Before
After
1. Biscuit Fire, Kalmiopsis Wilderness, OR
> Year: 2002
> Fatalities: 0
> Area burned: 499,960 acres
The Biscuit Fire was in fact a complex, a series of adjacent fires. The initial fire, which was ignited by lightning, was named after Biscuit Creek, in the midst of the area burned. One of the neighboring fires was called the Sour Biscuit Fire, referencing not only the creek but nearby Sourdough Gulch.
Before
After
2. Cedar Fire, San Diego County, CA
> Year: 2003
> Fatalities: 8
> Area burned: 273,246 acres
All eight people who perished in this fire lived in one remove residential area, off a dirt road called Strange Way. The blaze was the result of a signal fire lit by a hunter who had gotten lost in the wilderness.
Before
After
3. East Amarillo Complex Fires, Amarillo, TX
> Year: 2006
> Fatalities: 12
> Area burned: 907,245 acres
Burning nearly one million acres in the Texas Panhandle, this fire accounted for more than half of the total Area consumed by wildfires in 2006.
Before
After
4. Black Saturday Bushfires, Victoria, Australia
> Year: 2009
> Fatalities: 173
> Area burned: 1,111,680 acres
Considered the most devastating wildfires in Australian history, these blazes ignited and spread in the middle of an extreme heatwave (temperatures reached 115ºF), in the midst of the worst drought ever recorded in the country. Gale-force winds fanned the flames, and five towns were completely destroyed.
Before
After
5. Carmel Forest Fire, Haifa, Israel
> Year: 2010
> Fatalities: 41
> Area burned: 12,000+ acres
Because Israel is sparsely forested, the country has only 1,400 firefighters, but volunteers from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, Egypt, and Great Britain rallied to help fight the blaze. Most of the fatalities were corrections officers whose bus was enveloped by fire as they were enroute to help evacuate a prison in front of the flames.
