Documentary 'Into the Fire' looks at the science of fires in the wild and the home
From survival to disaster, humans have a complicated realtionship with fire
From using it for survival to finding ourselves at the mercy of its destructive power, humans have a complicated relationship with fire.
In the new documentary Into the Fire airing tonight on The Nature of Things, director Leora Eisen looked at what science has revealed about the way fire behaves, all while tackling her own fears surrounding fire and flames.
"The alarm goes off and I just remember scrambling down many flights of stairs," Eisen told Daybreak Alberta about a 3 a.m. evacuation from a Toronto high-rise apartment when she was 21-years-old. "It was smokey, I was in a daze and I was terrified."
Eisen said that event cemented "both my fear and my fascination" with fire. But after spending time with scientists and firefighters studying how fires start and how they grow, Eisen said that fear has turned to respect.
"Once you understand the science you understand how things behave the way they do," she said. "Fire behaves in a certain way, it's not random. It depends on the weather, it depends on how much fuel there is to burn, it depends on how we behave – all kinds of factors."
The science of fire
Eisen said climate change has impacted the length and intensity of wildfire seasons across the globe.
While she says it's impossible to blame a specific fire incident — like the Kenow or Fort McMurray wildfires — on climate change she says the "science is pretty solid" when looking at climate change and fire trends.
"The fire season in Alberta is longer than it used to be," Eisen said. "Fires are becoming more frequent in different places and fires are becoming more intense in some cases. And that's the scary part – those fires where they can throw water bombers and fire crews and everything at it and it doesn't matter. That fire is going to be an inferno."
Eisen said wildfires and climate change are helping feed each other. As things get hotter there are more lightning strikes which can causing more fires, which then release more carbon into the atmosphere, Eisen said.
"So it becomes this weird, vicious cycle and scientists…and lots of other people across the country are really paying attention and saying 'B.C. was not a one off, Fort Mac was not a one off'," she said.
"We've seen it in California, in Portugal and even in Greenland recently, which is a new one. So people have to pay attention."
Fire prevention in the home
It's not just forested areas that are at an increased risk for fire.
Eisen said keeping fuel and combustibles away from the exterior of your home can help mitigate risk.
"Because fires like to have a pathway, [fires] need to get to your house first," she said. "Simple things like, 'where'd you put that wood pile? Is it under your deck in your back yard?' Not a good idea."
Objects inside your home can also feed the flames, Eisen said, remembering how one fire chief out of Ottawa she spoke to for the documentary called household furniture "comfortable gasoline."
"That's because many of our couches and chairs are made of synthetics and these synthetics are full of oil-based products," she said. "And those are highly flammable. So I actually watched a scientist in Ontario burn down a couch in attest burn. It went up in minutes."
Into the Fire airs Sunday night at 6 p.m. MT on CBC and is also available to watch online.
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With files from Daybreak Alberta