All language subtitles for D D S02E01 Wildfires 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD2 0 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

A terrifying wall of flame

with intense heat
and choking smoke.

Fire moving quickly,

obliterating everything
in its path.

A wildfire is a raging inferno,

sometimes unpredictable,
often lethal.

It may be started by people

but it’s not being controlled
by people.

A deadly disaster

impacting life and property.

Wildfires do incredible amounts
of damage each year

to hundreds of
square kilometers

of forest, farmland
and homes,

leaving nothing but
charred remains in their wake.

In tinder-dry conditions,
all it takes is a spark

to trigger
a catastrophic raging inferno.

And due to human activities,

the danger of wildfire
is on the rise.

Through experts, we will
discover detailed insights

into how wildfires start,

the science of wildfires

and the damage they can do
both to life and property.

I’ve been very close
to forest fire.

The first thing that you notice
is the sound.

It’s so loud.
Of course, the flames,

the height of the flames
is also shocking,

Sometimes they can be
70, 80 meters high.

So it could be
three or four times the height

of the vegetation
that is burning.

So it’s no surprise that fires
can be so deadly.

And we will hear testimony

from people
with direct experience

of the terrible damage
wildfires can inflict...

I have two sons
and two grandchildren up there,

and I can’t find out
anything about them.

What a mess.

...through to what happens
after the fire.

How does the land renew?

How do affected people
put their lives back together?

This episode
of Deadly Disasters

will look at some of the most
dramatic instances of wildfire

that have occurred
in the last decade:

The devastating Camp Fire
in California...

the infamous Black Saturday
in Australia...

and the out-of-control
slash-and-burn farming

in Indonesia.

The weather conditions
are extremely important

in affecting
the impacts of a fire

or how deadly a fire is.

If you have
very dry conditions

combined with
very strong winds,

those usually result in
the most devastating fires.

They move very, very fast,

and therefore are
difficult to predict,

to fight,
as well as to escape from.

Wildfires are not like
other fires.

They can differ due
to their extensive size

and the incredibly fast speed
at which it can spread out

from its original source.

Out-of-control wildfires
have the potential

to change direction suddenly

and have the ability
to jump gaps

such as roads,
fire breaks and rivers.

Nearly 85 percent of wildfires
in the United States

are caused by humans.

In some cases,
deliberate arson is the cause.

However, carelessness and
accidents are just as likely

to trigger a fire.

Casually dropped cigarettes,

out-of-control barbecues,

machinery sparks,
downed power lines

and even discarded glass
or plastic

can focus the sun’s rays,
causing ignition.

Wildfires are not
always started by people

and are also
a natural phenomenon.

Charcoal has been found
in fossils,

which indicate that wildfires
have been burning

on this planet
since its creation.

Even when people are
the source of these fires,

it is nature that can
exacerbate the situation

and turn a small flame
into a wildfire,

the resulting aftermath
of which can be devastating.

The fire came here
very quickly,

so, uh, we lost the chance
to take the car and run away

because all the cars, you know,
one behind the other,

and the road’s blocked.

The first thing we thought

is how to get the baby
and run away,

but I think my wife
didn’t make it.

Wildfires happen

when the three requisite
elements are in place:

fuel, wind and ignition.

The surrounding vegetation
and air moisture content

needs to be low enough
to encourage a chain reaction.

As well as the temperature
and conditions being right,

sometimes these wildfires
can be exacerbated

by the type of landscape

and with a lack
of forest management.

For example,
in California since the 1990s,

there has been a policy
of suppressing wildfires

to protect homes
and businesses.

This has resulted
in the side effect

of a larger supply
of unburnt fuel

becoming effectively stockpiled.

Instead of several small fires,

the risk is
one big, devastating fire.

The store of excess fuel

is quite literally
a ticking time bomb,

as we will see.

One such high-risk area
was the town of Paradise,

in the foothills of
the Sierra Nevada mountains

in California.

Paradise
and the surrounding communities

were really beautiful areas.

It’s the foothills
of the mountains.

There’s lots of trees
and wildlife.

The geography of California

can make towns particularly
vulnerable to disaster.

They often lie on ridges
between canyons.

This results in stunning views.

