Forest areas are particularly susceptible to fires, which are mostly manmade although sometimes these could be the result of lighting strike during serve thunderstorms. Forest fires lead to heavy destruction of forest resources and disturb the wild life as well. Forest fires add to the deforestation process as it takes many years for the forest to grow again. In many cases, the forestland gets spoilt or taken over by vested interests for other activities.
The nature and amount of vegetation cover and other combustible material such as dead wood, dry leaves, determine the nature and extent of forest fires. High atmospheric temperatures, dryness (low humidity), the strength of the prevailing wind and the slope of the ground are important factors in the spread of forest fire.
The most common type of forest fire is a “surface fire”. It involves lighter material such as dry leaves lying on the ground, bushes and small hardwood trees. Surface fire is generally slow moving and flames can rise almost one to two meters high. As the surface fire intensifies by burning more material, heavier bushes and medium size trees starts burning and the flames may rise as high as five meters or more. On further intensification, forest fire flames may reach the top of even the tall trees creating “crown fire”. These crown fires, burning up to the heights of top of all trees, are the most dangerous forest fires. Many a times, burning trees explode due to intense heat. This is a sure indication that the forest fire is reaching the crowning stage, which involves extreme danger.
Large and intense forest fires can create strong air convection currents, which blow hot embers up in the air and carry them to long distances of even a kilometer or two. These embers can ignite new areas of forest fires or create fire in village areas adjacent to forests.