Impacts of Fire on Society: Extreme Fire Propagation Issues

Human activities namely forest management interact with natural conditions to determine fire occurrence and fire impact in a complex form. Climate change tends to facilitate even larger and more dangerous fires. The wildland urban interface is an emerging problem derived from the expansion of urban areas associated to high risk fire conditions. Extreme fire behaviour in the form of eruptive fires, crown fires and spot fires are associated to great damage to the environment and to loss of human lives. Some cases of fatal accidents that occurred recently in Europe are presented to illustrate the proposed concepts.