History's Worst Fire Disasters | Code Red | Earth Stories

[@angusosborne3151]

I spent almost ten years answering the call as a volunteer firefighter and I've had to deal with mostly structure fires which is bad enough. I can't imagine having to deal with a wildfire of that proportion. Love, respect and thoughts to all.

[@Healitnow]

My daughter works for the forest service and her job is figuring these things out.

[@aprilsmith3683]

Four hundred litres of water a minute... Wow... Grateful for all fire fighters across the globe... 🇿🇦

[@swithinbarclay4797]

My hat's OFF, to you, who produced this piece; you understood and explained very well to us, all of the phenomenology of these MASS BURNS. I want to tell you, that even though there was NO Scientific Verification, as we know such things nowadays, there were FIRE TORNADOES, most probably in conflagrations past--and a few in the recent present: 1) America/Canada~~The Great Miramichi Burn of 1823(?)~~This burned along Maine's Northern Border and Quebec/New Brunswick. As with the recent VERIFIABLE FT (Fire Tornado) to strike Canberra's suburbs, farm buildings/houses were lofted into the sky; some forests experienced windthrow, without necessarily being added to the main fire's area of burn. Perhaps 3 Million Acres burned (Use your Windows10/11 Calculator Prog, to convert to Hectares, and any other Metric System Measurements, please.)? 2) America~~ The Great Peshtigo Burn of 1871~~ Burning in Wisconsin, along the shores of Green BayLake Michigan, it was overshadowed by the Great [celebrated?] Chicago Fire, and this fire in turn overshadowed other fires of similar magnitude burning in Minnesota, Eastern North Dakota, Michigan, Northeastern Illinois, Michigan, and Northern Indiana/Northwestern Ohio. Eyewitnesses reported an extremely wide, extremely tall fiery vortex, that, in modern "tornadospeak", would be termed a "wedge". This was essentially the Main Front which obliterated the Principal town of the area, Peshtigo and its surrounding communities. It was as BRILLIANT as the sun--by extrapolation, the first few seconds of above-ground Nuclear Tests conducted in the late 1940's-early 1960's--so that people could be PERMANENTLY blinded from afar, just by staring at this monster. Perhaps 4,000,000 Acres, for this burn, alone. 3) America~~The Great Hinckley Fire of 1894(?)~~Burned in Minnesota. As two already huge burns merged, heretofore burning with mainly vertical motion, the Main Fronts twisted around each other, and another FT of wedge shape was formed, traveling in a South/Southwest direction, obliterating Hinckley. From there on out, nearly all phenomena of destruction, could be associated with a FT. 4) America~~The BIG BURN of 1910~~Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, Western Montana. Rugged mountainous terrain helped shape the already hurricane-velocity winds into vortices that struck as independent FT's in various spots. Pictures of the aftermath that I've seen makes me believe so. Huge Western White Pines, trunks 2 Metres diameter thrown like jackstraws--either uprooted WHOLE, or snapped off above ground, then many of these completely incinerated. The forests were almost pure WWP in species composition, ranging 60-70 Metres tall--massive trees with the potential to be considered extremely profit/valuable, if harvested for lumber and other forest products. Total burn area, about 6,000,000 Acres. 5) America~~Sundance Fire of 1968~~Mountains of Eastern Utah. This stands out to me, because at one point, an inversion layer formed in a canyon, temporarily making the already huge burn, rather sluggish. This caused incompletely combusted volatile gasses to accumulate under the cap. The combination of heat buildup with a fresh infusion of gale-force winds swept in and IGNITED the gasses all at once, along a steep slopeside of about 500 Acres of thick forest of this canyon flank. ALL AT ONCE, with a deafening detonation! After the blast, the heat discharge roughly organized itself, into a FT, tossing as debris, huge entire flaming trees as missiles/javelins, well outside the perimeter! Not sure of overall Acreage; I just wanted to talk about that slopeside's massive and simultaneous ignition. 6) America~~The Carr, Camp, and Caldor Fires of very recent occurrence~~Throughout California's Sierra Nevada & Siskiyou Mountain Ranges. All of these were described as having FT's at several points in their lives. Caldor built up enough heat/wind momentum, to burn INTO timberline forests--and--UP OVER the CREST of the Sierra Nevada Range, clear into the Eastside deserts! The odds of THIS happening, are almost NILL!!Millions upon combined millions of Acres.

[@GOODNOIGHT]

I was in the Tubbs Fire in 2017. Scariest time of my life.

[@Serenityfor1]

How can you predict lightning strikes, meteors and human caused fires?! You can’t face it! Fires are unpredictable.

[@pbshumanity8977]

We can see what locations will actually ignite and take off by looking at the underbrush and forest conditions.

