Fire

The word fire comes from Old English {{lang|ags|fȳr}} and has cognates in many Germanic languages and other Indo-European languages.{{cite book|last=Kroonen|first=Guus|date=2013|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic|location=Leiden|publisher=Koninklijke Brill NV|page=151|isbn=978-90-04-18340-7}} The Proto-Germanic nominative form is reconstructed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|fōr}}, descending from Proto-Indo-European {{lang|ine-x-proto|péh₂wr}}. An alternative spelling existed in Middle English: {{lang|enm|fier}}; still preserved in fiery.{{Cite web|title=fire|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/fire|access-date=2025-02-12|website=Online Etymological Dictionary|language=en|archive-date=2025-01-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118141346/http://www.etymonline.com/word/fire|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Fossil record of fire}}

The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, {{ma|470}}.{{cite journal |last1=Wellman |first1=C. H. |last2=Gray |first2=J. |year=2000 |title=The microfossil record of early land plants |journal=Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci |volume=355 |issue=1398 |pages=717–31; discussion 731–2 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2000.0612 |pmc=1692785 |pmid=10905606}} These land plants contributed large amounts of oxygen to the atmosphere when they released it as a waste product. When this concentration rose above 13%, it permitted the possibility of wildfire.{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Timothy P. |last2=Chaloner |first2=William G. |year=1991 |title=Fossil charcoal, its recognition and palaeoatmospheric significance |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=97 |issue=1–2 |pages=39–50 |bibcode=1991PPP....97...39J |doi=10.1016/0031-0182(91)90180-Y}} Wildfire is first recorded in the Late Silurian fossil record, {{Ma|420}}, by fossils of charred plants.{{cite journal |last1=Glasspool |first1=I. J. |last2=Edwards |first2=D. |last3=Axe |first3=L. |year=2004 |title=Charcoal in the Silurian as evidence for the earliest wildfire |journal=Geology |volume=32 |issue=5 |pages=381–383 |bibcode=2004Geo....32..381G |doi=10.1130/G20363.1}}{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=A. C. |last2=Glasspool |first2=I. J. |year=2006 |title=The diversification of Paleozoic fire systems and fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen concentration |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=103 |issue=29 |pages=10861–5 |bibcode=2006PNAS..10310861S |doi=10.1073/pnas.0604090103 |pmc=1544139 |pmid=16832054 |doi-access=free}} Apart from a controversial gap in the Late Devonian, charcoal is present ever since. The level of atmospheric oxygen is closely correlated with the amount of charcoal in the fossil record, clearly pointing to oxygen as the key factor in the prevalence of wildfire.{{cite journal |last1=Bowman |first1=D. M. J. S. |last2=Balch |first2=J. K. |last3=Artaxo |first3=P. |last4=Bond |first4=W. J. |last5=Carlson |first5=J. M. |last6=Cochrane |first6=M. A. |last7=d'Antonio |first7=C. M. |last8=Defries |first8=R. S. |last9=Doyle |first9=J. C. |last10=Harrison |first10=S. P. |last11=Johnston |first11=F. H. |last12=Keeley |first12=J. E. |last13=Krawchuk |first13=M. A. |last14=Kull |first14=C. A. |last15=Marston |first15=J. B. |year=2009 |title=Fire in the Earth system |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5926 |pages=481–4 |bibcode=2009Sci...324..481B |doi=10.1126/science.1163886 |pmid=19390038 |s2cid=22389421 |last16=Moritz |first16=M. A. |last17=Prentice |first17=I. C. |last18=Roos |first18=C. I. |last19=Scott |first19=A. C. |last20=Swetnam |first20=T. W. |last21=Van Der Werf |first21=G. R. |last22=Pyne |first22=S. J. |url=https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090707-150808418 |access-date=2024-01-26 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111415/https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/m358a-0c317 |url-status=live }} Fire also became more abundant when grasses became the dominant component of many ecosystems, around {{Ma|6|7}},{{cite journal |last1=Retallack |first1=Gregory J. |date=1997 |title=Neogene expansion of the North American prairie |journal=PALAIOS |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=380–90 |bibcode=1997Palai..12..380R |doi=10.2307/3515337 |jstor=3515337}} providing excellent tinder for more rapid spread of fire. This widespread emergence of wildfire may have initiated a positive feedback process, whereby they produced a warmer, drier climate more conducive to fire.

The period of history characterized by the influence of human-caused fire activity on Earth has been dubbed the pyrocene. This epoch includes the burning of fossil fuels, especially for technological uses.{{cite web | title=Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene | first=Stephen | last=Pyne | date=February 10, 2025 | publisher=Modern Sciences | url=https://modernsciences.org/human-use-fire-era-uncontrolled-burning-pyrocene-february-2025/ | access-date=2025-02-26 }}

