Fires can serve a number of different purposes to a human being. Two of the most common uses for fires are to provide light and heat. At time a fire can be a mans best friend, but when it gets out of control it could become more deadly than a hurricane. When lands are dry and the wind is light forest fires can be ignited any time anywhere, and the odds of stopping them before they get out of control are very small. Before humans began to settle, fires often moved through the woods burning low branches and dead wood from the forest floor. This was not a bad thing since the burning helped the regeneration process by providing ideal growing conditions for the new plants and improved the living conditions for many animals on the forest floor. Forest fires are a serious issue that the world must face, knowing what to do and how to do it can save a lot of plants, animals and of course humans.

According to data collected by NASA smoke from forest fires reduces the amount of rainfall in a particular area. Scientist have known for some time that smoke from burning woodlands leads to a decrease in rainfall. To understand this we must first understand how rain is formed. Rain drops form in two ways, either with a warm rain process or an ice process. In the warm rain process, cloud drops get big enough to start falling. As they are falling they pick up other cloud drops until they become large enough to fall to earth as rain. New NASA data show that when clouds are smothered with heavy smoke form forest fires, the warm rain process is almost completely shut off. In order for the cloud to produce rain it must grow above the freezing level which is 16,000 feet above sea level.

Through out the years may different countries and organizations have tried many unique ways to try and stop fires before they get out of control. The British Columbia Forest Service has teamed up with two hi-tech companies and The European Space Agency to developing a new fire-fighting tool. The tool is a high-powered satellite that will speed up communication to front line fire fighters of when and where a fire is breaking out. By using satellite communication fighters can overlook interruption or problems there may be on the ground. The fighters will know exactly what to expect and what to do by ways of satellite communication. This will not only be very convenient will also help to save the many lives at risk during a fire.

Forest cover almost one third of the Earths surface. There are over 700 million acres of forest in the US alone. The forest is not only a place for animals to get food and shelter it is also a place where many humans love to vacation, hike, camp, or simply enjoy the outdoors. Unfortunately forest fires are destroying our forest by thousands of acres every time a fire is started.  All that it takes to start the blaze is a smoldering match, a strike of lightning, or a spark form an abandoned campfire. Any of these things could cause dry or dead leaves and branches to instantly catch on fire. As the fire spreads very rapidly the concern is no longer for the plants and animals, it is now a very critical situation for many peoples homes and other buildings in the surrounding environment. www.dce.vic.gov.com

As the year 2000 quickly approaches fire management teams are hoping to get ahead on   the endless fight of forest fires. A specific group called The integrated Fire Management Project is a technical corporation project under agreement between Indonesia and Germany. The project began in 1994 and is scheduled to last for eight years. Phase two of the project (1997-2000), IFFM has become a cooperation project with a German Development bank, which is providing a 10 million DM to purchase fire equipment. Some of the groups’ missions and values include the reduction of human caused forest fires. Statistics show that only 25% of forest fires are lightning related, the other 75% of fires are human caused. Some more goals are to minimize the impact of wildfires, and to exercise the most amount of environmental care when fighting or using fire in the natural environment.

When a forest fire breaks out traveling to its location could take endless hours to reach. Luckily there are people with enough guts to parachute into a tiny forest clearing or repel down a 100-foot tree to reach a fire before it is to late to save anything at all. These very brave people are called smoke jumpers. These people are not the ones who put out the fire physically; they are the ones who beat the fire mentally. They use ways of satellite radio and other methods to alert the rest of the firefighters when and where to attach first. www.fema.gov.com

The only mistake one can make when trapped in a forest fire is not knowing how to react. The most important thing to remember is that you cannot outrun a fire. If you can crouch yourself in a pond or a river covering your head and upper body with wet clothing. If water is not around, look for shelter in a clear area like a bed of rocks. Lie flat and cover up with wet clothing or soil. Breathe only the air close to the ground to avoid inhaling toxic smoke. www.fema.com

As the year 2000 approaches more and more techniques to fighting forest fires are emerging. The effort to stop the fire before it starts is simply impossible. There are millions of acres of woodlands in our world, keeping the all fire free is an optimistic idea. The more we try to predict and protect when and where fires might break out the more knowledge we gain on how to stop them before it is too late. As the earth grows old so does the fight of forest fires. All we can do now is hope that there is never a fire that somehow cannot be controlled.