Social Impact of Large-Scale Forest Fires

Growing public alarm at the problem of large-scale forest fires, is evident from an assessment of their past and present repercussions on the population in general. Numerous and varied media reports indicate the extraordinary social and environmental impact of forest fires. Emergency situations caused by evacuations, physical injury and at worst, loss of human life are extensively covered in the media which moreover lists environmental damage and figures for the numbers involved in the suppression operations, plaice firemen, volunteers, army air and land resources etc… Blocked roads and railway lines, electricity, mobile and land telephone lines cut, destruction of homes and industries, and the way of life of many communities are annual news stories and the balance of the catastrophe caused by fire results in a wealth of articles, editorials and communications. A search in the newspaper archives reveals shocking figures, which we offer here to illustrate the magnitude of a problem which is now unsustainable and to which the managers and politicians responsible have become accustomed.