{{Main|Control of fire by early humans}}

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The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans.{{cite journal |last1=Gowlett |first1=J. A. J. |title=The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |date=2016 |volume=371 |issue=1696 |pages=20150164 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0164 |pmid=27216521 |pmc=4874402 |doi-access=free}} Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, simultaneously increasing the variety and availability of nutrients and reducing disease by killing pathogenic microorganisms in the food.{{Cite journal |last1=Gowlett |first1=J. A. J. |last2=Wrangham |first2=R. W. |date=2013 |title=Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2012.756754 |s2cid=163033909}} The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of occasional cooked food is found from {{Ma|1.0}},{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Matt |year=2012 |title=Million-year-old ash hints at origins of cooking |url=https://www.nature.com/news/million-year-old-ash-hints-at-origins-of-cooking-1.10372 |url-status=live |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/nature.2012.10372 |s2cid=177595396 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001174313/http://www.nature.com/news/million-year-old-ash-hints-at-origins-of-cooking-1.10372 |archive-date=1 October 2019 |access-date=25 August 2020}} suggesting it was used in a controlled fashion.{{cite web |last=O'Carroll |first=Eoin |date=5 April 2012 |title=Were Early Humans Cooking Their Food a Million Years Ago? |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/early-humans-cooking-food-million-years-ago/story?id=16080804#.T4IyWe1rFDI |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204145413/https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/early-humans-cooking-food-million-years-ago/story?id=16080804#.T4IyWe1rFDI |archive-date=4 February 2020 |access-date=10 January 2020 |work=ABC News |quote=Early humans harnessed fire as early as a million years ago, much earlier than previously thought, suggests evidence unearthed in a cave in South Africa.}}{{cite journal | first1=Francesco | last1=Berna | first2=Paul | last2=Goldberg | first3=Liora Kolska | last3=Horwitz | first4=Michael | last4=Chazan |date=May 15, 2012 |title=Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa |journal=PNAS |volume=109 |issue=20 |pages=E1215–E1220 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1117620109 |pmc=3356665 |pmid=22474385 |doi-access=free}} Other sources put the date of regular use at 400,000 years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Bowman |first1=D. M. J. S. |last2=Balch |first2=J. K. |last3=Artaxo |first3=P. |last4=Bond |first4=W. J. |last5=Carlson |first5=J. M. |last6=Cochrane |first6=M. A. |last7=d'Antonio |first7=C. M. |last8=Defries |first8=R. S. |last9=Doyle |first9=J. C. |last10=Harrison |first10=S. P. |last11=Johnston |first11=F. H. |last12=Keeley |first12=J. E. |last13=Krawchuk |first13=M. A. |last14=Kull |first14=C. A. |last15=Marston |first15=J. B. |year=2009 |title=Fire in the Earth system |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5926 |pages=481–84 |bibcode=2009Sci...324..481B |doi=10.1126/science.1163886 |pmid=19390038 |s2cid=22389421 |last16=Moritz |first16=M. A. |last17=Prentice |first17=I. C. |last18=Roos |first18=C. I. |last19=Scott |first19=A. C. |last20=Swetnam |first20=T. W. |last21=Van Der Werf |first21=G. R. |last22=Pyne |first22=S. J. |url=https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090707-150808418 |access-date=2024-01-26 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111415/https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/m358a-0c317 |url-status=live }} Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; resistance to air pollution started to evolve in human populations at a similar point in time. The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, as it was used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from tens of thousands of years ago.

File:Potjiekos over a fire.gif above fire in South Africa.]]

By the Neolithic Revolution, during the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in landscape management. These fires were typically controlled burns or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires", which damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities.{{cite book |last=Pyne |first=Stephen J. |title=Advances in Historical Ecology |date=1998 |publisher=University of Columbia Press |isbn=0-231-10632-7 |editor-last=Balée |editor-first=William |series=Historical Ecology Series |pages=78–84 |chapter=Forged in Fire: History, Land and Anthropogenic Fire |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5cUpbvNcH4C&pg=PA76 }} This is especially a problem in the forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and autumn. They clear undergrowth, burning up biomass that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable.{{cite journal | title=Fire as a forest management tool: prescribed burning in the southern United States | last1=Wade | first1=D. D. | last2=Lundsford | first2=J. | year=1990 | journal=Unasylva | volume=41 | issue=3 | pages=28–38 | url=https://www.fao.org/4/t9500e/t9500e07.htm | access-date=2025-02-25 }}

Another human use for fire in regards to landscape management is its use to clear land for agriculture. Slash-and-burn agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. For small farmers, controlled fires are a convenient way to clear overgrown areas and release nutrients from standing vegetation back into the soil.{{cite web |last=Krajick |first=Kevin |date=16 November 2011 |title=Farmers, Flames and Climate: Are We Entering an Age of 'Mega-Fires'? – State of the Planet |url=http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/11/16/farmers-flames-and-climate-are-we-entering-an-age-of-mega-fires/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526005052/http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/11/16/farmers-flames-and-climate-are-we-entering-an-age-of-mega-fires/ |archive-date=2012-05-26 |access-date=2012-05-23 |publisher=Columbia Climate School}} However, this useful strategy is also problematic. Growing population, fragmentation of forests and warming climate are making the earth's surface more prone to ever-larger escaped fires. These harm ecosystems and human infrastructure, cause health problems, and send up spirals of carbon and soot that may encourage even more warming of the atmosphere – and thus feed back into more fires. Globally today, as much as 5 million square kilometres – an area more than half the size of the United States – burns in a given year.

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| image1 = The Great Fire of London, with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's.JPG

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| image2 = Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. CL3400.jpg

| alt2 = The Lyceum in 1861

| footer = The Great Fire of London (1666) and Hamburg after four fire-bombing raids in July 1943, which killed an estimated 50,000 people"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/html/4.stm In Pictures: German destruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213141457/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/html/4.stm |date=2019-12-13 }}". BBC News.

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Throughout much of history, cultures attempted to explain nature and the properties of matter by proposing a set of four (or five) classical elements, of which fire formed one of the components. As scientific understanding developed following the Middle Ages, this philosophy was replaced by a set of chemical elements and their interactions. Instead, the classical elements found an equivalency in the states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.{{cite journal | title=The Origin of the Elements | last=Penzias | first=A. A. | author-link=Arno Allan Penzias | journal=Science | date=August 1979 | volume=205 | issue=4406 | pages=549–554 | doi=10.1126/science.205.4406.549 | bibcode=1979Sci...205..549P }}

During the 17th century, a study of combustion was made by Jan Baptist van Helmont who discovered that burning charcoal released a gas sylvestris, or wild spirit.{{cite book | chapter=The discovery of the Carbon Dioxide molecule | first=Han | last=Dolman | date=March 2023 | pages=37–61 | title=Carbon Dioxide through the Ages: From wild spirit to climate culprit | isbn=9780198869412 | publisher=Oxford University Press | doi=10.1093/oso/9780198869412.003.0003 }} This was subsequently incorporated into Phlogiston theory by Johann Joachim Becher in 1667; a concept that would dominate alchemical thinking for nearly two centuries.{{cite web | title=Combustion | work=Science Encyclopedia | url=https://science.jrank.org/pages/1628/Combustion-History.html | access-date=2025-03-07 }} It was Antoine Lavoisier who demonstrated that combustion did not involve the release of a substance, but rather something was being taken up. In 1777, Lavoisier proposed a new theory of combustion based on the reaction of a material with a component of air, which he termed oxygène. By 1791, Lavoisier's chemistry concepts had been widely adopted by young scientists, and Phlogiston theory was rejected.{{cite web | title=The Chemical Revolution of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier | series=International Historic Chemical Landmark | publisher=American Chemical Society | url=https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.html | access-date=2025-03-07 }}

