Ember attack

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An ember attack is a naturally-occurring event which is often responsible for houses burning down. During a wildfire (especially a forest fire), burning parts such as twigs, branches or leaves may become temporarily airborne and eventually land on a house or other building or structure. If one such "ember" lands on a particularly combustible object such as a housemat or a garden bush, or several such embers hit the house within a period of time (or even enter through a roof window), they may ignite parts of the house and eventually cause the entire house to burn down.

Home owners often underestimate the danger of an ember attack after a forest fire has passed. Embers can still attack houses up to six hours after the end of a forest fire. Many people have left their house unattended after they thought the fire was over, and returned hours later to find their house in flames.

It is also possible for embers to be carried away from the forest fire by the wind, thus attacking and destroying a house that one would intuitively assume is far enough away from the forest.

[edit] References

• Fact sheet on New South Wales fire brigade's website
• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) experiment