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Following intense fires in summer, some fires persist all winter under the snow. They are nicknamed “zombie fires”.PHOTO : The Siberian Times
With the fires ravaging California, the fire season seems to have no end in sight. Even in Canada, while during the colder months most fires die out, some fires, called zombies, continue to burn underground. Josée St-Onge, information officer for Alberta Wildfire, discusses an increasingly common phenomenon due to climate change.
Also called dormant fire or hibernating fire, zombie fire technically, it is a fire that was discovered the previous year or several years ago and which has still not been extinguished at the beginning of the following year
explains Josée St-Onge.
But when we bring them to the slightly more environmental and scientific side, these are fires that burn very deep in the ground, in the organic matter that is above the rocks, and which also burn in materials like peat. . They can burn for months very deep under a layer of snow and then become active again in the spring if conditions are right.
she adds.
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