[@beegeefan4ever]

2023 one of the most mild fire seasons in the United States 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@charonstyxferryman]

I had read that Australians call eucalyptus trees for gasoline trees. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@cdfdesantis699]

Most recent yr. mentioned in this doc was 2017. Globally, wildfires have gotten much worse since.

[@mattyk82]

based on what data? i ask because i do not think this is true at all, according the data i have researched.

[@cdfdesantis699]

@@mattyk82 According to a report dated Aug. 29, 2023: wildfires account for twice as much tree cover loss annually as they did 20 yrs. ago. Three million more hectares (approx. 7.5 million acres) are lost to wildfires each yr. than there were in 2001. Wildfires have caused 1/4 of global tree cover over the past 20 yrs. - World Resources Institute

[@mattyk82]

@@cdfdesantis699according to the us fire service, you are correct about 7million acres burnt in 2022. In 2017 it was about 10 million in USA, in 2007 it was 8 million. I don’t have the data on hand but can tell you in Australia we had larger bushfires recorded earlier last century than we have had in the past 20 years. I know that doesn’t cover the globe but Australia and USA are two of the largest areas prone to bushfires.

[@cdfdesantis699]

@@mattyk82 Indeed, & it IS important to consider the numbers over extended periods of time. Recall, as well, that in 2023, Canada experienced the worst wildfires ever on record, & Hawaii suffered the deadliest wildfire in USA history. Also last yr., Spain, Greece, Portugal, Russia, & N. Africa saw extremely devastating wildfires, which spread rapidly, due to heat & drought caused by climate change. Thanks for your reply.

[@mattyk82]

@@cdfdesantis699 no problems, and i apprciate you being respectful even though we dissagree. I have not seen any evidence that climate change has caused heat or drought, and furthermore even if it has, then it doesn't explain longer heatwaves and droughts previously recorded. I dont expect you to agree with me, I'm only saying what I understand to be true. Most of my research over the past 25 years has been localized to australia, as thats where i have always lived, but i do also consider the rest of the world when looking in to these things.

[@andrethegiant3035]

This is a great channel!

[@LastAvailableAlias]

Stop building homes in wilderness areas, on slopes, etc. They build into these areas then expect people to risk their lives to save them. I've seen enough fire studies where one of the first things I do at a show is look where all the other exits are and think how I'd leave.

[@Nirrrina]

Or if you absolutely have to build in that spot do it in a way that is fireproof. Things like partially underground & domed buildings where fire can just go right over. Also landscaping that is fire resistant. Goats can really help in eating down invasive vines that machinery has a hard time dealing with. They've saved some pretty important buildings including a presidential library if I remember right. Also they need to do more prescribed fires/control burns. It produces some smoke but it's incredibly beneficial to the land & animals. Just don't ask me to do it. I'm up for starting it but otherwise I have no clue what I'm doing.

[@jp-um2fr]

I will give you just ONE guess as to the country where the cladding was developed and I assume made, a hint, it wasn't the UK.

[@LastAvailableAlias]

You are explaining how fire works? lol

[@jp-um2fr]

Caused by a Hotpoint owned by Whirlpool and guess what country that's owned by.

[@trollinirl]

It was social murder caused by an incompetent local council trying to save a couple hundred thousand pounds and general disregard for the lives of mainly working class, immigrant tenants. Blame China if you want but the blame is squarely on the government and its austerity policies imho.

[@leanneadams2549]

Never been a fatality in a sprinkler building ??? REALLY? The World Trade Center had them !!!!

[@robert9046]

Sprinkler design does not address passenger jets crashing into a high rise. I think your analysis is way off.

[@DaveedaLoca]

​@@robert9046he is correct though. WTC 1 and 2 were the only mass casualties of a building fire that had sprinklers installed. Understandably the guy in the video meant "typical building fire"

[@Grizzly907LA]

This what happens when you don't clear underbrush, and remove dead wood, and dead trees. Donald Trump was 1000% right when he said "you got to sweep your floors."

[@kylereese4822]

The 2019 in OZ fire was bigger than the UK.... how do you clear in weeks ???? only a delusional mind would say things like that.......................

[@beegeefan4ever]

That’s why that, here in the United States, 2023 is one of the most mild fire seasons; our wild land firefighters have been constantly doing the forest cleanup( prescribed burns)

[@markdanz7039]

Lmao 🤣

[@tracymann3005]

Do you live in the United States? Do you take advantage of our beautiful national parks and forests? I’m in Glacier right now, one million acres, for context, New York City is less than 200,000 acres. The former president couldn’t get his hometown’s floors swept, how on earth can we clean over 400 national parks? There are also designated areas managed by the federal government like the badlands, national forests, national seashores, etc. there are also lands not managed by the federal government, the reservations, privately owned land and ranches. Think about the staff requirements to oversee these untold numbers of workers needed to start sweeping, not counting the equipment costs. There may be a solution in our future, but simply vacuuming is impossible, impractical and impotent.