Forest fires: fast, deadly entities of heat consuming everything within their path; be
it trees, wildlife, or humans.
Here are the 8 deadliest forest fires ever that left behind terrible paths of destruction.
Number 8: The 2010 Russian wildfires Russia's summer of 2010 was the hottest in
the country’s recorded history.
The season’s high temperatures and drought resulted in several hundred wildfires breaking
out in Russia’s western region, burning down 740,000 acres of land and destroying
2000 buildings.
This cost the nation about 15 billion dollars in damages.
The heavy smoke from the fires produced a large blanket of smog that covered entire
urban areas.
Combined with the resulting heat wave, Russia's healthcare system was heavily stressed out.
54 people perished in the wildfires, and about 56,000 more died from the effects of the resulting
smog and heat wave.
A state of emergency was declared in many regions by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev,
and in order to prevent panic, censorship was imposed on local mass media as not to
provide real-time information to the public.
Information about several villages affected by the fires was not available for weeks,
and Muscovite doctors were forbidden to diagnose people with heat illness.
About one-third of Russia's wheat harvest was burnt down, causing the government to
impose a ban on grain export.
This led to panicking on the global markets, and according to some experts, triggered the
Arab Spring as high food prices made poverty stricken people rise up against their autocratic
leaders.
Number 7: The 2007 Greek Forest Fires During the summer of 2007, a series of massive
forest fires broke out across Greece's Peloponnese region.
The extreme summer was unprecedented in the nation's modern history, with three consecutive
heat waves reaching over 40 °C (105 °F).
This resulted in about 3000 forest fires breaking out across the nation that destroyed a total
of 670,000 acres of forest and farm land.
Over 2000 buildings were destroyed, and 84 people were killed in the blaze.
The Greek Prime Minister declared a state of emergency for the entire nation, and requested
help from fellow European countries.
Over 20 countries responded to the call, and the Greek Army even deployed 1000 of its soldiers
to be involved in the fire fighting.
The flames came dangerously close to several historical sites in Olympia, the place which
hosted the ancient Olympics games.
The yard of Olympia’s iconic museum was scorched by fire, but fortunately, the famous
statue of “Hermes of Praxiteles” and nearby ancient structures were spared.
Investigations revealed that some of the fires were the result of arson, as gasoline bottles
were found in the affected areas.
Several people were caught and convicted for the crime.
Number 6: The 1997 Indonesian Forest Fires In 1997, a group of forest fires in the Indonesian
regions of Kalimantan and Sumatra occurred simultaneously, burning a total of 37,000
square miles of forest.
For years, local Indonesian farmers have been intentionally setting forest trees ablaze
in order to clear lands for agriculture and settlement.
Known as the "slash and burn" technique, it is done extensively as the easiest and cheapest
means to clear lands within a short period of time.
In 1997, the practice led to uncontrollable fires as hundreds of thousands of acres in
the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan got burned.
It resulted in 2.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere, with the haze
travelling thousands of miles and covering all countries in Southeast Asia.
This greatly affected the countries' economic activities, while millions of people suffered
from air pollution.
People were forced to wear masks outdoors and hundreds of deaths were reported in Indonesia
as a result of the declining air quality.
Desperate for a solution, Malaysia's Prime Minister sent a team of Malaysian firefighters
across borders to Indonesia to help put out the flames.
Known as Operation Haze, it is the biggest cross border firefighting mission in history.
For 25 days, Malaysian firefighters fought a desperate battle against the raging forest
fires until the haze became reduced significantly.
Also, with the help of the monsoon rains, the fire and haze crisis came to an end.
Number 5: The Black Saturday Bushfires of 2009
Because of Australia's climate that is mostly hot and dry, the country is frequently subjected
to bushfires during the hotter months of the year.
During droughts and heat waves, some of the most intense firestorms are seen, resulting
in extensive damages and human casualties.
To date, Australia's deadliest wildfire - also commonly regarded as its worst natural disaster
ever - was the Black Saturday Bushfire of 2009.
A week before the event, Australia's southeastern region was affected by an exceptional heat
wave that broke records, reaching a peak temperature of 45.1 °C (113.2 °F).
Then, on 7 February 2009, a series of fires ignited and burned across shrub-lands and
forested areas in the state of Victoria.
The swarm of fires burned over 1 million acres of land and killed 173 people.
Some victims tragically died in their cars and on roads while trying to outrun the flames.
More than 3500 buildings were destroyed.
Although natural factors like heat, drought, and wind are the usual causes of bushfires
in Australia, arson was also heavily suspected in this case.
Some arsonists were initially arrested in connection with several fires in the region,
but none were charged.
Looters also took advantage of the situation by breaking into houses that had been evacuated.
