Search - NOVA: Fire Wars on DVD

Is America losing the war against fire?

Kyle Tolle | Phoenix, Arizona USA | 09/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 2000, the United States was victim to one of the most intense and destructive fire seasons ever recorded with more than six million acres decimated across the country. Even though much is known today about fire science, many questions remain and the unpredictable essence of fire itself continues to puzzle experts in several areas. NOVA takes a comprehensive look at firefighting here in an attempt to better understand this powerful force of nature.

From a historical standpoint, early segments explore how policies were developed on national firefighting along with the evolution of elite groups called `hot shots' that are called to battle the fiercest and most critical of fires. One such specialized team, known as the Arrowhead Hotshots, is spotlighted here and they are followed on several different assignments showing their skill, dedication, and bravery in a variety of dangerous environments.

Farther along, tools and techniques used to combat these blazes are shown and they include things like aircraft, helicopters, bulldozers, firebreaks, counter or back fires, and most importantly, the firefighters themselves. Additional time is spent examining fire behavior and the effects of weather that many times plays a significant role.

A popular method of maintaining healthy forests and reducing fire danger is `prescribed burning'. Although these practices have shown to be beneficial, they are by no means foolproof and their uncertainties are demonstrated in the latter half of this program. In conjunction with this, experiments and other scientific data reveal alarming discoveries that wildfires release massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and this may be significantly impacting the already harmful global warming crisis.

In typical NOVA fashion, from what I've seen in many of their documentaries, they are well researched and produced and `Fire Wars' is a fine example of that ongoing standard.




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