained

in effect and was reexamined in 1971 when the USFS changed its policies to allow some

lightning fires to burn as natural prescribed fires.

In 1978, the USFS again revised the policy, this time excluding the 10 a.m. objective. The emphasis was shifted to managing fire suppression costs so that they are consistent with land and resource management strategies. By 1988, changes in policy by the

USFS and National Park Service allowed many natural fires to burn on federal wildland.10

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Despite policy and myriad suppression efforts, wildland fire has been a continued

problem in America’s forests. Figure 2 illustrates some historically significant wildland

fires.

Figure 2. Selected Historically Significant Wildland Fires11

DATE NAME

Oct 1871 Peshtigo

Sep 1894 Hinckley

Sep 1894 Wisconsin

Aug 1910 Great Idaho

1949 Mann Gulch

Sep 1970 Laguna

1987 Siege of ’87

1988 Yellowstone

Oct 1991 Oakland Hills

Jul 1994 South Canyon

LOCATION

Wisconsin/Michigan

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Idaho/Montana

Montana

California

California

Montana/Idaho

California

Colorado

ACRES

3,780,000

Undetermined

Several million

3,000,000

4,339

175,425

640,000

1,585,000

1,500

1,856

111,130

94,656

47,650

SIGNIFICANCE

1,500 fatalities in Wisconsin

418 lives lost

Undetermined; some lives lost

85 fatalities

13 smokejumpers killed

382 structures destroyed

Valuable timber lost on the

Klamath and Stanislaus National

Forests

Large acreage

25 lives lost and 2,900 structures

destroyed

14 firefighter fatalities

Thousands of people evacuated from

several counties

Forced the evacuation of thousands

of residents

Originally a prescribed fire; 235 structures destroyed; damaged Los

Alamos National Laboratory

1998 Volusia Complex Florida

1998 Flagler/St. John Florida

May 2000 Cerro Grande New Mexico

Today, fire suppression agencies throughout the country are increasingly challenged

by wildland fires that affect structures located in areas that are essentially wildland. The

question of what to do with the urban/wildland interface has become one of the most

controversial in the fire service. Some have argued that it is not appropriate for publicly

funded fire suppression personnel to be dedicated to protecting homes built in this dangerous area when they can be better utilized elsewhere. Others, however, claim that one

has the right to build home anywhere he or she wants, in spite of the possible ramifications of such an action. Another controversy is over how to thin the forests and lighten

their fuel load. Some argue the emphasis should be on prescribed burning while others

are proponents of mechanical thinning (cutting trees strategically).

Given the political, ecological, and economic implications of any decision affecting

residents and homes in the interface, these debates are likely to continue for years to

come.

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NOTES:

1. Ainsworth, Jack and Doss, Troy Alan, Natural History of Fire and Flood Cycless, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1955.

2. “History of Fire,” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/pub_aff/issues/fire.html.

3. Based on data from the National Interagency Fire Center.

4. Ainsworth, Jack, loc. cit.

5. This Thing Called Fire, National Interagency Fire Center.

6. Ainsworth, Jack, loc. cit.

7. Idem.

8. “History of Fire,” loc. cit.

9. TAfter the Fires: Let the Healing Begin, National Interagency Fire Center.

10.The last three paragraphs were adapted from Wildland Fire Management: Federal Policies and Their

Implications for Local Fire Departments, U.S. Fire Administration, 1990.

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National Interagency Fire Center.

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