Editing Fire (section)

=== Human control ===
The period of history characterized by the influence of human-caused fire activity on Earth has been dubbed the [[pyrocene]]. This epoch includes the burning of [[fossil fuel]]s, especially for technological uses.<ref>{{cite web | title=Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene | first=Stephen | last=Pyne | date=February 10, 2025 | publisher=Modern Sciences | url=https://modernsciences.org/human-use-fire-era-uncontrolled-burning-pyrocene-february-2025/ | access-date=2025-02-26 }}</ref>

==== Early human control ====
{{Main|Control of fire by early humans}}
<mapframe text="Archaeological sites with early human fire use from the [https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb ROAD database] (CC BY-SA 4.0 ROCEEH)" width="400", height="300">
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The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gowlett |first1=J. A. J. |title=The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B|Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]] |date=2016 |volume=371 |issue=1696 |pages=20150164 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0164 |pmid=27216521 |pmc=4874402 |doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Making fire]] to generate heat and light made it possible for people to [[cooking|cook]] food, simultaneously increasing the variety and availability of nutrients and reducing disease by killing pathogenic microorganisms in the food.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gowlett |first1=J. A. J. |last2=Wrangham |first2=R. W. |date=2013 |title=Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2012.756754 |s2cid=163033909}}</ref> The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of occasional cooked food is found from {{Ma|1.0}},<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Matt |year=2012 |title=Million-year-old ash hints at origins of cooking |url=https://www.nature.com/news/million-year-old-ash-hints-at-origins-of-cooking-1.10372 |url-status=live |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/nature.2012.10372 |s2cid=177595396 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001174313/http://www.nature.com/news/million-year-old-ash-hints-at-origins-of-cooking-1.10372 |archive-date=1 October 2019 |access-date=25 August 2020}}</ref> suggesting it was used in a controlled fashion.<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Carroll |first=Eoin |date=5 April 2012 |title=Were Early Humans Cooking Their Food a Million Years Ago? |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/early-humans-cooking-food-million-years-ago/story?id=16080804#.T4IyWe1rFDI |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204145413/https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/early-humans-cooking-food-million-years-ago/story?id=16080804#.T4IyWe1rFDI |archive-date=4 February 2020 |access-date=10 January 2020 |work=ABC News |quote=Early humans harnessed fire as early as a million years ago, much earlier than previously thought, suggests evidence unearthed in a cave in South Africa.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first1=Francesco | last1=Berna | first2=Paul | last2=Goldberg | first3=Liora Kolska | last3=Horwitz | first4=Michael | last4=Chazan |date=May 15, 2012 |title=Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa |journal=PNAS |volume=109 |issue=20 |pages=E1215–E1220 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1117620109 |pmc=3356665 |pmid=22474385 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Other sources put the date of regular use at 400,000 years ago.<ref name="Bowman2009b">{{cite journal |last1=Bowman |first1=D. M. J. S. |last2=Balch |first2=J. K. |last3=Artaxo |first3=P. |last4=Bond |first4=W. J. |last5=Carlson |first5=J. M. |last6=Cochrane |first6=M. A. |last7=d'Antonio |first7=C. M. |last8=Defries |first8=R. S. |last9=Doyle |first9=J. C. |last10=Harrison |first10=S. P. |last11=Johnston |first11=F. H. |last12=Keeley |first12=J. E. |last13=Krawchuk |first13=M. A. |last14=Kull |first14=C. A. |last15=Marston |first15=J. B. |year=2009 |title=Fire in the Earth system |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5926 |pages=481–84 |bibcode=2009Sci...324..481B |doi=10.1126/science.1163886 |pmid=19390038 |s2cid=22389421 |last16=Moritz |first16=M. A. |last17=Prentice |first17=I. C. |last18=Roos |first18=C. I. |last19=Scott |first19=A. C. |last20=Swetnam |first20=T. W. |last21=Van Der Werf |first21=G. R. |last22=Pyne |first22=S. J. |url=https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090707-150808418 |access-date=2024-01-26 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111415/https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/m358a-0c317 |url-status=live }}</ref> Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; resistance to [[air pollution]] started to evolve in human populations at a similar point in time.<ref name="Bowman2009b" /> The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, as it was used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from tens of thousands of years ago.<ref name="Bowman2009b" />

