Currently, the most serious issue in Korea is wildfires that happened in Yeongnam, Chungcheong, and Honam region, due to various reasons such as strong wind and dry climate due to climate change. According to the newsletters, it took approximately 149 hours to subjugate the fire, having more than 200 people deployed at the site. Even though many firefighters have put in every effort to extinguish the fire, the afflicted areas were more than 45000 hectares. As we can see, wildfire is a disaster that both negatively affects the environment and humans. In this article, the causes and effects of wildfires will be explained.

Wildfires can be caused for many reasons. The two main reasons are natural events and human activities. Wildfires that happen through natural events depend on the climate, landforms, and vegetation. Lightning is the most common cause that naturally occurs and causes fire. As the cumulonimbus cloud forms, water droplets build up a large electrical charge including positive and negative charge. When the difference between the charges becomes strong enough, it creates a path for electricity to flow and results in a lightning bolt which is a sudden discharge of electricity between the charged cloud and negatively charged ground. As this lightning strikes the ground, it can create flame and catch on fire.

If the region is near the volcano, it has a higher chance to be affected by wildfire, because volcanic eruptions are another natural cause of wildfires. The volcano stays dormant like normal mountains until the pressure inside the Earth becomes too strong and pushes the magma up through the Earth’s crust. As the magma erupts like lava during the volcanic eruption, it flows and spreads out over the grounds with ash and molten rock and causes fire. Because of its high temperature which is about 700 to 1200 celsius degrees, it burns everything, making everything in its path flammable. Another natural factor could be dry climate which can easily lead to the ignition of fires and spontaneous combustion which is the ignition of combustible materials such as stacked hay and dry leaves without any external factors.

Have any of you heard that nearly 84 percent of wildfires in the US are started by humans or by human activities? The rate is much higher than the wildfires caused naturally which is only 10 to 15 percent. This happens mostly because of human negligence such as campfires, improper disposal of smoked cigarettes, and even setting fire intentionally which is arson. The intentions are unknown, but there are more than many arsonists people think. People set fire to gain money from insurance, to protest, and other psychological issues such as Pyromania, which is a mental disorder that causes people to fail to control the impulse to set fire. Many people also do campfires without the idea that it might lead to wildfires. If they fail to control the fire, it will spread instantly. Because of this some areas strictly ban campfires. Although these people aren’t intended, they might be punished against the law. Lastly is thrown away cigarettes that are still lit. These days, many people throw away cigarettes anywhere after they smoke. This is dangerous because when a wind blows at an unfortunate time, it will catch fire to other flammable objects causing a wildfire.

What are the devastating impacts of wildfire? The impact continues during the wildfire and after the fire is extinguished. As the fire burns in nature, it emits a large amount of carbon dioxide which contributes to global greenhouse gas levels. It negatively affects both ecosystems and humans. The effects on ecosystems are rising temperatures leading to rising sea levels as the glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic melt, extreme weathers such as floods and droughts becoming more intense and frequent leading to animals and plants losing their habitat and extinction of certain species disrupting the food chain, and ocean acidifying as the carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean, which can lead to damaging sea animals. The effects on humans are mostly health problems. Smoke and pollutants released during the fire cause respiratory diseases such as asthma and increased temperature causes heat-related diseases that might lead to long-term health problems for people who were near the affected region. It also impacts economically with the huge amount of money to restore the damaged areas.

Throughout these, wildfire is a natural disaster that shouldn’t happen for both our environment and humans. People can’t control natural disasters that occur naturally but can stop them from happening through human activities. They can avoid using fire in mountains or forests, and stop throwing away cigarettes anywhere.