Escalating wildfires on forestlands in recent years have resulted in statutory changes in redefining the liability for landowners in using prescribed fires. This study summarized these reforms in recent years. While in some states there is still strict tort liability for damages from prescribed fires, eighteen states have reduced the liability burdens on landowners with simple negligence rules,...

Studies of seasonal changes of ERS-2 SAR backscatter from sub-Arctic lakes and forest-tundra fire scars in Chukotka, Russia, have been carried out for the four seasons of the period between 2000 and 2004. Correlation analyses of time series of radar backscatter from the set of 13 lakes within Anadyr Lowland distinguished 3 groups of lakes. Time-series studies of SAR observations of the fire ris...

A considerable amount of coal is lost due to the fires in underground/surface mines and it pollutes the natural environment because of the evolution of the pollutant gases like carbon monoxide, oxides of sulphur and nitrous fumes besides the unburnt hydrocarbons. Subsoil water loss in the area are severely damaging the strata. The movement of water overfire areas createfurther problems of low d...

The emissions of NOx (defined as NO (nitric oxide) + NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), per unit amount of fuel burned, from fires in the pine forests that dominate the mountains surrounding Mexico City (MC) are about 2 times higher than normally observed for forest burning. The ammonia (NH3) emissions are about average for forest burning. The upper limit for the mass ratio of ...

The first is the burning of large tracts of forests in Indonesia (in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo). Estimates of the total area of forest damaged by the fires vary from the official figure of 750,000 hectares to the figure of 1.7 million hectares made by the Indonesian environmental group WALHI.1 The forest fires, which have been going on for months, have created an eno...

Using the extensive archive of historical ERS-1 and -2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, this analysis demonstrates that fire disturbance can be effectively detected and monitored in high northern latitudes using radar technology. A total of 392 SAR images from May to August spanning 1992–2010 were analyzed from three study fires in the Alaskan tundra. The investigated fires included the 2...

Role of Prescribed Burning. Because the longleaf ecosystem evolved with and is adapted to frequent fire, every 2 to 8 years, prescribed burning is often useful for restoring understory communities to a diverse ground layer of grasses, herbs, and small shrubs. This restoration provides habitat for a number of plant and animal species that are restricted to or found mostly in longleaf pine commun...

The classes of primary chemical products naturally produced by the combustion of forest fuels include: carbon dioxide, water, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, methane and nonmethane hydrocarbons, polynuclear aromatic hyrocarbons, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, aldehydes, free radicals, and inorganic elements. Pesticides are a class of secondary chemical byproducts of fires that have been of so...

BACKGROUND Fires are a leading cause of death, but non-fatal injuries from residential fires have not been well characterised. METHODS To identify residential fire injuries that resulted in an emergency department visit, hospitalisation, or death, computerised databases from emergency departments, hospitals, ambulance and helicopter services, the fire department, and the health department, an...

In August 2006, forest fires in north-western Russia led to elevated concentrations of fine particles reducing air quality in southern Finland over a number of weeks. Predominately easterly and south-easterly winds resulted in smoke plumes extending over the Gulf of Finland and affecting eastern and southern Finland during 7–14 August 2006 and 21–23 August 2006. This article describes observati...