• Question: whats the most long lasting fire youve witnessed and why do you think it burned so long

    Asked by to Tom on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Thomas Smith

      Thomas Smith answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      There are fires on Earth that have been burning for THOUSANDS of years!!

      Sometimes when forest fires burn so hot, they can ignite the soil underneath the forests; the soil burns slowly, and it is very difficult to put out, even if it rains, because the type of fire doesn’t require as much oxygen or heat as the big flaming fires you see in forests. This is what happens in Indonesia and is the reason why pollution can be so bad there as the fires burn for so long.

      In China and in Australia, some forest fires burning a long long time ago must have ignited underground coal seams. These coal fires have been burning ever since, and some scientists think the oldest fires were ignited thousands of years ago.

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