There is always a confusion whether a forest fire was man made or natural. Some persons say that natural forest fire occurs in certain places due to lightning, rubbing of falling rocks, rubbing of stems, etc. But how many have really seen it?
Once I have seen a Araucaria tree getting completely burnt during a lightning strike during heavy monsoon rain. But never saw any evidence of forest area burning due to natural causes.
Surely, forest fires in the pre-Pleistocene time of earth history were not anthropogenic, and if so, every forest fire should not be attributed to humans.
Obianuju P. Umeji
In the modern world, where humans are virtually everywhere, it is difficult to prove a natural ignition for any wildfire. But in regions with dry lightning, natural ignition is not really rare. Additionally we have evidence for wildfires since the Silurian.
Hi Manoj, these papers may help you:
"Kompacher, M., Kindermann, G., & Pack, S. (2012). Fire losses and human accidents caused by lightning — An Austrian overview. In 2012 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP) (pp. 1–5). Ieee. http://doi.org/10.1109/ICLP.2012.6344276"
"Peppas, G. D., Bekas, K. I., Naxakis, I. a., Pyrgioti, E. C., & Charalampakos, V. P. (2012). Analysis of lightning impacts in Greece. In 2012 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP) (pp. 1–5). Ieee. http://doi.org/10.1109/ICLP.2012.6344347"
Hu, T., & Zhou, G. (2014). Drivers of lightning- and human-caused fire regimes in the Great Xing’an Mountains. Forest Ecology and Management, 329, 49–58. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.05.047.
Fernando Diaz Thanks a lot. However, it is to be seen whether these fire losses caused by lightning pertain to forest fires or fire losses to human dominated landscape.
In the last decade, many forest wildfires have become routine news in the world. Forest fires related to weather factors, terrain, dryness and type of flammable items for ignition. Both of them human (e.g. burning of forests for attaining farmland) and natural sources (e.g. lightning) could be cause of combustion and wildfire of forests. The important point is that wildfires have occurred during of the Earth history and were reported from hundred million years ago, when no mankind exist on the Earth.
Man should not be held responsible for offense he has alibi to. Just as he will not be accused of such in the moon (were conditions conducive) because he was not there then. We may not see everything to prove it. Lightening has struck people and forests have been seen set on fire by lightening under arid climates. Similarly, not every deforestation is man made.
Obianuju P. Umeji
My answer is a bit too late but perhaps it may help other people interested in this topic. Some examples of papers on natural fires (lightning-caused forest fires) in Europe and North America:
- Analysis of lightning-induced forest fires in Austria. Conference Paper Analysis of lightning-induced forest fires in Austria
- Characteristics of lightnings igniting forest fires in Austria. Article Characteristics of lightnings igniting forest fires in Austria
- Characteristics of lightning related to wildfire ignitions in Catalonia. Article Characteristics of lightning related to wildfire ignitions i...
- Lightning that ignites forest fires in Finland. Article Lightning that ignites forest fires in Finland
- Spatial, Temporal and Electrical Characteristics of Lightning in Reported Lightning-Initiated Wildfire Events. Article Spatial, Temporal and Electrical Characteristics of Lightnin...
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