Zombie Fires

By Nancy Aird

Zombie fires are wildland fires that return from the dead. Logically, we think that rain and snow in winter will put out the last sparks of a fire however, zombie, holdover or overwintering fires never fully extinguish. Instead, they smolder underground, hiding under a root or stump, or inside a tree away from the rain and snow until the conditions allow them to reappear as a full-on blaze. Yes, Washington state has experienced zombie ignited fires.

New research shows rapid atmospheric warming above ground could allowed peat soils to heat to smoldering temperatures without any spark or other ignition per the article “Zombie fires in the Artic smolder underground and refuse to die – what’s causing them?’ Climate change accelerated warming seems to be accelerating the incidents. At the start of 2024, British Columbia, Canada had more than 100 zombie fires active. Check out the book Fire Weather by John Vaillant on how a blaze fueled by weather forced nearly 100,000 residents to evacuate and destroyed Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada in May 2016. The blaze would not be declared fully extinguished until August in 2017.

Hillary Franz, Director of Washington Dept. of Natural Resources, stated in her September newsletter that WA hit the goal of keeping 95% of the wildland fires on DNR lands below ten acres. Still under 300,000 acres of land have burned across our state this summer, but fires are still burning.  About 85% of all wildfires that occur annually in WA are human-caused, with 52% of them determined to have been negligently or intentionally started. It may seem like a small fire today, but in the future a zombie fire could arise bringing destruction to your life.