Fire has been used for centuries as a method of torture and execution,{{cite conference

| last1=Petaros | first1=A. | last2=Borrini | first2=M. | last3=Josip | first3=A. | year=2009 | title=The history of fire and torture – fire in crimes committed against the integrity of life and health | conference=V Meeting of the International Society for the History of Medicine | pages=92-92 | url=https://www.croris.hr/crosbi/publikacija/prilog-skup/554979 | access-date=2025-02-25 }} as evidenced by death by burning as well as torture devices such as the iron boot,{{cite journal | title=Torture under English Law | first=Ernest G. | last=Black | journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register | volume=75 | issue=4 | date=February 1927 | pages=344–348 | doi=10.2307/3307506 | jstor=3307506 }} which could be heated over an open fire to the agony of the wearer.{{cite journal | title=The Use and Forms of Judicial Torture in England and Scotland | first=R. D. | last=Melville | journal=The Scottish Historical Review | volume=2 | issue=7 | date=April 1905 | pages=225–248 | jstor=25517609 }} In particular, see p. 238.

There are numerous modern applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire is used by nearly every human being on Earth in a controlled setting every day. Users of internal combustion vehicles employ fire every time they drive. Thermal power stations provide electricity for a large percentage of humanity by igniting fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas, then using the resultant heat to boil water into steam, which then drives turbines.{{cite web

| title=Why Fire Is the Greatest Tool of All Time

| first=Vince | last=Guerrieri | date=February 17, 2020

| work=Popular Mechanics | publisher=Hearst Digital Media

| url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a30456620/fire-greatest-tool/

| access-date=2025-02-26 }}

The use of fire in warfare has a long history. Fire was the basis of all early thermal weapons, including incendiary devices, heated projectiles, and the use of smoke. This class of weapons was particularly evident during naval battles and siege warfare. The Byzantine fleet used Greek fire to attack ships and men.{{cite journal | title=Fire and Brimstone: SO₂ as a Chemical Weapon in History | first1=Matthew D. | last1=Turner | first2=Jason | last2=Sapp | journal=Military Medicine | volume=188 | issue=11–12 | date=November 2023 | pages=286–288 | doi=10.1093/milmed/usad160 | doi-access=free }}{{cite web | title=Incendiary Weapons - History | website=GlobalSecurity.org | url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/incendiary-history.htm | access-date=2025-02-26 }}{{cite journal | title=Chemical warfare in the middle ages. Kallinikos' 'prepared fire' | first=Nicholas D. | last=Cheronis | journal=Journal of Chemical Education | volume=14 | issue=8 | page=360 | date=August 1, 1937 | doi=10.1021/ed014p360 | bibcode=1937JChEd..14..360C }}{{cite book | title=The Flamethrower | first=Chris | last=McNab | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2015 | isbn=9781472809032 | page=6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=onyXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&v=onepage }}

The invention of gunpowder in China led to the fire lance, a flame-thrower weapon dating to around 1000 CE which was a precursor to projectile weapons driven by burning gunpowder.{{cite journal | title=Cathayan Arrows and Meteors: The Origins of Chinese Rocketry | journal=Journal of Chinese Military History | first=Stephen G. | last=Haw | year=2013 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=28-42 | doi=10.1163/22127453-12341243 }} The earliest modern flamethrowers were used by infantry in the First World War, first used by German troops against entrenched French troops near Verdun in February 1915.{{Cite web | title=Flamethrower in action | url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | access-date=2023-11-02 | website=nzhistory.govt.nz | language=en | archive-date=2024-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111922/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | url-status=live }} They were later successfully mounted on armoured vehicles in the Second World War.{{cite book | title=Churchill Crocodile Flamethrower | first=David | last=Fletcher | volume=136 | series=New Vanguard | pages=4–6 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2012 | isbn=9781780968032 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJ2jCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 }}

Hand-thrown incendiary bombs improvised from glass bottles, later known as Molotov cocktails, were deployed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.{{cite journal | title=Anionic markers for the forensic identification of Chemical Ignition Molotov Cocktail composition | first1=C. | last1=Martín-Alberca | first2=J. L. | last2=Ferrando | first3=C. | last3=García-Ruiz | journal=Science & Justice | volume=53 | issue=1 | date=March 2013 | pages=49–54 | doi=10.1016/j.scijus.2012.11.004 }} During that war, incendiary bombs were deployed against Guernica by Fascist Italian and Nazi German air forces that had been created specifically to support Franco's Nationalists.{{cite journal | title=Xabier Irujo. Gernika, 1937: The Market Day Massacre | first=Ian | last=Patterson | location=Reno | publisher=University of Nevada Press | journal=The American Historical Review | volume=122 | issue=1 | date=February 1, 2017 | pages=263–264 | doi=10.1093/ahr/122.1.263 }}

Incendiary bombs were dropped by Axis and Allies during the Second World War, notably on Coventry, Tokyo, Rotterdam, London, Hamburg and Dresden. In the latter two cases, firestorms were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an updraft created by a central cluster of fires.{{cite book | first1=David P. | last1=Barash | first2=Charles P. | last2=Webel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeze4_wGViMC |title=Peace and Conflict Studies |date=10 July 2008 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4129-6120-2 |pages=365 }} The United States Army Air Force extensively used incendiaries against Japanese targets in the latter months of the war, devastating entire cities constructed primarily of wood and paper houses. The incendiary fluid napalm was used in July 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, although its use did not gain public attention until the Vietnam War.{{Cite journal |last=Guillaume |first=Marine |date=2016-12-01 |title=Napalm in US Bombing Doctrine and Practice, 1942-1975 |url=https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=14 |issue=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904095842/https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |archive-date=2020-09-04 |url-status=live }}

File:ChineseCoalPower.jpg in China]]

