Guest Editorial: Fire and the Environment

Excerpt

Awareness of the fact that large fires may present dramatic and persistent adverse effects on the environment has risen since the occurrence of numerous high impact incidents over the past 25 years [1], such as the Sandoz incident in November of 1986 when a chemical fire in an industrial warehouse near Basel in Switzerland laid waste to the Rhine [2]. Traditionally discussion of the environmental impact of fires has focused on the emissions that fires can cause both to the air, water and soil; but in recent years a new debate has arisen where the impact of chemicals on the environment and the precautionary principle have taken precedence. In the wake of the political debate concerning potential exposure to chemicals in our environment, flame retardants, used to restrict the size and number of fires in products to which they are added, have also been questioned. …