Fire History

Fire History is the occurrence and distribution of fires over time. Wildland fire scientists keep track of fires as they have burned in the past, so that they can learn from them. What do they learn? Scientists and firefighters can determine how hot fires have burned in the past, how large they were, where they burned, and how long ago they burned. They use historical records and journals, photographs, and vegetation age analysis. Vegetation age analysis involves looking at large trees and soil sediments. When large trees survive wildfire, they have fire scars on their trunks. Fire scars help scientists and firefighters determine when the fire burned, and can tell how intense the fire was by the size of the scar on the tree.

Firefighters can also use fire history to conduct prescribed burns. Click here to learn about prescribed burning in Idaho.