Burning fuel converts chemical energy into heat energy; wood has been used as fuel since prehistory.{{cite book | title=Science for All Americans | first1=F. James | last1=Rutherford | first2=Andrew | last2=Ahlgren | year=1991 | pages=114–118 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=9780195361865 | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Science_for_All_Americans/LKadiKAUljEC?gbpv=1&pg=PA114 }} The International Energy Agency states that nearly 80% of the world's power has consistently come from fossil fuels such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal in the past decades.{{cite web | date=October 2022 | url=https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022 | title=World Energy Outlook 2022 | publisher=IEA | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027232322/https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022 | archive-date=2022-10-27 }} The fire in a power station is used to heat water, creating steam that drives turbines. The turbines then spin an electric generator to produce electricity.{{Cite web |title=How electricity is generated |url=https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/how-electricity-is-generated.php |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=U.S. Energy Information Administration }} Fire is also used to provide mechanical work directly by thermal expansion, in both external and internal combustion engines.{{cite journal | title=Development of external combustion engine | journal=American Journal of Vehicle Design | last1=Maamri | first1=R. | last2=Dyatshenko | first2=W. G. | last3=Varonkov | first3=A. I. | last4=Linkov | first4=O. U. | last5=Nikitenko | first5=Y. N. | last6=Dubé | first6=Y. | last7=Toubal | first7=L. | last8=Kodjo | first8=A. | year=2013 | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=25–29 | doi=10.12691/ajvd-1-2-2 }}

The unburnable solid remains of a combustible material left after a fire is called clinker if its melting point is below the flame temperature, so that it fuses and then solidifies as it cools, and ash if its melting point is above the flame temperature.{{cite web |title=Clinker Formation in Biomass Boiler: What Is It and How To Prevent It |url=https://azwood.co.nz/articles/clinker-formation-in-biomass-boiler-what-is-it-and-how-to-prevent-it |publisher=Azwood |accessdate=2025-05-02}}

{{Main|Combustion}}

File:Combustion reaction of methane.jpg of methane, a hydrocarbon]]

Fire is a chemical process in which a fuel and an oxidizing agent react, yielding carbon dioxide and water.{{cite web|title=What is fire?|url=https://www.newscientist.com/question/what-is-fire/|work=New Scientist|access-date=November 5, 2022|archive-date=February 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202012338/https://www.newscientist.com/question/what-is-fire/|url-status=live}} This process, known as a combustion reaction, does not proceed directly and involves intermediates. Although the oxidizing agent is typically oxygen, other compounds are able to fulfill the role. For instance, chlorine trifluoride is able to ignite sand.{{cite news|last=Lowe|first=Derek|date=February 26, 2008|title=Sand Won't Save You This Time|url=https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time|work=Science|access-date=November 5, 2022|archive-date=February 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219062224/https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time|url-status=live}}

Fires start when a flammable or a combustible material, in combination with a sufficient quantity of an oxidizer such as oxygen gas or another oxygen-rich compound (though non-oxygen oxidizers exist, such as chlorine), is exposed to a source of heat or ambient temperature above the flash point for the fuel/oxidizer mix, and is able to sustain a rate of rapid oxidation that produces a chain reaction. This is commonly called the fire tetrahedron.{{cite journal | title=New Techniques and a New Approach to the Effective Extinguishing of Fully Developed Fires in Enclosed Spaces | first1=Norbert | last1=Tuśnio | first2=Paweł | last2=Wolny | journal=Internal Security | volume=8 | issue=1 | year=2016 | doi=10.5604/20805268.1231596 }} Fire cannot exist without all of these elements in place and in the right proportions. For example, a flammable liquid will start burning only if the fuel and oxygen are in the right proportions.{{cite book | contribution=Chemistry of Fire | first1=E. | last1=Stauffer | last2=NicDaéid | first2=N. | year=2017 | title=Forensic Engineering | pages=137–143 | editor-first=Max M. | editor-last=Houck | series=Advanced Forensic Science Series | publisher=Elsevier, Inc. | isbn=978-0-12-802718-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIPDDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA137 }} Some fuel-oxygen mixes may require a catalyst, a substance that is not consumed, when added, in any chemical reaction during combustion, but which enables the reactants to combust more readily.{{cite journal | title=Catalytic combustion (review) | first=D. L. | last=Trimm | journal=Applied Catalysis | volume=7 | issue=3 | date=September 15, 1983 | pages=249–282 | doi=10.1016/0166-9834(83)80027-X }}

Once ignited, a chain reaction must take place whereby fires can sustain their own heat by the further release of heat energy in the process of combustion and may propagate, provided there is a continuous supply of an oxidizer and fuel.{{cite journal | title=Fundamentals of Fire Behavior | first=H. T. | last=Gisborne | journal=Fire Management Today | pages=15–23 | volume=64 | issue=1 | date=Winter 2004 | publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhxqmIV7ybUC&pg=PP15 }} If the oxidizer is oxygen from the surrounding air, the presence of a force of gravity,{{cite journal | title=An investigation into the effects of gravity level on rate of heat release and time to ignition | first=D. | last=Bryant | journal=Fire and Materials | volume=19 | issue=3 | date=May 1995 | pages=119–126 | doi=10.1002/fam.810190304 }} or of some similar force caused by acceleration, is necessary to produce convection, which removes combustion products and brings a supply of oxygen to the fire. Without gravity, a fire rapidly surrounds itself with its own combustion products and non-oxidizing gases from the air, which exclude oxygen and extinguish the fire. Because of this, the risk of fire in a spacecraft is small when it is coasting in inertial flight.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFftT6ZR4k| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/fuFftT6ZR4k| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=Ask Astronaut Greg Chamitoff: Light a Match!|last=NASA Johnson|date=29 August 2008|access-date=30 December 2016|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|url=http://io9.com/5779127/how-does-fire-behave-in-zero-gravity|title=How does fire behave in zero gravity?|first=Esther|last=Inglis-Arkell|work=io9 |date=8 March 2011 |access-date=30 December 2016|archive-date=13 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151113161252/http://io9.com/5779127/how-does-fire-behave-in-zero-gravity|url-status=live}} This does not apply if oxygen is supplied to the fire by some process other than thermal convection.

