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Bushfires kill 339,000 people worldwide
22 February 2012
According to what is believed to be the first study to estimate the annual death toll from landscape fires, a study carried out by the University of Tasmania, Australia, concludes that bushfires, wildfires, forest fires, peat fires and controlled burns on farming land kill an average of 339,000 people worldwide every year.
While most of the deaths are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia ranks second with 110,000 deaths.
The report covers the period between 1997 and 2006 and suggests that deaths could be reduced if people stopped burning tropical rainforests in order to harvest palm oil and other products. The research also suggested a significant link between climate and fire mortality. About twice as many people died during El Nino years when the surface ocean temperature rises in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean than during cooler La Nina years.