THE CAUSES OF FOREST FIRES

Forests, the lungs of the world and the home for countless species of plant and animal, are in continuous danger from loggers, farmers who want to clear land for agriculture and the like but by far the most important threat is fires which can devastate a large area in a relatively short time if the conditions are right. Since it takes years for trees to reach maturity and new forests to be born, we need to preserve the existing ones from the danger of fires. In order to do this, it is necessary to understand the precipitating factors. There are basically two categories of reasons of forest fires: the weather and human intervention.

Extreme heat and lightning can both cause forest fires and precautions need to be taken to deal with them. Extreme heat, like in Africa and Australia can cause spontaneous fires to break out during the hot season and the blaze travels across the savannah at an extremely fast pace destroying everything in its path. Homes, farm land, habitats and valuable plant species are destroyed leaving a barren and arid landscape. These fires can only be tackled by trained fire crews and specialized equipment. A second natural cause of forest fires is lightning. Especially if the tree that is struck is a pine tree, the fire then spreads rapidly. The pine cones act like projectiles spreading the fire far afield. Such fires were experienced in the south of Turkey in the past and destroyed livelihoods. In short, there is very little we can do about the natural causes of fires except prevent the damage as much as possible. However this is not the case for the second category of reasons.

People also cause fires through negligence, carelessness and sometimes deliberately. Such fires are completely inexcusable and as they cause untold damage. One way people cause fires is through neglecting to put out camp fires, discarding cigarettes, throwing away bottles or broken glass, which reflects the rays of the sun and the like. Such fires could be controlled by having strict rules in camp sites and harsh penalties. Forest fires can also be started on purpose either for profit or do damage. Farmers for instance could clear land for agriculture assuming that forest land is good agricultural soil. The intention here is not to burn down the whole forest contrary to the terrorist who may deliberately start fires in three or four separate locations to annihilate the forest. Such a crime, an arson attack, deserves a very harsh punishment. In short, forest fires may occur due to easily preventable reasons and these unnecessary fires do plenty of damage.

In conclusion, forests are valuable resources for the whole world and preserving them should be an international responsibility. It is possible to prevent some forest fires from occurring and is possible to better fight the ones that occur. Adequate training and equipment for fire crews and harsh punishments for perpetrators are two areas to be focused on.