Fires, as a research topic, encompass the study of uncontrolled combustion processes in natural or built environments, including their ignition mechanisms, propagation dynamics, energy release, and interaction with surrounding materials and atmospheres. Scientific investigation addresses thermal radiation, convection, and conduction, flame chemistry, plume behavior, and the production and transport of particulates and gaseous emissions. Research spans wildland and forest fires, structural and industrial fires, and their impacts on ecosystems, air quality, climate, and human health. It also includes fire detection, modeling, and suppression strategies, as well as risk assessment and mitigation within environmental, engineering, and public safety frameworks.
Between 2023 and 2025, more than 30 million hectares burned in Canada due to wildfires. The threat from increasingly frequent and intense wildfires goes beyond fire and smoke—the heat can also transform naturally occurring ...
Environment
Mar 5, 2026
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Canada's drinking water can remain at risk long after wildfires burn out, according to a UBC-led global review that found water-quality impacts often emerge months or years later—not just immediately after a fire. Researchers ...
Environment
Mar 4, 2026
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19
In 2019 and again in 2021, Penn State researchers in the Department of Geography walked a series of 1,000 square foot plots in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. The goal was to see how the forest that's hands-off ...
Ecology
Mar 4, 2026
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14
United Launch Alliance was hoping to ramp up its new Vulcan rocket launches this year, but won't be launching any national security missions until it solves a recurring issue of booster nozzles burning off the rocket on launch.
Space Exploration
Mar 3, 2026
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28
The devastating wildfires in northern Canada in recent years have climate consequences that go far beyond smoke and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, according to a new study co-authored by two NAU researchers. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades. More fires are burning at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where homes and other buildings meet the natural landscape—but our understanding ...
Environment
Feb 25, 2026
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23
There is a long history of the mechanical thinning of forests in standard forestry operations. Thinning typically involves removing some 30–50% of the standing volume of trees with commercially valued logs removed via tracked ...
Ecology
Feb 25, 2026
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16
Wildfires and power outages caused by vegetation near powerlines have contributed to some of the state's most destructive fires.
Environment
Feb 20, 2026
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23
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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19
A research team led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) has published a foundational inventory of emissions produced by structures destroyed by fires in the wildland-urban ...
Environment
Feb 18, 2026
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