File:Fire tetrahedron.svg]]

Fire can be extinguished by removing any one of the elements of the fire tetrahedron. Consider a natural gas flame, such as from a stove-top burner. The fire can be extinguished by any of the following:

• turning off the gas supply, which removes the fuel source;
• covering the flame completely, which smothers the flame as the combustion both uses the available oxidizer (the oxygen in the air) and displaces it from the area around the flame with CO₂;
• application of an inert gas such as carbon dioxide, smothering the flame by displacing the available oxidizer;{{cite journal | title=Comparative study of single inert gas in confined space inhibiting open flame coal combustion | first1=Baiwei | last1=Lei | first2=Binbin | last2=He | first3=Bowen | last3=Xiao | first4=Peiying | last4=Du | first5=Bing | last5=Wu | journal=Fuel | volume=265 | date=April 1, 2020 | doi=10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116976 }}
• application of water, which removes heat from the fire faster than the fire can produce it{{cite journal | title=Fire suppression by water sprays | first1=G. | last1=Grant | first2=J. | last2=Brenton | first3=D. | last3=Drysdale | journal=Progress in Energy and Combustion Science | volume=26 | issue=2 | date=April 2000 | pages=79–130 | doi=10.1016/S0360-1285(99)00012-X }} (similarly, blowing hard on a flame will displace the heat of the currently burning gas from its fuel source, to the same end); or
• application of a retardant chemical such as Halon (largely banned in some countries {{asof|2023|lc=y}}) to the flame, which retards the chemical reaction itself until the rate of combustion is too slow to maintain the chain reaction.{{cite journal | title=Thermal characteristics of fire extinguishing agents in compartment fire suppression | first1=Tae-Sun | last1=Kim | first2=Tae-Hee | last2=Park | first3=Jeong-Hwa | last3=Park | first4=Ji-Hyun | last4=Yang | first5=Dong-Hun | last5=Han | first6=Byeong-Chae | last6=Lee | first7=Jin-Suk | last7=Kwon | journal=Science Progress | date=August 2024 | volume=107 | issue=3 | doi=10.1177/003685042412634 | pmid=39096047 }}

In contrast, fire is intensified by increasing the overall rate of combustion. Methods to do this include balancing the input of fuel and oxidizer to stoichiometric proportions, increasing fuel and oxidizer input in this balanced mix, increasing the ambient temperature so the fire's own heat is better able to sustain combustion, or providing a catalyst, a non-reactant medium in which the fuel and oxidizer can more readily react.

{{Main|Flame}}

{{See also|Flame test}}

File:Candle-light-animated.gif's flame]]

A diffusion flame is a mixture of reacting gases and solids emitting visible, infrared, and sometimes ultraviolet light, the frequency spectrum of which depends on the chemical composition of the burning material and intermediate reaction products. During the burning of hydrocarbons, for example wood, or the incomplete combustion of gas, incandescent solid particles called soot produce the familiar red-orange glow of "fire".{{cite book | title=Principles of Combustion | first1=Allan T. | last1=Kirkpatrick | first2=Kenneth K. | last2=Kuo | year=2024 | page=369 | isbn=9781394187072 | publisher=Wiley | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Principles_of_Combustion/uokoEQAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&pg=PA369 }}{{cite book | title=Fundamentals of Combustion | first=D. P. | last=Mishra | year=2007 | pages=172–174 | isbn=9788120333482 | publisher=PHI Learning | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/FUNDAMENTALS_OF_COMBUSTION/PwDVwvFBqA0C?gbpv=1&pg=PA172 }} This light has a continuous spectrum. Complete combustion of gas has a dim blue color{{cite web | title=Why does natural gas burn blue? | date=October 31, 2023 | website=Met | url=https://group.met.com/en/media/energy-insight/why-does-natural-gas-burn-blue | access-date=2025-03-03 }} due to the emission of single-wavelength radiation from various electron transitions in the excited molecules formed in the flame.

Usually oxygen is involved, but hydrogen burning in chlorine also produces a flame, producing hydrogen chloride (HCl).{{cite journal | title=The Atomic Weight of Chlorine: An Attempt to Determine the Equivalent of Chlorine by Direct Burning with Hydrogen | last1=Dixon | first1=Harold B. | last2=Edgar | first2=E. C. | journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical or Physical Character | volume=205 | pages=169–200 | year=1906 | doi=10.1098/rsta.1906.0005 | bibcode=1906RSPTA.205..169D }} Other possible combinations producing flames, amongst many, are fluorine with hydrogen,{{cite journal | title=The Premixed Hydrogen-Fluorine Flame and its Burning Velocity | last1=Grosse | first1=A. V. | last2=Kirshenbaum | first2=A. D. | journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society | volume=77 | issue=19 | pages=5012–5013 | date=October 1955 | doi=10.1021/ja01624a018 | bibcode=1955JAChS..77.5012G }} and hydrazine with dinitrogen tetroxide.{{cite conference | last1=Melof | first1=Brian M. | last2=Grubelich | first2=Mark C. | date=November 15, 2000 | title=Investigation of Hypergolic Fuels with Hydrogen Peroxide | url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/767866 | language=English | conference=3rd International Hydrogen Peroxide Propulsion Conference | osti=767866 }} Hydrogen and hydrazine/UDMH flames are similarly pale blue, while burning boron and its compounds, evaluated in mid-20th century as a high energy fuel for jet and rocket engines, emits intense green flame, leading to its informal nickname of "Green Dragon".{{cite web | title=Diborane: The Story of an Undergraduate vs a Nobel Laureate | first1=Ollie | last1=Whitley | first2=Stephen | last2=Belding | series=Molecule of the Month | date=October 2020 | publisher=University of Bristol School of Chemistry | url=https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/diborane/diboraneh.htm | access-date=2025-03-03 }}

File:Northwest Crown Fire Experiment.png in the Northwest Territories, showing variations in the flame color due to temperature. The hottest parts near the ground appear yellowish-white, while the cooler upper parts appear red.]]

