Fire damage, as a research topic, refers to the physical, chemical, and structural alterations in materials, ecosystems, or built environments resulting from exposure to high temperatures and combustion processes. It encompasses thermal degradation of polymers and composites, charring and strength loss in wood, phase transformations and spalling in concrete, microstructural changes and residual stress development in metals, and alterations in soil and vegetation properties in ecological systems. Studies of fire damage quantify heat flux, temperature-time histories, material property evolution, and post-fire residual capacity, often using experimental fire testing, thermogravimetric and spectroscopic analyses, and computational fire and heat-transfer modeling to assess performance, safety, and resilience.
From tornadoes and hurricanes to wildfires and floods, weather and climate disasters cause billions of dollars in damage, on top of their steep human toll. Those costs could rise sharply in the years ahead, according to a ...
Environment
Feb 24, 2026
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Up to 30% of bird diversity hotspots, places where large numbers of different bird species occur, in the western United States face threats from high-severity wildfires in the future that could eliminate critical forest habitats, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 18, 2026
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A Purdue University digital forestry team has created a computational tool to obtain and analyze urban tree inventories on public and private lands with record-breaking speed at an unprecedented scale. The team accomplished ...
Ecology
Feb 18, 2026
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Humans' exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping how our bodies heal, fight infection, and sometimes fail under extreme injury, according to new ...
Evolution
Feb 4, 2026
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A new analysis shows that the Pacific Northwest's mature and old-growth forests are most at risk of severe wildfire in areas that historically burned frequently at lower severity. The study by scientists at Oregon State University ...
Environment
Feb 3, 2026
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A new study finds that Canada could remove at least five times its annual carbon emissions with strategic planting of more than six million trees along the northern edge of the boreal forest. The paper, "Substantial carbon ...
Environment
Feb 1, 2026
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The patchwork efforts to identify and safely remove contamination left by the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires have been akin to the Wild West. Experts have given conflicting guidance on best practices. Shortly after the fires, ...
Environment
Jan 29, 2026
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Chile is reeling from one of its most serious wildfire emergencies in years.
Environment
Jan 22, 2026
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Wildfires that have killed 20 people in southern Chile and wiped out entire towns raged for a third day Monday, fanned by warm temperatures and strong winds at the height of the southern hemisphere summer.
Environment
Jan 19, 2026
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19
Victoria has just suffered some of its worst bushfires since the Black Summer fires of 2019–20. Over 400,000 hectares are estimated to have burnt so far, an area more than five times larger than Singapore.
Plants & Animals
Jan 16, 2026
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