Citation

Weise DR, Wotton BM. Int. J. Wildland Fire 2010; 19(2): 149-152.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, International Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Research Institute, Publisher CSIRO Publishing)

DOI

10.1071/WF09107

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many of the most spectacular wildland fires are observed when live fuel complexes become involved in the fire. When these fires occur in the wildland–urban interface (WUI) such as Melbourne, Australia (2009), the southern Peloponnese in Greece (2007), southern California in the United States (2007), and Portugal (2005), major destruction and loss of life can occur. Fires are observed in live fuel types on all continents except for Antarctica. In Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, the primary live fuels include eucalyptus forests and woodlands and heathlands (Chandler et al. 1983, 1991; Cary et al. 2003). In Mediterranean regions of the world, shrubs are the primary live fuel complex and are known by various names including chaparral, mattoral, garrigue, and fynbos (Moreno and Oechel 1994). In the northern hemisphere coniferous forests on all continents can experience crown fires – particularly forests in the boreal regions. Other fuel complexes contain a mixture of living and dead fuels such as the palmetto-gallberry fuel type of the south-eastern United States and gorse and heathland fuel types of central and northern Europe. The last major category of live fuels includes grasses, rushes, and sedges which grow in wetland areas and can support combustion over standing water. The movement of people from urban areas into rural areas as well as the reversion of agricultural areas into wildland areas has expanded the WUI resulting in increased fire risk and a need to change the focus of ‘traditional’ wildland fire behaviour research.