Wildfires June 18, 2002
Last updated Wednesday, June 26, 2.20 PM ET

Ablaze Out West
 No wonder we use the phrase "spreading like wildfire." Each year, it takes the awesome effort of thousands of United States firefighters to rein in wildfires as they scorch their way across acres. Right now, 19 large wildfires are crackling in seven states. With over 2.3 million acres devoured so far, the acreage burned for this time of year is more than twice the 10-year average — an indication of a wildfire season that has gotten off to an early start.

Colorado's Hayman Fire had been dominating the news until last Sunday, when two Arizona blazes joined forces and moved towards the town of Show Low. The Rodeo blaze has now eaten through over 370,000 acres, destroyed 390 homes, and forced the evacuation of some 30,000 people. Firefighters have had to stand back and watch for the past few days, but today they have been able to step in and contain 5% of the blaze. One of their main tasks is to prevent the fire from reaching the town of Show Low.

Wildfires can be started naturally — by lightning, for example — but the majority are sparked by people. It's thought that one of the Arizona fires was started by a lost hiker who was signaling for help. But the story of the Hayman fire's origins is especially tragic: US Forest Service fire-prevention worker Terry Barton has been arrested for starting the fire on purpose in the Pike National Forest. She stands accused of setting the fire on purpose and may face 65 years in prison and $1,000,000 in fines.

How can one small fire send 330,000 acres of forest up in smoke? The answer lies in the hot, dry conditions in much of the western United States. When a forest's trees and vegetation lack moisture, as in drought conditions, they are much easier to ignite. "The tinderbox west" is a phrase that has been much-used during the past three seasons, with the parched landscape providing ready fuel for wildfires. Fire bans are now in place in many wilderness areas; Colorado, which is suffering from a severe drought that looks set to continue, has a statewide ban on open burning and fireworks.

Many aspects of wildfires are worthy of study in the classroom. The following are some that you can investigate with the help of Riverdeep activities.

Fire Wisdom
Smokey Bear convinced the public that wildfires are to be avoided at all costs. But the common wisdom about wildfires has changed. Once uniformly branded the enemy, they are now recognized for their important role in the life of forests. "Fire is as natural and necessary as sunshine or rain to a healthy forest," says the Wilderness Society. "For as long as there have been forests, there have been fires."

Wildfires do a thorough clean-up job in forests and grasslands. They clear forest floors of debris, rejuvenate soil, and allow new grasses to grow that can be eaten by animals.

The policy of suppressing fires from the 1940s to the 1990s means that the forest floors are thick with fuel. This is partly to blame for the intensity of wildfires in recent years. In Arizona, Gov. Jane Hull is calling for a new approach to forest management.

If you'd like to investigate fire ecology with your students, additional resources are listed in "Extending the Problem," below. You can also look at our Teaching the News archive article, "Setting Wildland Fire Policy."

Learn About the Problem
 To use the activities in this section, you need to be a Riverdeep subscriber. Or you can get a free trial subscription for 30 days to try out the activities.

Chemistry students: Students can study the role that lightning plays in atmospheric reactions during a thunderstorm in the Chemistry Explorer activity, Energy Directions.

Biology students: Wildfires have an effect not only on the communities and ecosystems immediately endangered by the flames but also on communities downwind of the smoke. The Hayman fire cloaked a large area of Colorado in smoke, including the city of Denver. Smoke from the Rodeo fire shrouds a vast area of Arizona.

Breathing smoke from fires is bad for those who suffer from asthma and emphysema. These people are particularly at risk for respiratory problems from inhaling smoke. On June 11, a Colorado woman died after smoke inhalation brought on an acute asthma attack. Students can read "Asthma Kills Woman Near Colo. Fire," from the Associated Press on Yahoo.com.

Students can learn about asthma and emphysema with the following Biology Gateways activities:

Math students: Have students work the Destination Math activity, Mastering Algebra I, Course 1: Graphing Ordered Pairs. Then ask students to graph the following data. Have them decide what data to represent on the axes and what scale to use.

Average Number of Fires and Acres
Burned by Decade for the United States
Dates Average # Wildland Fires Average # Acres Burned
1919-1929 97,599 26,004,567
1930-1939 167,277 39,143,195
1940-1949 162,050 22,919,898
1950-1959 125,948 9,415,796
1960-1969 119,772 4,571,255
1970-1979 155,112 3,194,421
1980-1989 163,329 4,236,229
1990-1999 106,306 3,647,597
Source: National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)

Think About the Problem
Chemistry students: Ask the students: What ingredient does lightning contribute to chemical reactions in the atmosphere and to wildland fires? (To give students more background, suggest that they read "This Thing Called Fire" from the NIFC. Ask them to consider what three things are required for a fire to burn.)

Biology students: Ask students to compare and contrast asthma and emphysema. Then have them predict how exposure to thick smoke might aggravate the symptoms of each disease.

Losing Animal Homes
People aren't the only ones who lose their homes to wildfires. What happens to animals that are displaced when their forest home goes up in flames? A bear that was on the loose in the suburbs of Denver last week might have the answer. Read more in "Bear of bad tidings," an excellent editorial from the Denver Post.
Math students: Have students determine if there is a correlation between the number of fires and the number of acres that burn in any given decade. Have students explain why either there is or isn't a correlation. Ask them to suggest what types of data relating to wildfires might show a correlation (e.g. annual rainfall and number of wildfires).

Extending the Problem
Fire ecology: While it conjures up images of needless devastation, the wildfire is a natural and important part of many ecosystems. The Fire Ecology: Resource Management Education Unit from the NIFC and the National Park Service is a series of classroom lessons with Teacher's Guides about different aspects of fire ecology. The activities are appropriate for science, language arts, and art classes.

The Yellowstone Park fires of 1988 provide a lot of lessons about fire ecology, and about how to effectively manage both fires and park resources. Two sites examining the aftermath of those fires are NASA's Classroom of the Future: Yellowstone Fires and Wildland Fire from Yellowstone National Park.

Fighting fire: Students can visit the PBS/NOVA site, "Fire Wars," to learn how a firefighting team battled blazes in the summer of 2000 — one of the worst wildfire seasons on record. They can also read about the Interagency Hotshot Crews that are on hand to control wildfires. The Pike Hotshots are currently working on the Hayman fire (the blaze started in Pike Forest). On their Web pages, students can find out what it takes to be a firefighter and view an excellent photo gallery.

In the fire's midst: ENN.com's article, "Fire on the River of No Return," should engage students with the author's dramatic personal account of being trapped on a raft in a blazing national park.