If we talk about the number of fatalities and the degree of destruction, three major disasters stand out in Japan. Two are well known: the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, which reached 8.3 on the Richter scale and claimed the lives of about one hundred and fifty thousand people, and Operation Meetinghouse of 1945, an […]
Fires
A 9,000-Year-Old Hearth and Mesolithic Harpoon Found in a German Cave
The Blätterhöhle cave in Hagen, Germany, has become a significant archaeological site in Westphalia due to recent remarkable discoveries from the Stone Age. Researchers from the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), the city of Hagen, and the universities of Bochum and Cologne have unearthed an ancient hearth around 9,000 years old and three flint arrowheads inside the […]
Unraveling the Enigmatic Event that Plunged New England into Nighttime Darkness, recorded in 1780 by George Washington in his journal
‘It may be the Day of Judgment or it may not. If it is not, there is no reason for a postponement; if it is, I choose to be found fulfilling my duty. Therefore, I want candles to be brought’. This is the famous phrase uttered by Abraham Davenport, a member of the Governor’s Council […]
Humans Have Been Modifying Landscape with Fire for at Least 11,000 Years
The controlled use of fire to enhance productivity has been in practice for at least 11,000 years, much earlier than previously believed. This is demonstrated by a recent study led by the University of Barcelona, with the participation of researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA). The results, published in […]
Why are there firefighters in Antarctica? Fire services at the South Pole
In 1948 an accidental fire destroyed the facilities of Station D, the scientific base that Great Britain had built in Hope Bay, the eastern end of the Trinidad Peninsula. The thing seems to be nothing special except for one detail: this place is located in Antarctica and the devastating effect of the fire not only […]