Conflagration

Smoke over Sumatra, Indonesia from forest fires

Indonesia routinely has some of the world’s largest conflagrations. A series of colossal fires in 1997-1998 burned down an estimated 25,000 square miles of forest, releasing up to 2.6 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. Slash and burn techniques used by farmers make such conflagrations typical; its annual carbon emissions from fires average at least 5 times as much as those from all industrial processes, making the country, next to the United States and China, the third largest greenhouse gas emitter.

Conflagration (pronounced “kon-flə-GRAY-shən”)

A large destructive fire.

Etymology

From Latin flagrare, meaning “to burn”, plus prefix com, meaning “with, together”. Flagrare is also the base of “flagrant” (meaning “conspicuously bad or offensive”).

Synonyms

inferno

Sources

Wikipedia, Reuters