Beginning of a crown fire

If conditions are right, and the progress of the forest fire unchecked a more complex crown fire may develop. This is where the fire progresses through the crowns of the trees independent of the ground fire. Conditions of a crown fire often lead to what firefighters call a “nuked” landscape. Where everything is burned, the soils scorched away and only the near branchless snags of trees remain. In this image we see a crown fire developing on the Togo Fire near Danville, Washington and Grand Forks, British Columbia.