Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World

by John Vaillant

Of the four most abundant fuels available to the fire on May 3, three of them were trees: black spruce, balsam poplar, and aspen. The fourth was houses. Of those three tree species, the houses of Fort McMurray most closely resembled black spruce. They were not infused with highly flammable sap but with something equally combustible. Most house fires originate inside the home, and people who study these ignitions draw a sharp distinction between modern furnishings and so-called legacy furnishings. The latter are considered antiques now: wooden tables and chairs; lace curtains; couches with cotton upholstery, stuffed with cotton batting, or maybe even horsehair. These will burn, but nothing like modern furniture, much of which is made of plastic, or wood “products” bound together with glues and resins, upholstered with polyester or nylon, and stuffed with polyurethane. Today, it is common to find oneself sitting or sleeping on furniture composed almost entirely of petroleum products. As bizarre as it sounds, many people prepare for their day by dressing themselves from head to toe in highly flammable petroleum-based materials.