The glow of a flame is complex. Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas, and fuel particles, though the soot particles are too small to behave like perfect blackbodies. There is also photon emission by de-excited atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of the radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands. The color depends on temperature for the black-body radiation, and on chemical makeup for the emission spectra.{{cite web | title=Examples of blackbody radiators | date=November 12, 1998 | publisher=NASA – Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory | url=https://acd-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/anonftp/acd/daac_ozone/Lecture4/Text/Lecture_4/blkbdyexamples.html#candle | access-date=2025-03-05 }}

File:Space Fire.jpg]]

The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In microgravity or zero gravity,{{cite web | url=https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12may_1.htm | title=Spiral flames in microgravity] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100319113411/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12may_1.htm | archive-date=2010-03-19 | publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration | year=2000 }} such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become more blue and more efficient (although it may go out if not moved steadily, as the CO₂ from combustion does not disperse as readily in microgravity, and tends to smother the flame). There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is sufficiently evenly distributed that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs.{{cite web | url=http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/cfm/usml-1_results.htm | title=CFM-1 experiment results | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912095009/http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/cfm/usml-1_results.htm |archive-date=2007-09-12 | publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration | date=April 2005 }}

Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in microgravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions.{{cite web | url=http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/lsp/lsp1_results.htm | title=LSP-1 experiment results | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312020123/http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/lsp/lsp1_results.htm | archive-date=2007-03-12 | publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration | date=April 2005 }} These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry, especially concerning fuel efficiency.

{{Main|Adiabatic flame temperature}}

The adiabatic flame temperature of a given fuel and oxidizer pair is that at which the gases achieve stable combustion.

• Oxy–dicyanoacetylene {{convert|4990|C|F|sigfig=2}}{{cite web | title=Adiabatic Flame Temperature Chart | website=Science Notes | date=January 6, 2021 | first=Anne | last=Helmenstine | url=https://sciencenotes.org/adiabatic-flame-temperature-chart/ | access-date=2025-03-05 }}
• Oxy–acetylene {{convert|3997|C|F|sigfig=2}}{{cite web | title=Adiabatic Flame Temperatures | website=Engineering Toolbox | year=2003 | url=https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/adiabatic-flame-temperature-d_996.html | access-date=2025-03-01 }}
• Oxyhydrogen {{convert|3473|C|F|sigfig=2}}
• Air–acetylene {{convert|2500|C|F|sigfig=2}}
• Blowtorch (air–MAPP gas) {{convert|2020|°C|°F|abbr=on|sigfig=2}}
• Bunsen burner (air–natural gas) {{convert|1300|to|1600|C|F|sigfig=2}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.derose.net/steve/resources/engtables/flametemp.html|title=Flame temperatures|website=www.derose.net|access-date=2007-07-09|archive-date=2014-04-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417022946/http://www.derose.net/steve/resources/engtables/flametemp.html|url-status=live}}
• Candle (air–paraffin) {{convert|1000|°C|°F|abbr=on|sigfig=2}}

Fire science is a branch of physical science which includes fire behavior, dynamics, and combustion. Applications of fire science include fire protection, fire investigation, and wildfire management.

{{Main|Fire ecology}}

Every natural ecosystem on land has its own fire regime, and the organisms in those ecosystems are adapted to or dependent upon that fire regime. Fire creates a mosaic of different habitat patches, each at a different stage of succession.{{cite book | last1=Begon | first1=M. | first2=J. L. | last2=Harper | first3=C. R. | last3=Townsend | year=1996 | title=Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems | edition=Third | publisher=Blackwell Science Ltd. | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, US | isbn=978-1-4051-1117-1 }} Different species of plants, animals, and microbes specialize in exploiting a particular stage, and by creating these different types of patches, fire allows a greater number of species to exist within a landscape.{{Cite journal | last=Hutto | first=Richard L. | date=December 1, 2008 | title=The Ecological Importance of Severe Wildfires: Some Like It Hot | journal=Ecological Applications | language=en | volume=18 | issue=8 | pages=1827–1834 | doi=10.1890/08-0895.1 | pmid=19263880 | issn=1939-5582 | doi-access=free | bibcode=2008EcoAp..18.1827H}}

{{Main|Firefighting|Aerial firefighting|Wildfire suppression}}

Fire fighting services are provided in most developed areas to extinguish or contain uncontrolled fires. Trained firefighters use fire apparatus, water supply resources such as water mains and fire hydrants or they might use A and B class foam depending on what is feeding the fire.{{cite web | title=Class A and B: What you need to know about foam | first=Geary | last=Roberts | website=Fire Apparatus Magazine | date=April 1, 2010 | url=https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/equipment/class-a-and-b-what-you-need-to-know-about-foam/ | access-date=2025-02-28 }}{{cite web | title=Firefighting tools recommended for fire professionals | first=John | last=Smit | website=World Rescuers | url=https://worldrescuers.com/firefighting-tools/ | access-date=2025-02-28 }}

The early detection of a wildfire outbreak can be performed by a fire lookout observing from a tower constructed for that purpose. The use of these towers peaked in 1938 and has been in decline since that time; most of the fire surveillance work is now performed using infrared sensors and aircraft.{{cite web | title=History of Fire Tower Lookout and Cabin Rentals | publisher=USDA Forest Service | url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r1/recreation/?cid=fsp5_030804 | access-date=2025-03-05 }} Fire suppression aircraft guided by a lookout can be used to help manage wildfires. These are primarily used in support of ground crews{{cite web | title=Does Using Airplanes to Put out Forest Fires Actually Work? | first=Ben | last=Christopher | website=Priceonomics | url=https://priceonomics.com/does-using-airplanes-to-put-out-forest-fires/ | access-date=2025-02-28 }}

{{Main|Wildfire#Prevention|Fire prevention|Fire protection|Fire safety}}

File:Fire inside an abandoned convent in Massueville, Quebec, Canada.jpg]]

Controlling a fire to optimize its size, shape, and intensity is generally called fire management, and the more advanced forms of it, as traditionally (and sometimes still) practiced by skilled cooks, blacksmiths, ironmasters, and others, are highly skilled activities. They include knowledge of which fuel to burn; how to arrange the fuel; how to stoke the fire both in early phases and in maintenance phases; how to modulate the heat, flame, and smoke as suited to the desired application; how best to bank a fire to be revived later; how to choose, design, or modify stoves, fireplaces, bakery ovens, or industrial furnaces; and so on. Detailed expositions of fire management are available in various books about blacksmithing, about skilled camping or military scouting, and about domestic arts.{{cite book | title=Blacksmithing | first=James M. | last=Drew | year=2013 | publisher=Read Books Limited | page=22 | isbn=9781473385436 | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Blacksmithing/z_99CgAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&pg=PT22 }}{{cite book | series=The Safety Network | title=Home Fire Safety Checklist | year=1989 | page=2 | publisher=U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Safety_Network/jxJQHY90hm4C?gbpv=1&pg=PP2 }}{{cite book | title=Leave No Trace in the Outdoors | first=Jeffrey | last=Marion | year=2014 | pages=53–62 | publisher=Stackpole Books | isbn=9780811760515 | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Leave_No_Trace_in_the_Outdoors/mbZDBQAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&pg=PA53 }}