However, it often means

that there is only one road
in and out

that snakes around
the mountainous landscape.

This lack of transport
infrastructure in the area

means it can be difficult
to allow

for quick and safe evacuation.

They had a big fire in 2008

that caused lots of damage
to the Concow basin,

and people
lost their homes then.

And when I visited
with the communities

in the aftermath
of those fires,

everyone would point up
the ridge to Paradise.

In 2011, a special tax was
imposed on property owners

to provide for additional
fire prevention.

Although money was raised,
it wasn’t put to use in time

to have a significant effect.

In November 2018,

the Paradise Camp Fire

became the most expensive
natural disaster of that year,

causing more than $16 billion
worth of damage.

It’s so surreal, almost,
like, just unbelievable...

how everything is just gone.

Like, it’s not even just our
house, it’s, like, our town.

Like, I was born here and I was
raised here most of my life,

so it’s like all I knew
is just gone.

After literally like 24 hours,
everything is gone,

and... Yeah.

We’re talking about the loss
of approximately 14,000 homes,

the loss of lives of 86 people.

And so the scale of devastation
was disproportionately bigger

than anything they had
experienced in previous years.

Essentially it was
a firestorm igniting

almost everything in its path.

Strategies for controlling wildfires

have ranged from
suppressing them at all costs

to allowing them to naturally
burn themselves out.

At one time, human fear
and aversion to fires

caused fire control experts
to make every effort

to eliminate fires
immediately when they occurred.

The buildup of dry vegetation
is the main source of fuel.

This can take the form
of trees, grasses,

leaves, brush
and even buildings.

The greater
an area’s fuel load,

the more intense the fire.

In 2018,

the fire risk was particularly
high in Butte County.

A wet spring in 2017 resulted
in an overgrowth of vegetation,

providing a lot of excess fuel.

They were hit
by a long-running drought

with only a fragment
of the usual rainfall.

In Butte County, conditions
were perfect for a wildfire.

All that was needed
was a spark.

One of the consequences

of almost a hundred years
of fire suppression today

is that we are experiencing
more intense fires

because there’s more fuel
in the environment.

November the 8th, 2018.

6:15 a.m.

Pacific Gas and Electricity
reported a power outage

on one of
its transmission lines

in the hills 10 miles east
of the town of Paradise.

6:30 a.m.

Something unusual was spotted

in the area
near Camp Creek Road.

Growing fast,
a fire had begun.

By the time it was reported,

the blaze had already grown

into an out-of-control
wildfire.

The innocuous location,
Camp Creek Road,

is now forever associated
with the infamous blaze,

the Camp Fire,
named for its birthplace.

Although four
out of five wildfires

are started by people, nature
is usually more than happy

to help spread the flames.

Gale-force winds blew
the fire downhill

towards Paradise
and the surrounding villages.

Wind helps fuel the fire
by providing oxygen

and contributing
to the spread of the flames.

In California, you can have
these very hot, dry winds

that drive fires at huge
velocities across the landscape.

So if the fire doesn’t start
that far away from a town,

then it doesn’t have
very long to go

before it actually has reached
the town under those conditions.

The spread of wildfires
is also affected

by the topography
of the land.

For instance,
fuels uphill from a fire

can be warmed and dried out
by the fire downhill,

potentially directing
the flow of the flames uphill.

Burning logs and debris
can roll down hills,

igniting the vegetation
as they go

like organic bombs
raining down fire from above.

Once burning,

the wildfire can mow down
everything in its path.

They move quickly
through dense fuels.

Fires can reach speeds
of over 10 kilometers an hour.

In grassland, it’s even faster,
22 kilometers.

The edge of a wildfire
is called the front.

This is the transition zone

where the unburned fuel
encounters the fire

and bursts into flames,

proliferating the fire’s
uninhabited expansion.

The front heats
the surrounding air.

Water is vaporized
as the fire approaches.

As it heats,
wood releases flammable gas

through pyrolysis.

At 380 degrees Celsius,
the wood smolders.

At 590, it ignites.

Fires can jump streams,
rivers and roads.

In California, the fire
hit the town by 8:00 a.m.

By then it was
too powerful to fight.

Survival meant outpacing
the flames and retreating.

