A history of railway fires in Ontario’s forests

Abstract

Railways have played a pivotal role in the social and economic development of the province of Ontario but their construction and operation have contributed to the occurrence of forest fires that threaten public safety, property and forest resources. Over the past century, changes in policy and technology have substantially reduced the number of railway fires that occur in the province each year. We have created an historical timeline to describe trends in railway fire activity between 1914 and 2011 and we use graphs of railway fire occurrence, area burned and railway activity over time to explore relationships between the incidence of railway fires, railway activity, and changes in policy and technology that have impacted railway fire management.