Following the tragedy and its aftermath, Australians refer to this day as Black Saturday.
Number 4: The Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 One of the largest and deadliest wildfires
in Canadian and North American history was the Great Miramichi Fire in 1825 which devastated
large forest areas and communities throughout New Brunswick.
In all, about 3 million acres was consumed.
The preceding summer was particularly hot, with wildfires being common.
On October 7, 1825, a conflagration was ignited which roared itself through northern New Brunswick,
Moorefield, Napan, and Black River Bridge.
Newcastle Town in New Brunswick suffered the most.
The town of 1000 people was reduced to ruins, with only 12 of its original 260 buildings
remaining.
At least 160 people died, but the number is assumed to be much higher since an unknown
number of lumberjacks were in the forest at the time.
The death toll also included prisoners in the Newcastle Jail who had nowhere to run.
Many escaped the blaze by taking refuge in the Miramichi River, together with livestock
and wild animals.
Number 3: California's Cedar Fire of 2003 California is no stranger to forest fires,
with each wildfire season seeming to top the last.
They usually occur in October towards the end of the long dry season, with the worst
fires occurring in highly populated coastal areas between San Francisco and San Diego,
which are subjected to strong easterly winds.
The biggest wildfire in California's modern history was the Cedar Fire of October 2003.
The fire started in the evening of October 25 in the Cuyamaca Mountains within the Cleveland
National Forest.
The flames moved extremely fast, burning over 100,000 acres of land and hundreds of homes
overnight.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and the US National
Guard was activated to assist in disaster relief.
In the end, the flames consumed 280,000 acres of land in San Diego, destroying nearly 3000
buildings, and killing 15 people, including one fireman.
Investigations revealed that the fire was started by a novice hunter who got lost in
the woods, and started a fire to signal rescuers.
However, the fire quickly got out of control.
The man was charged in federal court the following year for setting the fire and lying about
it.
Number 2: The Great Fire of 1910 Sometimes referred to as the Big Blowup, the
Great Fire of 1910 is believed to be the largest forest fire in US history.
The wildfire burned for over two days and consumed three million acres of forest in
Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
In all, about the size of Connecticut got burnt down.
That summer was unusually hot that year, and the drought resulted in forest trees becoming
dry fuel.
Small fires were occasionally set by lightning, train sparks and backfiring crews.
On August 20, a cold front brought strong winds that whipped several small fires into
one large blazing inferno.
This was made worse by the boiling hydrocarbons present in the resinous sap of Western White
Pine trees, creating a flammable gas cloud that covered large areas of forests which
then detonated spontaneously many times over.
This created tongues of flames that flew high into the sky every time, and created highly
destructive rolling waves of fire on the ground.
Smoke was said to have been seen as far south as Denver, Colorado, and as far east as Watertown,
New York.
At night, ships that were 500 miles into the Pacific Ocean were unable to navigate by the
stars as they were not visible due to the smoke.
The US Forest Service was still young at the time, and had insufficient manpower to deal
with the crisis.
At the behest of President William Howard Taft, the US Army was brought in to help.
The fire was finally extinguished with the arrival of steady rain, but not before entire
towns had been destroyed.
87 people were killed, 78 of them firefighters.
The fire went on to cement the future of the US Forest Service, and shape their future
policies in battling wildfires.
Number 1: The Peshtigo Fire of 1871 The Peshtigo Fire was a deadly wildfire that
occurred on October 8, 1871 in and around the forests of Peshtigo, Wisconsin.
The death toll of those perished in the event is estimated to be between 1500 to 2500 people,
making it the deadliest wildfire in recorded history.
On the day of the event, powerful winds blew from the west, brought on by a cold front.
This fanned the fires, causing them to escalate out of control and ravage across the Wisconsin
countryside.
According to survivors, a fire whirl was generated, sending vehicles and houses flying into the
air.
Many people escaped by jumping into the cold Peshtigo River, an act, which caused some
of them to die from hypothermia or drowning.
In the end, the firestorm consumed 1.3 million acres of forest.
To put that into perspective, that's about twice the size of Rhode Island.
Entire communities were destroyed, along with official records, making an accurate death
toll impossible to find out.
Hundreds of charred dead remains could not be identified, and a mass grave was made to
bury them all together.
Interesting to note, during the event of the Peshtigo Fire, a devastating wildfire was
also occurring at the same time in Michigan, while an urban fire was burning down the city
of Chicago in Illinois.
Known respectively as the Great Michigan Fire and the Great Chicago Fire, both incidents
left hundreds dead and at least 100,000 more homeless.
They are believed to have been caused, or at least reinforced - by the same southwest
winds.
Another theory is that together with the Peshtigo Fire, all three tragic events in October 1871
were caused by the impact of fragments from Comet Biela.