World faces Mega-Fire Threat
Pastor Dale Morgan
World faces Mega-Fire Threat *
19 Jan 2007 01:25:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA AUSTRALIA , Jan 19 (Reuters) - They burn like fire hurricanes
on fronts stretching sometimes thousands of kilometres and with a
ferocity that explodes trees and makes them impossible to extinguish
short of rain or divine intervention.
Bushfires like those which have raged through Australia's Southeast for
two months and which struck Europe, Canada and the western United States
in 2003 are a new type of "megafire" never seen until recently, a top
Australian fire expert said on Friday.
"They basically burn until there is a substantial break in the weather,
or they hit a coastline," Kevin O'Loughlin, chief executive of
Australia's government-backed Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, told
Reuters.
"These fires can't be controlled by any suppression resources that we
have available anywhere in the world."
Wildfires have struck five of Australia's six states since November,
blackening more than 1.2 million hectares (4,600 square miles) of
bushland, killing one and gutting dozens of homes.
Firefighters were being airdropped on Friday into the country's rugged
southeastern alps to try to control a blaze threatening the upmarket ski
resort of Thredbo, just 150 km (93 miles) south of the capital, Canberra.
An army of 15,000 Australian volunteers was being assisted by
firefighters from Canada and New Zealand, with more teams from the
United States expected to arrive next week.
O'Loughlin said international experience pointed to megafires becoming
usual in many parts of the world, driven in part by global warming and
by laws protecting national parks, which provided a source of fuel to
megafire fronts.
Huge fires devastated large parts of Portugal, Spain and France in 2003,
and also struck Canada and the United States as well as Australia, which
is the world's most fire-prone country.
"Even in the U.S., which has quite substantial suppression resources --
helicopters, the army, fleets of planes -- they still cannot control
them," O'Loughlin said.
Megafires are created when separate fires link and create one
"super-front". Some of Australia's fires this summer have borders
stretching thousands of kilometres, although authorities have been
fortunate in that most have been in remote mountain ranges.
The fires are so fierce they create their own weather and winds, sucking
in air from all directions.
"Once you get to a certain size the fire takes on a life of its own and,
for example in Canberra in 2003, you got fire tornadoes," O'Loughlin
said, referring to blazes which swallowed entire suburbs in Australia's
capital four years ago. To tackle megafires amid global warming,
O'Loughlin said, governments worldwide might have to consider unlocking
protected parklands and rejecting environmentalist arguments against
intentionally burning dry timber littering the forest floor.
Climate change was also playing a part, reducing seasonal rains in some
areas and drying out forests.
"The forests now form a major fire hazard. In the U.S. they are starting
to reintroduce fire to forested areas, but that is a very sensitive
topic and you need to bring people along, especially parts of the
conservation movement," O'Loughlin said.
Experts from Australia and around the world will gather in Canberra on
February 27 to consider how to tackle megafires.
"It's to do with land management, water resources, forestry resources,
and it will require political decisions to be made," O'Loughlin said.