Difference between revisions 499073951 and 499074102 on enwiki

[[Image:Wildfire in California.jpg|thumb|right|300px|upright=2||A wildfire in [[California]], 5 September 2008, "ladders" (ascends) the lower branches of [[Pinophyta|conifer]]s into the forest upper canopy, becoming a crown fire]]

{{Wildland Firefighting}}

''Crown fires'' are defined as [[wildfires]]s that advance through canopy fuels more or less independently of surface fire.<ref>{{vancite book | author = Debano, et al; | title = ''Fire's Effects on Ecosystems'' | publisher = [[John Wiley & Sons]] | year = 1998 | url = http://www.forestencyclopedia.net/p/p481/c/c1768/quick_citation_view }}</ref> Crown fires are extremely dangerous, fast-moving, and very difficult to fight and often require the use of indirect suppression methods.(Fieldhouse and Dickinson 2003; (contracted; show full)ter ignition from below depends on the spread rate in, and mass density of, the foliar fuel in the crown layer (Van Wagner 1977). Therefore, if the crown fire does not spread fast enough it will burn itself out. For example, during extreme weather conditions when the wind speed is high and sustained, a crown fire may continue and spread for many hours, covering large areas and crossing barriers which would impede the spread of a fire under normal conditions (Pyne et al. 1996).

==References==
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