Wildfire prevention programs around the world may employ techniques such as wildland fire use and prescribed or controlled burns.{{cite journal | date=January 1998 | title=UK: The Role of Fire in the Ecology of Heathland in Southern Britain | url=http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/gb/gb_1.htm | url-status=live | journal=International Forest Fire News | volume=18 | pages=80–81 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716212702/http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/gb/gb_1.htm | archive-date=2011-07-16 | access-date=2011-09-03 }} Wildland fire use refers to any fire of natural causes that is monitored but allowed to burn. Controlled burns are fires ignited by government agencies under less dangerous weather conditions.{{cite web |title=Prescribed Fires |url=http://www.smokeybear.com/prescribed-fires.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020171425/http://www.smokeybear.com/prescribed-fires.asp |archive-date=2008-10-20 |access-date=2008-11-21 |publisher=SmokeyBear.com}}

Fire prevention is intended to reduce sources of ignition. Fire prevention also includes education to teach people how to avoid causing fires.{{cite web | url=http://www.firecomm.gov.mb.ca/safety_education_nero_and_ashcan.html#6 | title=Fire & Life Safety Education | publisher=Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206013312/http://www.firecomm.gov.mb.ca/safety_education_nero_and_ashcan.html#6 | archive-date=December 6, 2008 }} Buildings, especially schools and tall buildings, often conduct fire drills to inform and prepare citizens on how to react to a building fire. Purposely starting destructive fires constitutes arson and is a crime in most jurisdictions.{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXt5AW6bJiUC&pg=PA349 |title=Fire Officer: Principles and Practice |date=March 2005 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |isbn=9780763722470 }}

Model building codes require passive fire protection and active fire protection systems to minimize damage resulting from a fire. A common form of active fire protection is fire sprinklers.{{cite book | title=Principles of Fire Prevention | first=David | last=Diamantes | year=2014 | chapter=Fire Protection Systems Testing | pages=120–132 | ISBN=9781284041866 | publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC | chapter-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Principles_of_Fire_Prevention/koGHCgAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&pg=PA120 }} To maximize passive fire protection of buildings, building materials and furnishings in most developed countries are tested for fire-resistance, combustibility and flammability. Upholstery, carpeting and plastics used in vehicles and vessels are also tested.

Where fire prevention and fire protection have failed to prevent damage, fire insurance can mitigate the financial impact.{{Cite book |last1=Baars |first1=Hans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6ePCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Foundations of Information Security Based on ISO27001 and ISO27002 |last2=Smulders |first2=Andre |last3=Hintzbergen |first3=Kees |last4=Hintzbergen |first4=Jule |date=2015-04-15 |publisher=Van Haren |isbn=9789401805414 |edition=3rd revised |language=en }}

File:Injak bara.jpg ceremony]]

Fire has been an importance element of human culture since the Lower Paleolithic.{{cite journal | title=The Effects of Fire in Human Life and in the Cuisine from the Paleolithic to the Modern Age | first=Abdullah | last=Badem | journal=Journal of Ecohumanism | year=2024 | volume=3 | issue=6 | pages=269–293 | doi=10.62754/joe.v3i6.4002 }} Archaeological evidence demonstrates that fire worship has been widely practiced since prehistory, with dedicated structures found dating from at least the Chalcolithic period. Zoroastrianism originated from this practice.{{cite journal | title=Ancient Bacterian Bronze Age fire worship | first=Komil Akramovich | last=Rakhimov | journal=Research Journal of History | volume=2 | issue=5 | pages=71–77 | doi=10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-17 }} In some societies fire was a deity, while others viewed it as the manifestation of the divine. The fire in a hearth was perceived as symbolic of the Heavenly Fire, and thus is considered a sacred component by fire worshipping cultures.{{cite journal | last=Tashak | first=V. I. | year=2003 | title=Hearths at the Podzvonkaya Palaeolithic site: Evidence suggestive of the spirituality of early populations of the Trans-Baikal region | journal=Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia | volume=3 | issue=15 | pages=70–78 }} The origin of fire became a subject of mythology. In ancient Greek culture, the Titan–god Prometheus was responsible for stealing heavenly fire and gifting it to humanity.{{cite journal | title=Fire in the mind: changing understandings of fire in Western civilization | first=Stephen J. | last=Pyne | journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | date=June 5, 2016 | volume=371 | issue=1696 | doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0166 | pmc=4874404 }}

The use of a pyre as a funerary practice dates back to at least the Ancient Roman period in the West,{{cite journal | title=Building a Roman Funeral Pyre | first=David | last=Noy | journal=Antichthon | volume=34 | date=November 2000 | pages=30–45 | doi=10.1017/S0066477400001167 }} and to about 4,000 years ago on the Indian subcontinent.{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Jerome |date=2008-10-14 |title=The burning issue of Hindu funeral pyres |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-burning-issue-of-hindu-funeral-pyres-960259.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250422222730/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-burning-issue-of-hindu-funeral-pyres-960259.html |archive-date=2025-04-22 |access-date=2025-04-22 |work=The Independent}} Cremation of corpses is a tradition long practiced in some cultures, including Hindu. After early religious resistance in some countries, in the 19th century this practice became more widespread and is now commonplace.{{cite journal | title=Living with the Dead: Burial, Cremation and Memory | first=Ken | last=Warpole | journal=Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review | volume=98 | issue=392 | pages=447–456 | year=2009 | jstor=25660708 }} In some nations, suicide by self-immolation remains common.{{cite journal | title=Why self-immolation? A qualitative exploration of the motives for attempting suicide by self-immolation | first1=Leeba | last1=Rezaie | first2=Seyed Ali | last2=Hosseini | first3=Mehdi | last3=Rassafiani | first4=Farid | last4=Najafi | first5=Jalal | last5=Shakeri | first6=Hamid Reza | last6=Khankeh | journal=Burns | volume=40 | issue=2 | date=March 2014 | pages=319–327 | doi=10.1016/j.burns.2013.06.016 }}