An evacuation was ordered,

but by the time the message got
out, it was already too late.

The town was engulfed in fire.

People literally
fled for their life

at the same time as emergency
services arrived on the scene

and found that there was nothing
they could do to fight the fire.

Because of urban creep
into existing forests,

forest fires can often lead
to property damage.

The term
"wildland urban interface"

refers to the growing zone
of transition

between built-up areas
and undeveloped wildlands.

We’ve gone to lots of
wildland fires over the years,

and this is one of the worst
that we have seen personally,

so it’s pretty horrific.

Initial emergency
service response

had to focus
on the evacuation efforts

in an attempt to get
people out of danger

before trying to fight
the blaze itself.

Evacuation situations had been
planned for in Paradise,

but no one had envisioned
the entire town

being evacuated
at the same time.

And the problem then
was that Skyway,

the main route out of Paradise,
became a bottleneck.

Spot fires exacerbated
the situation.

When the winds lift
and blow burning embers

to new areas of the forest,
it can start new fires

up to several kilometers away
from the main blaze.

During the Camp Fire,

this resulted
in multiple fire fronts,

surrounding citizens
and cutting off escape.

Once a wildfire has started,

often people attempt
to leave at once

and traffic can be
brought to a standstill

and escape routes blocked.

Sometimes citizens can become
trapped in their cars,

surrounded by
the uncontrolled blaze.

Even before the flames arrive,

the fire heats
the surrounding air

by up to 800 degrees Celsius.

Fire crews are often faced
with an immeasurable task

as they fight
to put out the flames

and try to protect those
who could not evacuate.

Unfortunately,
it is kind of the new normal.

Fire season is kind of
now year-round.

So we stayed here
and fought the fire.

Thank God we did. We got...

our house left,
one of the only ones.

I’d rather see
everybody out here.

To me, life’s more important
than property.

The high winds

hampered attempts
to fight the fire,

with planes grounded
until the afternoon,

unable to fight the fire

until much of the damage
was already done.

The Camp Fire had just become

one of the largest wildfires
in U.S. history,

eventually burning an area
of 622 square kilometers.

The fires were burning
for almost three weeks,

and, um, it was
also a disaster zone.

People were breathing particles,
smoke particles,

for weeks until
the rains arrived.

5596 firefighters were
mobilized in 622 engines,

with 75 water tenders,

103 bulldozers
and 24 helicopters.

A huge mobilization
of resources was needed

to deal with the fire.

The logistics of the aftermath

were just as complex.

Food donations for survivors
managed and donated,

shelters constructed,
damaged buildings made safe.

A long and protracted cleanup.

In the end,

the Camp Fire claimed
the lives of 86 people,

making it one of America’s
biggest wildfire disasters

of modern times.

Five firefighters and numerous
civilians were injured

fighting the blaze for 17 days.

Everything is gone, and...
Yeah.

But I’m safe,

my family’s safe, all my friends
I know are safe, so...

Going back to Paradise
after the fires,

it was like
approaching a war zone.

There was hardly
any buildings left.

The town had pretty much
been completely destroyed,

and so it
was just rubble and ash.

People still come back
and want to rebuild in places

that have been affected by
fire because it’s their home,

it’s their livelihood,
this is where they grow up,

this is where
their grandparents lived.

And they realize
there may be fire in the future,

but this is
what they call home.

I am so proud
of our community,

because they’ve come
together to help each other.

We’re building a whole,
entire town

pretty much from scratch.

It’s too early to say

how long it will take
for Paradise to recover.

A year on from the fires,

Paradise is still
clearing the rubble.

There are some buildings
that have been rebuilt.

A lot of people living
in mobile homes

or temporary accommodation
that they’ve established

on the site
of their former homes.

They also face the devastation

of having lost
a social network.

Neighbors, friends, a community

that supported each other
in various ways

have been torn apart because
people were evacuated.

And many people now live

in very disparate parts
of California

or other parts of the U.S.,

and therefore that community
network is no longer in place.

It has certainly been changed
in catastrophic ways,

with the memory of the fire

burnt into the minds
of the people who lived there.

Wildfires are on the rise.

Most experts agree,
in addition

to urbanization
and forest management choices,

climate change
has also increased

the prevalence of wildfires.

