One of the most desructive wildfires in the history of Alaska has been raging in the south central part of the state for the past week. This fire, which may have been ignited by fireworks, has been fueled by dry brush and timber, after a winter and spring of unusually light amounts of rain and snow south of the Mt. Mckinley area. I'm not sure if it has been determined whether or not this is a natural fire or a result of human influence, but the fires and the devastation produced by them are often observed from satellites. Satellite data taken in the visible wavelenghts can detect smoke patterns and thus, gives an approximate location of forest fires. But this data may not show the exact location of the fire itself, which can be obscured by the smoke.
Satellites having infrared channels, however, are capable of detecting hotspots, like fires.
While the fire is the principal agent of destruction, the associated smoke can travel thousands of miles and can also impact the environment. If the fires are massive enough, temporary cooling from the smoke is possible. This happened in the Persian Gulf as a result of the oil well fires set in Kuwait in 1991. These fears have been realized all too often. A big problem has been the leaky tankers that are moving all the oil around and leaving a lot of it behind to pollute the oceans.