[[File:Potjiekos over a fire.gif|thumb|Here, food is cooked in a [[Potjie|cauldron]] above fire in [[South Africa]].]]
By the [[Neolithic Revolution]], during the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in [[landscape]] management. These fires were typically [[controlled burn]]s or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires", which damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pyne |first=Stephen J. |title=Advances in Historical Ecology |date=1998 |publisher=University of Columbia Press |isbn=0-231-10632-7 |editor-last=Balée |editor-first=William |series=Historical Ecology Series |pages=78–84 |chapter=Forged in Fire: History, Land and Anthropogenic Fire |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5cUpbvNcH4C&pg=PA76 }}</ref> This is especially a problem in the forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and autumn. They clear undergrowth, burning up [[biomass]] that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Fire as a forest management tool: prescribed burning in the southern United States | last1=Wade | first1=D. D. | last2=Lundsford | first2=J. | year=1990 | journal=Unasylva | volume=41 | issue=3 | pages=28–38 | url=https://www.fao.org/4/t9500e/t9500e07.htm | access-date=2025-02-25 }}</ref>

Another human use for fire in regards to landscape management is its use to clear land for agriculture. [[Slash-and-burn]] agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. For small farmers, controlled fires are a convenient way to clear overgrown areas and release nutrients from standing vegetation back into the soil.<ref name="blogs.ei.columbia.edu">{{cite web |last=Krajick |first=Kevin |date=16 November 2011 |title=Farmers, Flames and Climate: Are We Entering an Age of 'Mega-Fires'? – State of the Planet |url=http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/11/16/farmers-flames-and-climate-are-we-entering-an-age-of-mega-fires/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526005052/http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/11/16/farmers-flames-and-climate-are-we-entering-an-age-of-mega-fires/ |archive-date=2012-05-26 |access-date=2012-05-23 |publisher=Columbia Climate School}}</ref> However, this useful strategy is also problematic. Growing population, fragmentation of forests and warming climate are making the earth's surface more prone to ever-larger escaped fires. These harm ecosystems and human infrastructure, cause health problems, and send up spirals of carbon and soot that may encourage even more warming of the atmosphere – and thus feed back into more fires. Globally today, as much as 5 million square kilometres – an area more than half the size of the United States – burns in a given year.<ref name="blogs.ei.columbia.edu" />

==== Later human control ====
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 400
| image1            = The Great Fire of London, with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's.JPG
| alt1              =
| image2            = Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. CL3400.jpg
| alt2              = The Lyceum in 1861
| footer            = [[The Great Fire of London]] (1666) and [[Hamburg]] after four [[fire-bombing]] raids in July 1943, which killed an estimated 50,000 people<ref>"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/html/4.stm In Pictures: German destruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213141457/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_german_destruction/html/4.stm |date=2019-12-13 }}". [[BBC News]].</ref>
}}
Throughout much of history, cultures attempted to explain nature and the properties of matter by proposing a set of four (or five) [[classical element]]s, of which [[Fire (classical element)|fire formed one of the components]]. As scientific understanding developed following the [[Middle Ages]], this philosophy was replaced by a set of chemical elements and their interactions. Instead, the classical elements found an equivalency in the [[State of matter|states of matter]]: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Origin of the Elements | last=Penzias | first=A. A. | author-link=Arno Allan Penzias | journal=Science | date=August 1979 | volume=205 | issue=4406 | pages=549–554 | doi=10.1126/science.205.4406.549 | bibcode=1979Sci...205..549P }}</ref>

During the 17th century, a study of combustion was made by [[Jan Baptist van Helmont]] who discovered that burning charcoal released a ''gas sylvestris'', or wild spirit.<ref name=Dolman_2023>{{cite book | chapter=The discovery of the Carbon Dioxide molecule | first=Han | last=Dolman | date=March 2023 | pages=37–61 | title=Carbon Dioxide through the Ages: From wild spirit to climate culprit | isbn=9780198869412 | publisher=Oxford University Press | doi=10.1093/oso/9780198869412.003.0003 }}</ref> This was subsequently incorporated into [[Phlogiston theory]] by [[Johann Joachim Becher]] in 1667; a concept that would dominate alchemical thinking for nearly two centuries.<ref>{{cite web | title=Combustion | work=Science Encyclopedia | url=https://science.jrank.org/pages/1628/Combustion-History.html | access-date=2025-03-07 }}</ref> It was [[Antoine Lavoisier]] who demonstrated that combustion did not involve the release of a substance, but rather something was being taken up.<ref name=Dolman_2023/> In 1777, Lavoisier proposed a new theory of combustion based on the reaction of a material with a component of air, which he termed oxygène. By 1791, Lavoisier's chemistry concepts had been widely adopted by young scientists, and Phlogiston theory was rejected.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Chemical Revolution of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier | series=International Historic Chemical Landmark | publisher=[[American Chemical Society]] | url=https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.html | access-date=2025-03-07 }}</ref>

