Nature or negligence? Creating a global context for extreme wildfires

Extreme fire events are being reported around the world, in some cases involving substantial loss of life and property. Understanding the global pattern of extreme fires, and their relationship with climate conditions and human settlement patterns is a basic step in knowing if extreme fire events are like other natural hazards to which humans must adapt, or if humans have increased their vulnerability by not only building in dangerous environments, but also by increasing fire danger through inappropriate management of fuels and ignitions.

If weather conditions are the main driver of extreme fires, then climate change may make a bad situation worse. Resolving these issues demands a geographic context. Existing records of fire disasters were too fragmentary to provide a coherent global perspective. So I formed a team to create a global database to illuminate the ‘pyrogeography’ of extreme fire events. As I explain, I was strongly motivated to do this work because I live in a city that was very nearly destroyed by a huge conflagration 50 years ago. Keep reading.