Fast Facts About Fire

Brought to you from The Nature Conservancy

On average, wildfires burn 4.3 million acres in the U.S. annually.

For millennia, lightning has ignited fires in the Rocky Mountains.

2002 was a record year for fire, with major wildfires in Colorado, Arizona, California, and Oregon.

Between 1995 and 2004, approximately 1,009,000 acres have burned in Colorado.

In 2004, researchers discovered that exposure to smoke from burning plants actually promotes germination in other types of plants.

Wildflower displays are often most prolific after fire.

Smokey Bear, an icon for fire suppression policy, was first developed by the Wartime Advertising Council in 1944, and later updated by the U.S. Forest Service.

Native Americans in many parts of North America often lit fires to clear brush and encourage the growth of grasslands and thereby the health of the game they hunted.