We’re now seeing
wildfires in places

where they haven’t been
common in the past.

For example, in the Arctic,

which is usually too cold
and too moist for fires,

we see warming driving up
the temperatures of the ground,

and therefore the ground
becomes flammable.

So climate change
is now causing more fires

in areas where they wouldn’t
have occurred in the past.

Wildfires thrive
in drought conditions.

In many parts of the world,

climate change has increased
the prevalence of drought

and thus fire risk.

In Canada, for example,

they’ve looked
at long-term fire records

and found that
in the ’80s and ’90s,

the burned area
has about doubled

compared to the ’60s and ’70s.

And that is believed to be
because of climate change,

because the duration
of the fire season

has basically become longer.

Wildfires that are
being intensified

by the climate crisis,
but it’s not just here.

Everywhere around the world,

we can see these horrible
environmental feedbacks

that countless of people
are suffering and dying from.

In one 28-year study,

the University of Utah found
the number of large wildfires

in the area
of Nebraska to California

increased by the rate
of seven extra fires per year.

The area burned each year

also increased by
nearly 364 square kilometers.

That’s an area
the size of Las Vegas.

The trend of increasingly
catastrophic wildfires

also extends to Europe.

In 2007, Greece suffered one of
its worst years of wildfires,

burning over 268,000 hectares
of land.

Arson was suspected
as the cause of several fires,

with the arrest and questioning

of 32 suspected arsonists
that year.

Greece authorities considered
extending terrorism laws

to cover these
twisted fire starters.

Greece is a country that has
a large tourism industry

and several locations
of historical significance,

meaning that it has
more to lose to fire

than many other countries.

For instance,
ancient Olympia,

birthplace of the Olympics,

narrowly escaped destruction
in 2007.

Around a decade later,
in 2018,

Greece is wracked
by wildfires again.

Mati, a popular resort town
near Athens,

was among those worst hit,

forcing panicked holiday-makers
to take shelter on the beach.

In one horrifying incident,

the bodies of 26 people
were found huddled together

close to the beach.

This group of 26
lost in the choking smoke

never managed to make it
to the safety of the sea.

Candlelit vigils were held
in remembrance of the disaster

that killed at least 80
and injured over 150 people.

All the smoke,
then we heard the fire engines.

And it was just like

being back in Australia
with the bushfires.

It’s horrible.

Across the Pacific,

fire is synonymous
with Australia.

Over millennia,
the Aboriginal people

harnessed the power
of bushfires

to change and shape
the landscape.

They set fires
and used controlled burns

to manage their environment,

working alongside
and with wildfires.

This type of controlled burning

also reduced the fuel load
of dead leaves and branches,

resulting in smaller,
less intense fires.

Bushfires are integral
to the Australian ecosystem.

The native vegetation
has evolved

to withstand
exposure to fire.

The seeds of some species

actually need intense heat
to trigger germination.

For instance, the 100-meter
tall Eucalyptus regnans tree

hold their seeds
inside small, hard capsules.

A fire will instigate
a massive drop of seeds

to fall on
the freshly cleared land.

Eucalyptus trees not only
benefit from fires,

they actively encourage it.

The leaves and bark
don’t decompose,

and the oils the tree
produces are highly flammable.

Bushfires clear
the undergrowth,

preventing the buildup of fuel

and allow the new plant life
to flourish.

The European settlers stopped

the Aboriginal practice
of controlled burns.

Because of this,
over the last 200 years,

bushfires have become
increasingly lethal and costly.

Urban expansion has pushed
the boundaries of cities

out into the bush.

Suburban development intermixes
building with bushland.

It is these boundary zones

where most
of the damage occurs.

One of the most deadly days
of bushfires

in modern Australian history

occurred on
the 7th of February, 2009.

A date that is now referred
to as Black Saturday.

Wildfires raged across
the state of Victoria,

causing unprecedented damage

and ultimately killing
173 people.

It was just unbelievable.
There was no warning,

It was miles away, the fire,

and all of a sudden,
it was just smoke

and everyone just survived
the best way they could.

In the weeks leading up
to Black Saturday,

Southeastern Australia was
baking under a heat wave.

