One great
fire fuel is
eucalyptus
trees.
People like
to plant them.
They grow fast.
They are also
a dangerous
fire hazard.
Humans
have spread
that dangerous
fire hazard
plant all over
the world !
From a 2013
article titled:
" Australia's
Wildfires:
Are Eucalyptus
Trees to Blame? ":
"Looking at the eucalyptus
forest outside my window
in Tasmania, I see a gigantic
fire hazard,"
David Bowman,
David Bowman,
a forest ecologist at the
University of Tasmania
in Australia, told KQED.
"On a really
hot day,
those things
are going to
burn like torches
and shower
our suburbs
with sparks."
Like many plants
that are native to
fire-prone regions,
eucalyptus trees
( "gum trees" in Australia )
are adapted
to survive, and
even thrive,
in a wildfire.
Fallen eucalyptus leaves
create dense carpets
of flammable material,
and the trees' bark
peels off
in long streamers,
in long streamers,
that drop to the ground,
providing additional fuel,
that draws ground fires
up into the leaves,
creating massive,
fast-spreading
"crown fires"
in the upper story
of eucalyptus forests.
in the upper story
of eucalyptus forests.
The eucalyptus oil
that gives the trees
their characteristic
spicy fragrance,
which I do not like,
is a flammable oil.
This oil, combined with
leaf litter and peeling bark,
during periods of dry, windy
weather, can turn a small
ground fire into a terrifying,
explosive firestorm
in a matter of minutes.
That's why
eucalyptus trees
— especially
the blue gums
( Eucalyptus globulus )
common throughout
New South Wales
Australia,
are sometimes
referred to as
"gasoline trees."
The threat posed
by eucalyptus groves
was highlighted in 1991,
when a wildfire torched
the hills surrounding
Oakland, Calif.
That conflagration
killed 25 people and
obliterated more than
3,000 homes,
according to the
Federal Emergency
Management Agency
( FEMA ),
and was blamed
primarily on the
thousands of
eucalyptus trees
found throughout
the Oakland Hills.
Despite their
well-earned
reputation as
a firefighter's
worst nightmare,
eucalyptus trees
remain a favorite
landscape specimen
-- for fast-growing
stands of shade trees
that help repel insects
through the same
eucalyptus oil
that's blamed for
fueling wildfires.
"Eucalyptus groves
on steep hillsides
— like those
in the East Bay hills —
are extremely
flammable when hot
winds of late summer
and fall start blowing
and make control
of a moving flame
front impossible
until the
winds stop,"
winds stop,"
said Tom Klatt,
UC Berkeley campus
environmental manager,
said in a report from the
university's Division of
Agriculture and Natural
Resources NewsCenter.