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This map is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Ron Evans, and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) led Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program, led by Pete Lahm, USFS. Development work led by Sim Larkin, USFS, and Stuart Illson, University of Washington, in collaboration with the EPA AirNow Team. Correction equation work was led by Karoline Barkjohn, EPA. Additional thanks to Jonathan Callahan, Desert Research Institute, Marlin Martnez, University of Washington, and many others. This site relies on data provided from a number of sources, including AirNow, the Western Regional Climate Center, AirSis, and PurpleAir for monitoring and sensor data, and the NOAA Hazard Mapping System and National Interagency Fire Center for fire and smoke plume information. Feedback and questions can be directed to firesm...@epa.gov.
Monitor permanent: and temporary: icons and sensors icons on the Fire and Smoke Map show particle pollution in the color codes of the U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI). Click on an icon to see the NowCast AQI level at that location, and to see actions to consider taking.
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The state of California experienced a hotter than normal June, combined with an excess of fine fuels from unusually wet winter and spring seasons. This has resulted in the vegetation being more susceptible to ignition and fire spread than has been observed in previous years. In addition, the vegetation is much more dense below 3,000 feet, which can result in rapid fire growth during initial attack, especially in areas where wind and topography align. These observations and predictions match the fire behavior that has been observed during the first half of the fire year. These conditions are widely considered to be indicative of a longer and more intense fire year, especially when compared to the last 3 fire years.
When you join CAL FIRE, you join a family of employees that function as a team. You will build trust and friendship with your co-workers, as together you respond to emergencies and challenging situations.
CAL FIRE works year-round to promote healthy forests and protect communities by removing overgrown vegetation through prescribed fire, tree thinning, pruning, chipping, and roadway clearance. Hundreds of projects are completed each year and can be viewed by clicking the link below.
High-severity wildfire is occurring at striking rates in Sierra Nevada forests. On top of all-hazard emergency and fire response, CAL FIRE is implementing proven fire-prevention strategies, working to enforce sustainable logging practices, and reforesting woodlands after catastrophic events.
As of this morning, 69 large active wildfires are being managed and have burned 1,291,253 acres. Fire managers are using full suppression strategies on 62 of these wildfires. The Durkee Fire in Oregon displayed extreme fire behavior yesterday and gained more than 62,000 acres. Many wildfires in the Northwest area continue to have active to extreme fire behavior, with evacuation orders in effect on 15 fires. Evacuation orders are also in effect for several fires in California, the Northern Rockies and the Great Basin. If you live in an area that has been evacuated, please follow the instructions from local authorities. They will provide the latest recommendations based on the threat to your community and appropriate safety measures.
Nearly 21,500 wildland firefighters are assigned to wildfires nationwide, including 22 complex and 5 Type 1 incident management teams, more than 510 crews, 1,274 engines, numerous aviation resources, and four modular Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, or MAFFS.
The Great Basin Coordination Center's predictive services staff have issued three fuels and fire behavior advisories for Nevada, Southern Idaho and Utah and Arizona Strip. There is also a fuels and fire behavior advisory in effect for California. Residents, travelers, or workers on their way to any of these states should be advised and familiarize themselves with the elevated risks.
The national predictive services staff at the National Interagency Coordination Center released the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for July through October. For additional information about the current outlook visit the Outlook page on the NICC site.
Hot temperatures with low afternoon relative humidity will continue today across eastern Oregon, the northern and western Great Basin, northern California, and northern Rockies, but temperatures will cool in Washington behind a dry cold front. West-northwest winds will develop along and east of the Cascades and into the Idaho Panhandle as the ridge continues to flatten, with gusty and dry downslope winds are expected in north-central Montana ahead of the cold front. Moisture will be slightly more limited in the northern Great Basin this afternoon, with very isolated mainly dry thunderstorms possible in far northwest Nevada into southeast Oregon, central Idaho, northwest Wyoming, and southwest Montana. Moisture from the monsoon is expected to move northward overnight and interact with cold front over southwest and central Idaho after midnight tonight with isolated dry thunderstorms likely to develop. Isolated to scattered wet thunderstorms are likely farther south along the eastern Sierra into the central and southern Great Basin, Colorado, and Southwest. Widespread showers and thunderstorms will develop along a stalled front from central and south Texas to the Mid-Atlantic coast, with scattered showers and thunderstorms across much of the Midwest and Northeast as well. Alaska will continue to be hot and dry today, with isolated thunderstorms possible over southeast Alaska.
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Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.[1][a]At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are produced. The flame is the visible portion of the fire. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma.[2] Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different.[3]
Fire, in its most common form, has the potential to result in conflagration, which can lead to physical damage, which can be permanent, through burning. Fire is a significant process that influences ecological systems worldwide. The positive effects of fire include stimulating growth and maintaining various ecological systems.Its negative effects include hazard to life and property, atmospheric pollution, and water contamination.[4] When fire removes protective vegetation, heavy rainfall can contribute to increased soil erosion by water.[5] Additionally, the burning of vegetation releases nitrogen into the atmosphere, unlike elements such as potassium and phosphorus which remain in the ash and are quickly recycled into the soil.[6][7] This loss of nitrogen caused by a fire produces a long-term reduction in the fertility of the soil, which can be recovered as atmospheric nitrogen is fixed and converted to ammonia by natural phenomena such as lightning or by leguminous plants such as clover, peas, and green beans.
Fire is one of the four classical elements and has been used by humans in rituals, in agriculture for clearing land, for cooking, generating heat and light, for signaling, propulsion purposes, smelting, forging, incineration of waste, cremation, and as a weapon or mode of destruction.
The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 470 million years ago,[9] permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product. When this concentration rose above 13%, it permitted the possibility of wildfire.[10] Wildfire is first recorded in the Late Silurian fossil record, 420 million years ago, by fossils of charcoalified plants.[11][12] Apart from a controversial gap in the Late Devonian, charcoal is present ever since.[12] The level of atmospheric oxygen is closely related to the prevalence of charcoal: clearly oxygen is the key factor in the abundance of wildfire.[13] Fire also became more abundant when grasses radiated and became the dominant component of many ecosystems, around 6 to 7 million years ago;[14] this kindling provided tinder which allowed for the more rapid spread of fire.[13] These widespread fires may have initiated a positive feedback process, whereby they produced a warmer, drier climate more conducive to fire.[13]
The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans.[15] Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, simultaneously increasing the variety and availability of nutrients and reducing disease by killing pathogenic microorganisms in the food.[16] The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of occasional cooked food is found from 1 million years ago.[17] Although this evidence shows that fire may have been used in a controlled fashion about 1 million years ago,[18][19] other sources put the date of regular use at 400,000 years ago.[20] Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; interestingly, resistance to air pollution started to evolve in human populations at a similar point in time.[20] The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, as it was used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from tens of thousands of years ago.[20]