One of its major cities,
Melbourne,

sweltered under
record-breaking temperatures,

peaking at 45.1 degrees Celsius
on January the 30th, 2009.

The high temperatures
and low humidity

created tinder-dry conditions
across much of the state,

perfect conditions
for a bushfire.

Moisture, on the other hand,
can inhibit fire

by preventing ignition
and slowing propagation.

Higher temperatures
are required

to evaporate any water
to allow the fuel to burn.

Wildfires are more prevalent
in arid areas

with less precipitation,

and drought conditions increase
the fire risk exponentially.

The east coast of Australia has
the ideal climate for wildfire,

because we have moist conditions
during the wetter season,

allowing vigorous plant growth,

and then we have
long dry periods,

sometimes years
of relatively dry periods

that dries out the vegetation
and allows the fires to burn.

In the dry landscape
of arid Australia,

Victoria was
a ticking time bomb.

A bushfire could happen
at any moment.

On the morning of the 7th,

hundred-kilometer-an-hour winds

blasted through the state,

bringing hot, dry air

from the central flatlands.

Black Saturday had begun.

There was multiple fire fronts
burning at the same time,

which caused a lot of people
to be both misinformed

but also lulled
into sense of security,

because they thought fire fronts
where burning away from them

instead of towards them.

All told,

almost 400
individual fires

were started on Black Saturday.

Studies estimate that
the Black Saturday bushfires

unleashed the equivalent energy
of 1500 atomic bombs.

Nineteen thousand country
fire authority members

were mobilized
to fight the fire.

It took until mid-March

to bring all the fires
under control.

The deadliness of bushfires
are not just limited to humans.

Much of Australia’s wildlife
live in bushland,

and are subjected
to the same dangers as humans.

While some animals,
such as possums,

may be able to burrow away
underground below the fires

and some birds can fly away
from burning areas,

this is not always the case.

Kangaroos and wallabies,

known for being
incredibly fast,

were often trapped by walls
of fire when trying to escape.

But slow-moving animals
living in trees

often relied on human help
to bring them to safety.

There are several examples
from Australia

of firefighters finding
koala bears

who have been hurt during fires.

They have burnt paws,
burnt noses,

and they take these animals
and give them water,

and then bring them
to rescue services

who specialize
in caring for animals

who have been hurt by fires.

Some of them stay in captivity
for the rest of their lives.

On Black Saturday,
over a million

wild and domesticated animals
were killed.

Even animals who had managed
to escape the flames

had their habitats destroyed,

a further danger affecting some
already endangered species.

In addition to 173 deaths,

414 people were injured,

450,000 hectares were burned,

3500 buildings,

2000 of them homes,
were destroyed.

We heard, like...

We thought it was
an aeroplane going across.

A real rumble.

But apparently it was a fire
coming up the mountain.

And then the whole sky
over there just went orange.

And then we lost our power.
That’s when we left.

For a country
used to large bushfires,

2009’s Black Saturday
was still unprecedented.

There’s one component
which is very important

in the deadliness of
the Black Saturday wildfires,

and that was a sudden change
of wind direction.

For example, in Marysville,

people thought that the fire
would bypass them.

But later in the afternoon
they realized

the fire was coming their way.

Many lives were affected,

and none more so
than the people

living in and around
the Kinglake area.

For many in the area,

their homes and possessions
were lost in the fire.

However, they were
the lucky ones,

as over a hundred people
lost their lives.

Kinglake is situated
in the Shire of Murrindindi,

and the fires in this region
were ferocious

and the damage extensive.

There is no limit for a fire

as long as
the weather conditions

remain conducive to fire.

So dry with strong winds,
warm temperatures.

The main thing is
we need enough fuel

that the fire can
continue burning.

Wildfires are capable

of destroying whole towns.

Buildings that had
previously stood

and bustling streets
can become rubble and debris

in under 24 hours.

Before the fire, Marysville
was a lovely community

surrounded by forest,
nice wooden buildings,

a lot of tourism.

And then after the fire,

that whole community
was devastated.

Many houses had been destroyed,

many vehicles
had been destroyed.

So it was just
a scene of devastation.

The aftermath resulted

in some of the largest
class-action lawsuits

in Australian history.

