Wildfire destroys Hawaiian town, leaving at least 36 dead

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

Thousands of Hawaii residents raced to escape homes on Lahaina town (Maui) as blazes swept across the island, destroying parts of a centuries-old town and killing at least 53 people in one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in recent years.

Details:

The fires were whipped by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south. It’s the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer.
Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West.
They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.
A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

Wildfires:

A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation.
Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire (in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire.
Some natural forest ecosystems depend on wildfire.
Wildfires are distinct from beneficial human usage of wildland fire, called controlled or prescribed burning, although controlled burns can turn into wildfires. Modern forest management often engages in prescribed burns to mitigate risk and promote natural forest cycles.

Why are wildfires worsening?

Wildfires require right climatic conditions, burnable fuel and a spark.
Rising temperatures suck moisture out of plants, creating an abundance of dry fuel.
Drought and high heat can kill plants and dry out dead grass, and other material on the forest floor that fuel the fire once it starts sweeping through a patch.
While dry vegetation is the burnable fuel that serves as kindling for fires, the spark is sometimes caused by lightning, at other times by accident or recklessness of the local population.

Impact of Forest Fire:

Loss of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Forest fires destroy the habitats and the intricate relationships of diverse flora and fauna leading to loss of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Forest Degradation: Almost every year, forest fires are witnessed across different forest regions which persistently reduce the quality of certain forest features like soil fertility, biodiversity, and ecosystems.
Air Pollution: The huge clouds of smoke instigated by wildfires lead to massive air pollution.
- Wildfire smoke, and particularly the concentration of PM 2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 microns, can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems
Global Warming: When plant life is exterminated by fires greenhouse gasses increase in the atmosphere leading to climate change and global warming
- Trees and vegetation when burned, it means more greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, resulting in global warming.
Soil Degradation:
Forest fires kill beneficial soil microorganisms that are responsible for breaking down the soil and promoting soil microbial activities.
- The burning of trees and vegetation cover also leaves the soil bare making it readily vulnerable to soil erosion.

For further details: https://optimizeias.com/forest-fires/