Few natural forces match fire for its range of impact on the human consciousness, with a roaring forest fire at one extreme and a warming and comforting campfire or cooking flame at the other. Along with earth, water, and air, fire is one of the original "elements" once thought to comprise the universe, and it has frightened and fascinated people long before the beginning of modern civilization. In nature, fire both destroys and renews.

Fire is an oxidation process that rapidly transforms the potential energy stored in chemical bonds of organic compounds into the kinetic energy forms of heat and light. Like the much slower oxidation process of decomposition, fire destroys organic matter, creating a myriad of gases and ions, and liberating much of the carbon and hydrogen as carbon dioxide and water. A large portion of the remaining organic matter is converted to ash which may go...