Fire has been used for centuries as a method of torture and execution,<ref>{{cite conference
 | last1=Petaros | first1=A. | last2=Borrini | first2=M. | last3=Josip | first3=A. | year=2009 | title=The history of fire and torture – fire in crimes committed against the integrity of life and health | conference=V Meeting of the International Society for the History of Medicine | pages=92-92 | url=https://www.croris.hr/crosbi/publikacija/prilog-skup/554979 | access-date=2025-02-25 }}</ref> as evidenced by [[death by burning]] as well as torture devices such as the [[Boot (torture)|iron boot]],<ref>{{cite journal | title=Torture under English Law | first=Ernest G. | last=Black | journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register | volume=75 | issue=4 | date=February 1927 | pages=344–348 | doi=10.2307/3307506 | jstor=3307506 }}</ref> which could be heated over an open fire to the agony of the wearer.<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Use and Forms of Judicial Torture in England and Scotland | first=R. D. | last=Melville | journal=The Scottish Historical Review | volume=2 | issue=7 | date=April 1905 | pages=225–248 | jstor=25517609 }} In particular, see p. 238.</ref>

There are numerous modern applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire is used by nearly every human being on Earth in a controlled setting every day. Users of [[internal combustion]] vehicles employ fire every time they drive. Thermal [[power station]]s provide [[electricity]] for a large percentage of humanity by igniting fuels such as [[coal]], [[oil]] or [[natural gas]], then using the resultant heat to boil water into [[steam]], which then drives [[turbine]]s.<ref>{{cite web
 | title=Why Fire Is the Greatest Tool of All Time
 | first=Vince | last=Guerrieri | date=February 17, 2020
 | work=Popular Mechanics | publisher=Hearst Digital Media
 | url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a30456620/fire-greatest-tool/
 | access-date=2025-02-26 }}</ref>

==== Use in war ====
The use of fire in [[Conventional warfare|warfare]] has a long [[military history|history]]. Fire was the basis of all [[early thermal weapons]], including [[incendiary device]]s, heated projectiles, and the use of smoke. This class of weapons was particularly evident during naval battles and [[siege warfare]]. The [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] fleet used [[Greek fire]] to attack ships and men.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Fire and Brimstone: SO<sub>2</sub> as a Chemical Weapon in History | first1=Matthew D. | last1=Turner | first2=Jason | last2=Sapp | journal=Military Medicine | volume=188 | issue=11–12 | date=November 2023 | pages=286–288 | doi=10.1093/milmed/usad160 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Incendiary Weapons - History | website=GlobalSecurity.org | url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/incendiary-history.htm | access-date=2025-02-26 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Chemical warfare in the middle ages. Kallinikos' 'prepared fire' | first=Nicholas D. | last=Cheronis | journal=Journal of Chemical Education | volume=14 | issue=8 | page=360 | date=August 1, 1937 | doi=10.1021/ed014p360 | bibcode=1937JChEd..14..360C }}</ref><ref name=McNab_2015>{{cite book | title=The Flamethrower | first=Chris | last=McNab | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2015 | isbn=9781472809032 | page=6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=onyXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&v=onepage }}</ref>

The invention of [[gunpowder]] in China led to the [[fire lance]], a flame-thrower weapon dating to around 1000 CE which was a precursor to [[History of the firearm|projectile weapons driven by burning gunpowder]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=Cathayan Arrows and Meteors: The Origins of Chinese Rocketry | journal=Journal of Chinese Military History | first=Stephen G. | last=Haw | year=2013 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=28-42 | doi=10.1163/22127453-12341243 }}</ref> The earliest modern [[flamethrower]]s were used by infantry in the [[World War I|First World War]], first used by German troops against entrenched French troops near Verdun in February 1915.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Flamethrower in action | url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | access-date=2023-11-02 | website=nzhistory.govt.nz | language=en | archive-date=2024-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111922/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | url-status=live }}</ref> They were later successfully mounted on armoured vehicles in the Second World War.<ref>{{cite book | title=Churchill Crocodile Flamethrower | first=David | last=Fletcher | volume=136 | series=New Vanguard | pages=4–6 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2012 | isbn=9781780968032 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJ2jCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 }}</ref>