The bushfire
was so devastating,

a royal commission was set up
to investigate

all aspects of the government’s
bushfire strategy.

This resulted
in 67 recommendations,

covering building codes,

planning permission
in high-risk areas,

advice for future preparation
and education policies.

People are still encouraged
to prepare their properties,

and people are allowed
to attempt to stay

and defend their properties.

But it’s now been retitled
"Prepare, Act, Survive,"

knowing that survival
is the crucial part,

and acting in a way that makes
people most likely to survive

is now a greater emphasis
in these bushfire-prone areas

than it has been in the past.

However, bushfires still remain
a part of Australian life,

and in 2019,
students took to protesting

against the government’s
attitude to wildfires.

Wildfires are an inevitable
natural phenomenon,

and can be started
by natural means,

including lighting,
volcanic eruption,

sparks from rock falls
and spontaneous combustion.

On top of the loss of life,

the financial cost of wildfires
is truly daunting.

The statistics paint
a devastating picture.

For instance, the property
damage in the U.S. in 2015

cost more than $14 billion,

$10 billion the next year.

And in 2017, this damage
spiked to $23 billion.

Damage to people’s homes
only tells part of the story.

The economic impacts of fire
are much more widespread.

Firefighting and humanitarian efforts

cost huge sums of money
as well.

In 2017,
the U.S. Forest Service

spent $2.9 billion
on firefighting,

51 percent
of its annual budget.

Forest management, research
and investment are defunded

when the demands caused
by wildfires are so immediate.

Fires are disruptive

and have a much greater
economic impact

than just the property
they damage.

They upend people’s lives.

Businesses can’t operate,
infrastructure is destroyed,

people lose their jobs
and are forced to relocate.

Energy and resources are then
plowed into rebuilding

just to get back
to what existed before,

to maintain the status quo.

One agency,
AccuWeather, estimates

that for 2018
in California alone,

the total cost of wildfires

may have been
400 billion U.S. dollars

when you include
lost productivity.

That’s 2 percent of America’s
gross domestic product.

Tackling the blaze
of a large wildfire

is incredibly dangerous
and requires fire crews

to have specialist knowledge
of the landscape.

Wildfires can change direction
suddenly

and, at 23 kilometers per hour,

can move far quicker
than people can run.

In high-risk areas, escape
routes are planned in advance,

sometimes using
the latest technology,

including satellite imagery
and drone footage.

These escape routes
are marked and kept clear

so fire crews have access
and quick egress

from the changing
fire front.

Fighting a fire in progress

usually involves
dousing it with water

and fire-retardant chemicals.

Logistics are
the main challenge to overcome

in order to transport the
quantities of water required

to a potentially inaccessible
fire front.

Air support
is usually called for.

Helicopters carrying
underslung buckets,

filled in local lakes,
rivers and even the sea,

are often able to dump
multiple loads of water

with a high degree
of accuracy.

Planes can carry
larger amounts of water,

such as a Boeing 737
fire bomber in Australia,

which can carry
15,000 liters of fluid

and still have room
for 72 passengers.

The red coloring is from

the phosphate
fire-retardant chemicals

used to cool
and slow the flames.

On the ground,
specialist firefighters,

or hot shots in the U.S.A.,

work to create a fire break.

Water alone may not
be enough to stop a fire,

but if it’s starved of fuel,
it can’t burn.

Working quickly, often as
the fire bears down on them,

crews try to clear
strips of land

to create a wide enough gap

to prevent the fire
from crossing.

Often they set small backfires.

These are controlled fires
to help clear the land of fuel

before the devastating
main fire hits.

They quite literally
fight fire with fire.

Farmers from around the world

have used fire
as a technique to clear land

for thousands of years.

In climates where fires
are considered natural,

the vegetation has adapted to
grow and reproduce with fire.

But in areas where fires are
uncommon and started by humans,

the results
can be catastrophic.

Indonesia, for instance,
doesn’t have the climate

for large natural
or accidental wildfires.

Wildfires in Indonesia
differ from other locations,

in that the trees
don’t spontaneously burn,

and human effort is needed
to spread the flames.

So most fires worldwide
are burning vegetation

above the surface of the earth,
but in Indonesia

there are tropical peatlands

that have been cleared
of their forest

and drained
using systems of canals,

and these are much drier
than they used to be.

And the soil in these areas

is actually more
than 50 percent carbon.

So when it becomes dry enough,
it can actually burn.

And those fires can spread
even underground.

That’s why they’re different to
fires in most places on earth.

Indonesian pulpwood
and palm-oil farmers

typically use
the slash-and-burn technique

to clear land for planting.

This is because
it is significantly cheaper

than removing forest
by mechanical means.

These peat landscapes
used to be covered in forest

and very, very wet.
They were basically swamps.

But now they’ve been drained
of water and cleared of forest,

and they’ve become
much more dry.

However,

this agricultural practice

can have
disastrous consequences.

As, when dried,
the drained peatland

is full of carbon-heavy soil
that is highly flammable.

Wildfires can be
damaging anywhere.

But in a climate where they do
not happen naturally,

the vegetation cannot always
recover quickly,

if at all.

The rain forests in Indonesia,

the primary forest
in Indonesia,

would never recover in
a person’s lifetime to fire.

Indonesia obviously hosts

a huge amount
of biodiversity,

so, um, habitat loss

is probably the biggest impact
of fire on wildlife.

The fires in Indonesia
are not like other wildfires,

where the flames can become
an orange walls of fire.

So these fires in Indonesian
peatlands are quite shocking

when you first see them,
because they’re very extensive

and the smoke is coming
out of the ground,

almost like a vision of hell.

The peat fires release

a heavy haze which covers
vast areas of land.

So the severity
of these peatland fires

comes not only from their size

and the duration
for which they burn,

which can be months
in some cases,

but also the way they burn.

They mainly do so
by smoldering combustion,

which produces a huge amount
of smoke particles, which are

the most health-impacting
component of smoke.

And they can affect
the quality of the air

for a huge distance away
from the fires themselves.

The amount of haze produced

even turned the clear skies
of Indonesia blood-red.

In recent years,
the scale of the activity

has created
a public health time bomb.

Dust and toxic haze
generated by the fires

risks terrible respiratory
damage to the local population.

People wear masks
in everyday life

to try and reduce
the pollutants.

Young people are
particularly vulnerable,

because their immune systems
are still developing.

Almost 10 million people
under 18,

a quarter under 5,

live in the worst-affected
areas

of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

Women exposed to the pollution

have given birth to babies

with low birth weights
and other defects.

People often think
that a wildfire kills people

through the flames,

but actually many people die
in fires because of the smoke.

The toxic smog released
by the fires

even seeped into buildings,

causing schools to shut and
hospitals to delay operations.

When we were there, we kind of
met two types of people,

people who are just resigned

to living in these sort of
smoke-polluted conditions

for weeks or even
sometimes months of the year,

also other groups of people
who were very concerned

and have mobilized
their friends and colleagues

to, for example, try to create
safe spaces in schools

and so-called haze-free
classrooms in schools.

That means a place where
children can go and be educated

and be relatively safe
from the air pollution outside.

So they’ve got air purifiers,
et cetera, in the classrooms

that are trying to remove the
smoke from inside the building.

The deadliness of these fires

has not been contained
to Indonesia.

Neighboring Malaysia has had to
shut down thousands of schools

in response to the pollution,

and the toxic air has even
reached as far as Singapore.

There’s even a center
based in Singapore actually

that is responsible
for monitoring forest fires

and peatland fires
and the smoke pollution

for the whole
of that Asian region

and reporting that.

So it’s well understood
that these fires in Indonesia

affect not only Indonesia itself
but other neighboring states.

This deforestation is driven

by the insatiable international
demand for palm oil.

Indonesia is the largest
producer of palm oil.

It is used in everything from
toothpaste to peanut butter.

Palm oil is the most
widely consumed vegetable oil

on the planet.

However,
the slash-and-burn method

used to create land
in order to grow these crops

is also hindering
its development.

The smog created by the fires
slows plant growth,

as it blocks out
the needed sunlight.

And the heat from the fires

also affects
the ripening of the fruit,

as it affects operations
at the plantations.

Humans aren’t the only victims
of the palm-oil growers’ fires.

In addition
to losing their habitat,

the smog is affecting
the endangered

orangutans of Borneo.

