Fire Facts

You can start a fire with ice.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

An underground fire in Australia has been burning for approximately 6,000 years, making it the world's oldest known coal fire.

In the Great Fire of London in 1666, 80% of the City of London burned down over four days, but only 6 deaths were officially recorded.

No one really knows who invented the fire hydrant, because its patent was burned in a fire.

Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill.

The bark of an older redwood tree can be up to 12 inches thick and is remarkably fire-resistant.

In 1974, prankster Porky Bickar was so into April Fools, he flew hundreds of tires into a dormant volcano in Alaska and set them on fire - fooling the local populace and coast guard into thinking the volcano was active.

Soviet scientists drilling for natural gas in Turkmenistan accidentally collapsed a cavern in 1971. To prevent methane from spreading, they set it on fire expecting it to burn out in weeks—it's still burning over 50 years later. Locals call it "The Door to Hell."

Every 87 seconds, a house catches fire in the United States—that's about 944 residential fires every single day.

A natural gas vent in Iraq known as Baba Gurgur (The Eternal Fire) has been burning continuously for at least 2,500 years. Ancient writers including Plutarch described eternal flames in the region, and local tradition connects it to the 'fiery furnace' from the Book of Daniel.

Yosemite ran a real fire waterfall for nearly a century. On summer nights, workers built a bonfire of red fir bark at the edge of Glacier Point. At 9pm, a caller shouted, "Let the Fire Fall!" Workers then pushed the embers off the cliff in a 3,000-foot cascade of flame. The Park Service banned it in 1968, calling it "as appropriate as horns on a rabbit."

When milkman Steve Leech spotted a gift shop ablaze on his morning round in Redruth, Cornwall, he didn't wait for the fire brigade - he grabbed 320 pints of milk from his van and doused the flames himself, saving seven neighbouring shops and the people living in flats above them. The National Dairymen's Association named him Hero Milkman of the Millennium.

Scarlett was a stray cat living in an abandoned Brooklyn garage when it caught fire in March 1996. She ran into the flames five times to carry each of her five kittens to safety, one by one. Her eyes were blistered shut by the end. Unable to see, she touched each kitten with her nose to count them before she collapsed. She survived, was adopted, and the clinic received over 7,000 letters from people wanting to give her a home.

Fire damaged Los Angeles' Central Library in April 1986. Over the next several days, some 1,400 volunteers helped box salvageable books. More than half a million wet volumes went into commercial freezers to stop mold. McDonnell Douglas then offered an unlikely tool, its space chamber, and dried tens of thousands of books free. The library reopened in 1993 and is open today.

On Labor Day 2021, five men from a halfway house spotted a burning car on Interstate 8 in Lakeside, California - and pulled over while everyone else drove past. Ken and Joan Williamson, ages 92 and 90, had been rear-ended and were trapped inside as the flames spread. The car exploded during the rescue. Every single one of them stayed.

The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been on fire since 1962. An underground coal seam ignited, creating sinkholes that vent toxic gas, forcing nearly everyone to leave. The fire still burns today and could continue for 250 more years.