Fire: A Very Short Introduction

Fire: A Very Short Introduction considers fire’s four-hundred-million-year history, its chemical composition, its role in human development, and its different meanings, from heat and comfort to death and destruction. Fires in buildings regularly make the headlines, and news of wildfires now reaches our computer and smartphone screens. Urban and pastoral attitudes to fire can differ and formulating fire suppression policies can be complex. Two things have fundamentally altered our understanding: increased knowledge about fire in the deep time before human evolution, and the growth of satellite technology, which has transformed how we observe fire. In the context of our changing climate, an improved understanding of fire worldwide is urgently needed.