With an ever-reducing forest,

there is little escape for
these animals from the fires.

Dozens of young apes
at rescue centers

are contracting
respiratory infections.

Animals are subject
to the same air pollution

that humans are subject to.

And there’s an orangutan
sanctuary in Indonesia

where there are reports
of orangutans

having respiratory infections,

and even in the past having
been taken to the local hospital

to receive oxygen treatment
for smoke inhalation.

The infernos of 2019
had been particularly bad

due to a dry and hot summer.

The fires have destroyed

more than 300,237
square kilometers of land.

The government has tried to
step in to prevent these fires.

Environmental protection laws
forbid the setting of fires

to clear land.

Police so far
have arrested 185 people.

Yet the problem persists.

So one of the issues is
with Indonesia,

it’s the nature of the landscape
now that is so flammable,

so it is impossible to stop
these fires in the short term.

You have
to re-engineer the landscape

to make it less dry,
essentially.

So that would require
changes to this canal system

that has been used to drain
the peatlands of water,

for example.

And there’s an Indonesian agency

that’s been set up
to try to do that,

but that’s gonna take time
and a huge amount of resources.

An additional 5600 troops
have been deployed

to deal with the issue,

and criminal charges
have been filed

on numerous plantation
companies and farmers.

However, the prosecutions
look set

to be a slow
and drawn-out process.

Other measures,
such as water-bombing aircraft

and cloud-seeding techniques
have been implemented

to try and clear the haze,

while some have taken
to praying for rain

in the hope that it will
prevent these deadly fires.

These fires also have
an effect on climate.

Basically, because the peat
that they’re burning

has actually formed
over hundreds

or even, in some cases,
thousands of years

from material that’s
come off trees, et cetera,

in the former forests,

so when this peatland burns,

it releases carbon
into the atmosphere

in the form of greenhouse gases,

which is essentially
contributing to the buildup

of greenhouse gases
in our atmosphere,

which is ultimately
the cause of climate change.

Regulating an industry

that generates so much income
for a country

has always been a challenge.

As ever, environmental
and financial interests

are at odds with each other.

In Indonesia and elsewhere
in Africa,

there’s this rain forest
approach.

Trying to find
a means of rewarding countries

for the-- Or paying
for the ecosystem services

that these great forests
provide us with.

Wildfires are a deadly disaster

that we humans have continued
to exacerbate.

We have--

About 3 percent
of the global land surface

burns every year.

That’s a huge area.

Fires started
either intentionally

or by accident
have the potential

to become
out-of-control raging infernos,

whilst droughts caused
by man-made climate change

ensure the conditions
required for wildfires

are increasingly likely.

Wildfires can harm us
in many ways,

not just the loss
of habitat and life.

Deforestation caused by fire
impacts the soil quality,

and woodland soaks up
excess rainfall,

preventing flooding.

With the trees gone,

floodwaters can
wash the soil away

and cause landslides.

Managing fire risk
is an ongoing battle.

From policing the illegal
slash and burn in Indonesia

to preventing accidents
from faulty power lines,

the challenge is massive.

In the Amazon,
the lungs of the world,

slash-and-burn fires
have increased

and greatly damaged
the rainforest and wildlife.

If we can’t fully
prevent wildfires,

perhaps we need to consider
the approach

the indigenous Australians
took,

to find a way
to live alongside fire,

not seeking to prevent
all fires,

but to respect them
and allow small fires

to prevent the larger ones.

We now have
a very good understanding

of how to live with wildfire

and how to build
in wildfire-prone areas.

So we have very good building
regulations, for example.

The main problem is
its implementation,

because it’s costly.

And if you might do it and
your neighbor doesn’t do it,

your neighbor’s house
may still go up in flames,

and then this may become so hot
that it ignites your house.

So it’s really
a community action

to reduce the risk of fire.

Wildfires are
an inevitable occurrence,

part of nature’s cycle.

But as we inhabit
more of the world’s surface,

we also build homes
in high-risk fire areas.

With population increasing

and the climate changing...

...wildfires are going
to remain

one of the deadly disasters
that we cannot avoid.

However, with ingenuity,

maybe we can reverse the trend
of increasing loss of life

and find better ways
to manage the threat.