The symbology of fire remains important to the present day. Where wood is plentiful, the bonfire can be used for celebration purposes, in many cases as part of a tradition. An example is Guy Fawkes Night in England.{{cite journal | title=Observing UK Bonfire Night pollution from space: analysis of atmospheric aerosol | first1=R. J. | last1=Pope | first2=A. M. | last2=Marshall | first3=B. O. | last3=O'Kane | journal=Weather | volume=71 | issue=11 | date=November 2016 | pages=288–291 | doi=10.1002/wea.2914 }} The barbecue is a fire-based cultural tradition in the United States.{{cite journal | title=Barbecue as a Historical Looking Glass | first=Zach | last=Myers | journal=Legacy | volume=18 | issue=1 | url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/legacy/vol18/iss1/7 | access-date=2025-03-06 }} The fiery ignition of fireworks has become a modern tradition to celebrate the New Years arrival.{{cite journal | title=Impact of New Year's Eve fireworks on the size resolved element distributions in airborne particles | first1=Stefan | last1=Tanda | first2=Roman | last2=Ličbinský | first3=Jitka | last3=Hegrová | first4=Walter | last4=Goessler | journal=Environment International | pages=371–378 | date=July 2019 | pmid=31078006 | doi=10.1016/j.envint.2019.04.071 | doi-access=free }} In contrast, book burning has been used as a form of protest, whether for political, religious, or moral reasons.{{cite journal | title=Moral Bonfires: An Exploration of Book Burning in American Society | first=Lisa | last=Olson | journal=Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management | volume=16 | year=2021 | doi=10.5931/djim.v16i1.10886 | doi-access=free }} The act of "burning in effigy" has a similar role, as in the annual burning of Judas ritual.{{cite news | title=Greek towns ritually burn Judas as Orthodox celebrate Easter | first1=Petros | last1=Giannakouris | first2=Demetris | last2=Nellas | work=Times of Israel | date=April 9, 2018 | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/greek-towns-ritually-burn-judas-as-orthodox-celebrate-easter/ | access-date=2025-03-06 }}

Humans lack an instinctual fascination with fire, yet in modern societies adults can become drawn to it out of curiosity. In societies that are dependent on daily fire use, children lose interest in fire at about age seven due to regular exposure.{{cite web | title=Why We Are Drawn to Fire | first=Natalie | last=Wolchover | date=April 23, 2012 | website=Live Science | url=https://www.livescience.com/19853-fire-fascination.html | access-date=2025-03-11 }} Arson is the act of intentionally setting fire to a property. A separate but related behavior is pyromania, which is classified as an impulse-control disorder where individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires.{{cite book | title=The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry | first=Robert E. | last=Hales | section=Impulse Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified | editor1-first=Stuart C. | editor1-last=Yudofsky | editor2-first=Glen O. | editor2-last=Gabbard | publisher=American Psychiatric Publishing | page=793 | year=2008 | isbn=9781585622573 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RzFWRIAsPAC&pg=PA793 }} In contrast is pyrophobia, an irrational fear of fire. This anxiety disorder is a less common phobia.{{cite web | title=DSM-5 Phobia Types, Diagnosis, and Treatment | date=January 12, 2022 | first=Elizabeth | last=Millard | website=MedCentral | publisher=HealthCentral | url=https://www.medcentral.com/behavioral-mental/anxiety/assessment-diagnosis-adherence-phobia | access-date=2025-03-11 }}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• The Chemical History of a Candle
• Colored fire
• Deflagration
• Fire making
• Fire pit
• Fire whirl
• Flame test
• Life Safety Code
• List of fire deities
• List of fires
• List of light sources
• Piano burning
• Pyrokinesis
• Pyrolysis
• Pyromania
• Pyrophobia

{{div col end}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• Haung, Kai (2009). [http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/287/ Population and Building Factors That Impact Residential Fire Rates in Large U.S. Cities. Applied Research Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308201531/http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/287/ |date=2012-03-08 }}. Texas State University.
• {{Cite book|title=Community Involvement in and Management of Forest Fires in South East Asia |url=http://www.asiaforests.org/doc/resources/fire/pffsea/Report_Community.pdf |year=2002 |publisher=Project FireFight South East Asia |last=Karki |first=Sameer |access-date=2009-02-13 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225154641/http://www.asiaforests.org/doc/resources/fire/pffsea/Report_Community.pdf |archive-date=February 25, 2009 }}
• Kosman, Admiel (January 13, 2011). [http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/sacred-fire-1.329892 "Sacred fire"]. Haaretz.
• Pyne, Stephen J. Fire : a brief history (University of Washington Press, 2001).
• Pyne, Stephen J. World fire : the culture of fire on earth (1995) [https://archive.org/details/worldfireculture0000pyne online]
• Pyne, Stephen J. Tending fire : coping with America's wildland fires (2004) [https://archive.org/details/tendingfirecopin0000pyne_x6q9 online]
• Pyne, Stephen J. Awful splendour : a fire history of Canada (2007) [https://archive.org/details/awfulsplendourfi0000pyne online]
• Pyne, Stephen J. Burning bush : a fire history of Australia (1991) [https://archive.org/details/burningbushfireh0000pyne online]
• Pyne, Stephen J. Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America (2015)
• Pyne, Stephen J. California: A Fire Survey (2016)
• Safford, Hugh D., et al. "Fire ecology of the North American Mediterranean-climate zone." in Fire ecology and management: Past, present, and future of US forested ecosystems (2021): 337–392. re California and its neighbors [https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/download/63841.pdf online]

{{Commons}}

{{Wikiquote|Fire}}

• [http://www.howstuffworks.com/Fire.htm How Fire Works] at HowStuffWorks
• [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021122.html What exactly is fire?] from The Straight Dope
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fire/onfire.html On Fire], an Adobe Flash–based science tutorial from the NOVA (TV series)
• [http://discovermagazine.com/2011/oct/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-fire "20 Things You Didn't Know About... Fire"] from Discover magazine

{{Fire}}

{{Natural disasters}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Terrestrial plasmas

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Category:Cooking techniques