Hand-thrown [[incendiary bombs]] improvised from glass bottles, later known as [[Molotov cocktails]], were deployed during the [[Spanish Civil War]] in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Anionic markers for the forensic identification of Chemical Ignition Molotov Cocktail composition | first1=C. | last1=Martín-Alberca | first2=J. L. | last2=Ferrando | first3=C. | last3=García-Ruiz | journal=Science & Justice | volume=53 | issue=1 | date=March 2013 | pages=49–54 | doi=10.1016/j.scijus.2012.11.004 }}</ref> During that war, incendiary bombs were deployed against [[Bombing of Guernica|Guernica]] by Fascist [[Aviazione Legionaria|Italian]] and Nazi [[Condor Legion|German]] air forces that had been created specifically to support [[Francisco Franco|Franco's]] [[Francoist Spain|Nationalists]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=Xabier Irujo. Gernika, 1937: The Market Day Massacre | first=Ian | last=Patterson | location=Reno | publisher=University of Nevada Press | journal=The American Historical Review | volume=122 | issue=1 | date=February 1, 2017 | pages=263–264 | doi=10.1093/ahr/122.1.263 }}</ref>

Incendiary bombs were dropped by [[Axis Powers|Axis]] and [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] during the Second World War, notably on [[Coventry Blitz|Coventry]], [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Tokyo]], [[German bombing of Rotterdam|Rotterdam]], [[The Blitz|London]], [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Hamburg]] and [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Dresden]]. In the latter two cases, [[firestorm]]s were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an [[Vertical draft|updraft]] created by a central cluster of fires.<ref name="BarashWebel2008">{{cite book | first1=David P. | last1=Barash  | first2=Charles P. | last2=Webel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeze4_wGViMC |title=Peace and Conflict Studies |date=10 July 2008 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4129-6120-2 |pages=365 }}</ref> The United States Army Air Force extensively used incendiaries against Japanese targets in the latter months of the war, devastating entire cities constructed primarily of wood and paper houses. The incendiary fluid [[napalm]] was used in July 1944, towards the end of the [[World War II|Second World War]], although its use did not gain public attention until the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guillaume |first=Marine |date=2016-12-01 |title=Napalm in US Bombing Doctrine and Practice, 1942-1975 |url=https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=14 |issue=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904095842/https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |archive-date=2020-09-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Productive use for energy ====
[[File:ChineseCoalPower.jpg|thumb|A [[Fossil fuel power plant|coal-fired power station]] in China]]
Burning [[fuel]] converts chemical energy into heat energy; [[wood]] has been used as fuel since [[prehistory]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Science for All Americans | first1=F. James | last1=Rutherford | first2=Andrew | last2=Ahlgren | year=1991 | pages=114–118 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=9780195361865 | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Science_for_All_Americans/LKadiKAUljEC?gbpv=1&pg=PA114 }}</ref> The [[International Energy Agency]] states that nearly 80% of the world's power has consistently come from [[fossil fuel]]s such as [[petroleum]], [[natural gas]], and [[coal]] in the past decades.<ref>{{cite web | date=October 2022 | url=https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022 | title=World Energy Outlook 2022 | publisher=IEA | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027232322/https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022 | archive-date=2022-10-27 }}</ref> The fire in a [[power station]] is used to heat water, creating steam that drives [[turbine]]s. The turbines then spin an [[electric generator]] to produce electricity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How electricity is generated |url=https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/how-electricity-is-generated.php |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=U.S. Energy Information Administration }}</ref> Fire is also used to provide [[work (physics)|mechanical work]] directly by [[thermal expansion]], in both [[external combustion engine|external]] and [[internal combustion engine]]s.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Development of external combustion engine | journal=American Journal of Vehicle Design | last1=Maamri | first1=R. | last2=Dyatshenko | first2=W. G. | last3=Varonkov | first3=A. I. | last4=Linkov | first4=O. U. | last5=Nikitenko | first5=Y. N. | last6=Dubé | first6=Y. | last7=Toubal | first7=L. | last8=Kodjo | first8=A. | year=2013 | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=25–29 | doi=10.12691/ajvd-1-2-2 }}</ref>

The [[Burn|unburnable]] solid remains of a combustible material left after a fire is called ''clinker'' if its [[melting point]] is below the flame temperature, so that it fuses and then solidifies as it cools, and ''ash'' if its melting point is above the flame temperature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clinker Formation in Biomass Boiler: What Is It and How To Prevent It |url=https://azwood.co.nz/articles/clinker-formation-in-biomass-boiler-what-is-it-and-how-to-prevent-it |publisher=Azwood |accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref>