Can EMF Greatly Increase Severity and Occurrence of Wildfires?
This paper does not question that ‘climate change’ is an important cause (perhaps it should – Ed) but does question whether it is the only mechanism that is important in determining the severity and properties of these fires even whether it is the most important cause of the severity of many fires, particularly where people live.
Many of the “wildfires” have impacted mainly human occupied areas, where human activities may have large local roles.
Forest fires often sweep through small towns with stunning rapidity
including explosive burning, where the availability of domestic water supplies might be expected to slow such burning.
Repeated photographs and videos of “wildfires” have shown low growing plants and adjacent homes and other buildings have burnt at very high temperatures to a light gray powder but often trees and low growing plants away from buildings and electric power lines are only modestly affected.
Abstract
Low growing plants near buildings and electric powerlines often burn explosively at extreme temperatures, leaving a light gray powder whereas plants away from such sources of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) burn more normally, leaving slightly burned and/or charred materials.
It is argued here that EMFs trigger a four-part mechanism producing this unusual pattern. Electronically generated EMFs impact plants via activation of voltage-controlled calcium channels, causing increases in plant terpenes and three other classes of volatiles (polyamines, lipid peroxidation volatiles and methyl jasmonate) and large increases in peroxynitrite and reactive free radicals. Four processes ensue:
1. The volatile terpenes make plants much more flammable.
2. Each of the four classes of volatiles accumulate in the air under very low wind conditions, and the heavy volatile-containing air spreads over the ground, selectively producing plasma membrane depolarization in low growing plants and parts of plants. Depolarization activates the same calcium channels activated by EMFs, selectively spreading and amplifying EMF-like effects to these low growing plants.
3. The terpenes react with free radicals and O2 to produce three classes of explosive terpene-derived chemicals, hydroperoxides, nitrate esters and nitro compounds. Accordingly, the explosive burning of these three classes of terpene derived chemicals in low growing plants produces very rapidly advancing low level firestorms which when they hit adjacent buildings also causes the buildings to burn at extremely high temperatures, leaving a light gray powder.
4. Terpene hydroperoxides because of their low thermostability may cause spontaneous combustion. Appropriate conditions for spontaneous combustion may be limited to plant materials in depressions in the ground. Sixteen fire observations are inconsistent with climate change being the sole cause of fire severity but are consistent with the proposed mechanism.
Wind records from four large explosive US fires were examined and were found to be consistent with prediction. High voltage powerline roles in fires may be caused by powerline dirty electricity produced EMFs rather than poor maintenance as has previously been claimed.
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About the author: Martin L Pall is a Professor Emeritus, School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University
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